The Hawks of Shebba

When I first met the Hawks of Shebba at a memorial for slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, I though they were a militia. What else could a posse of pumped-up young Lebanese guys wearing black shirts, desert fatigues, and combat boots be? "We're a hiking club!" said Khalid their leader.

This past week, I went to visit them in Shebba -- a small town the tucked into the shoulders of Mount Hermon in the isolated southeast corner of Lebanon -- for what I thought was a chance to go hiking and for what they thought was an interview.

The club started just a few years ago as a way for local guys to support their town, and to give them something to do in a place where not much happens, where there isn't much money or work, but where there is a whole lot of gorgeous high country.

The Hawks have these hills pretty much to themselves because Shebba is surrounded by some of the most contested territory in the Middle East. Lebanon is on one side of Mount Hermon; Syria is on the other; and Israel occupies the summit and southern slopes. No one agrees where the borders ought to be. In the meantime, tourists stay away.

Appearances to the contrary, the Hawks say they aren't political, and that they've got no militant instincts. Their warlike uniforms are just a male bonding thing. But I can't help thinking something deeper is going on, especially since Shebba is a Sunni Muslim town in the midst of Shia Muslim southern Lebanon.

Sunnis make up the vast majority of Muslims, and have a sense of entitlement to match. But now there's a growing feeling of insecurity among Sunnis in the Middle East. They feel surrounded by the rising power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shia state, and its proxy Shia militia groups in Iraq and Lebanon. Add to that to the ongoing humiliation of living under Israeli occupation or under the thumb of secular despots, and many Sunnis, especially young men, are finding a sense of purpose in religious extremism or sectarian militancy. Others simply leave for work or study abroad.

Here in Shebba, pride (and a certain male vanity) is clearly a big deal. The Hawks pass their time coming up with various endurance and skills tests for each other -- such as sleeping out overnight in the snow -- and lifting weights in a home-made gym. And if they wear more hair product and cologne than your average outdoorsy types, their hiking club is also one of the more productive ways I've seen of channeling sectarian and local feeling. Now if they could just meet some nice Shia girls.

--Text by Andrew Lee Butters; Photos by Pasqual Gorriz/Shebba