While I fail to see how building more mosques and churches could solve the world's problems (religion has never been my forte), Rafik Hariri, the slain former prime-minister of Lebanon who built the mosque and is burried there, made major contributions to the rebuilding of the country after the civil war, and was a highly respected man. His funeral in February 2005 drew hundreds of thousands of people. Following his assassination, under pressure from France, the US, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Syria (widely blamed for the car bomb attack that killed Hariri), withdrew its forces and intelligence agents from Lebanon.