Mustapha Allouch

Mustapha Allouch (born 1958) is a Lebanese politician and a former member of the Lebanese Parliament. He represented the constituency of Tripoli from 2005 until 2009 as a member of the Future Movement and is known as vocal member of the March 14 Alliance.

Allouch was born and raised in Tripoli, Lebanon. Son of Mohamad (Abu Mustapha) Allouch, a merchant and a political activist, Mustapha Allouch spent the early years of his life in Bab El Tabbaneh. As a teenager, before the start of the Lebanese Civil War, he was active in various Marxist and Arab Nationalist movements and fought in the first two years of the Civil War alongside the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Disillusionment with the violence of the civil war, Allouch enrolled at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in premedical sciences after briefly studying Law in France. In 1985, Allouch earned his M.D. from AUB and was married to his wife, with whom he has since had three children. In 1991, he completed his residency in general surgery during which he served as the chief resident at the American University of Beirut Hospital. He subsequently participated in a Transplant Surgery Fellowship at the University of Miami which he completed before returning to Lebanon and Tripoli in 1993.

Allouch has been an active member of the Future Movement since 1997 and after gaining the highest number of votes in the 2004 municipal election of Tripoli, he was asked to run for parliamentary elections on the Future movement ticket in 2005 in the aftermath of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri’s assassination.

In the summer of 2006 he radically opposed positions of Hezbollah and their war against Israel, and continues to heavily criticize Hezbollah for its arms and Syria for meddling in Lebanese affairs.

Since then, Allouch is known for his staunch opposition of Hezbollah and his critique of their close connection and allegiance to Iran. At the same time, he is also known for his criticism of religious fundamentalism in Lebanon. Moreover, he is often criticized by his peers in the Future Movement for his strong support for civil laws and the separation of state from religious institutions.

He has been also criticized by leftists about switching to a center-right party in the Future Movement, yet Allouch has been known to champion social democratic ideals within his party and the March 14 coalition.

Allouch publishes columns regularly in the daily newspaper Al-Mustaqbal (newspaper).

During his time at AUB, Allouch was an active member of the Judo club. He participated in numerous tournaments and was the champion of Lebanon in his weight class on several occasions. In 1986, he represented Lebanon in an International Judo Championship held in France. He has achieved 5th Dan (Shodan) in Judo.