The long-simmering Sunni-Shiite tensions in Lebanon have sharply worsened, in an ominous echo of the civil conflict in Iraq
From The New York Times:
The Sunni-Shiite conflict is relatively new in Lebanon, where the long civil war that ended in 1990 revolved mostly around tensions between Christians and Muslims, and their differences over the Palestinian presence in the country. But after Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the early 1980s, Lebanon’s long-marginalized Shiites steadily gained power and stature. They have also grown in numbers. Although there has been no census since 1932, Shiites are widely believed to be more numerous than Sunnis or Christians, the country’s other major groups.
Tensions began to rise in 2005 after Syrian troops ended their long occupation of Lebanon, leaving the country’s factions to broker a power-sharing agreement. Hezbollah established a crucial alliance with Michel Aoun, a former general and one of the country’s most powerful Christian leaders, to oppose the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni.
In late 2006, sectarian street battles began taking place in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods, mostly among young followers of [Lebanon’s main Sunni political leader Saad] Hariri’s Future Movement and the Amal Party, a Hezbollah ally. The fighting was prompted by hard feelings after Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the cabinet and its subsequent campaign to bring down Mr. Siniora, who refused to step down despite the resignation of all the cabinet’s Shiite ministers.
The Sunni-Shiite conflict is relatively new in Lebanon, where the long civil war that ended in 1990 revolved mostly around tensions between Christians and Muslims, and their differences over the Palestinian presence in the country. But after Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the early 1980s, Lebanon’s long-marginalized Shiites steadily gained power and stature. They have also grown in numbers. Although there has been no census since 1932, Shiites are widely believed to be more numerous than Sunnis or Christians, the country’s other major groups.
Tensions began to rise in 2005 after Syrian troops ended their long occupation of Lebanon, leaving the country’s factions to broker a power-sharing agreement. Hezbollah established a crucial alliance with Michel Aoun, a former general and one of the country’s most powerful Christian leaders, to oppose the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a Sunni.
In late 2006, sectarian street battles began taking place in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods, mostly among young followers of [Lebanon’s main Sunni political leader Saad] Hariri’s Future Movement and the Amal Party, a Hezbollah ally. The fighting was prompted by hard feelings after Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the cabinet and its subsequent campaign to bring down Mr. Siniora, who refused to step down despite the resignation of all the cabinet’s Shiite ministers.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 6:41 AM
1 Comments:
Dear blogger, your sectarian labeling is morally abusive to lebanese and other middle easterns. It's a continuation of the policy of old-world colonizing powers. They divided the ex-colonies before giving them independence, as a way to keep them unstable and easy to exploit. Sectarian labeling practiced by the media today has the same purpose, except it's not working as well, because this is 50 years ago. Fueling sectarian feuds doesn't work as well, because of all of us middle easterns that are not bigots, don't believe in religious segregation, and are far too aware of the manipulative intentions behind sectarian labeling. Perhaps you had no ill intentions when you wrote this, but please know that your sectarian language has the same effect on many of us Lebanese as the "n" word has on Americans that have been campaigning against racism since the American civil rights movement.
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