Posted on 05/11/2013 1:41:52 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
The recent months have seen a considerable increase of tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Lebanon, to the extent that there is growing fear of a confrontation between the two sides – especially between the Shi'ite Hizbullah and Sunni Salafi elements. On February 27, 2013, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki – both of them Shi'ites – expressed concern that a sectarian war might break out in the region, including in Lebanon....
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The sectarian tension in Lebanon has expressed itself in several violent incidents. The severest of them occurred on March 17, 2013, when four Sunni sheikhs were beaten and assaulted with cold weapons by Shi'ite youths in two different locations in Beirut. The incidents evoked a furious response by Sunnis, who held protests, blocked roads, burned tyres and even threw firebombs in Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon and Akkar (in Northern Lebanon).[7] The statement of Lebanese armed forces chief Jean Qahwaji, that March 17 had been "the most dangerous [day] in the last eight years in terms of [Lebanon's domestic] security,"[8] reflects the extent of the tension. However, it seems that tension between the sides rose even further in the last two weeks, after Salafi leaders issued fatwas calling on Sunni youths in Lebanon to embark on jihad in Syria in response to Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting there.
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(Excerpt) Read more at memri.org ...
If I was a Marionite, I’d quietly rearm and sit tight while the salafis and Hizbullah duke it out. Perhaps encourage displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians to come and bolster their numbers.
Lebanon’s been lucky so far because of the lingering memories of the civil war, but I wouldn’t count on it lasting forever.
Let the muslims fight each other, not us.
Lebanon used to be a majority Christian country...
To be fair, it still would be if a lot of Maronites didn’t emigrate. However, I don’t blame them since they got preferential treatment.
Although it’d be a slim majority at this point.
The Copts might be interested, too.
It might be yet again. It was originally intended as an Eastern Christian homeland, the twin of the Jewish homeland, both islands of safety for their respective minorities in the midst of an Islamic sea.
This is not a “breakout” of a new condition, this is THE LEBANON CONDITION
- proportional, fixed or adjustable, sectarian distribution of “democratic” power by formula does not get rid of sectarian strife, it insures it will continue, as demographics are always, over time, adjusting the reality of the proportionality & distribution of each sectarian confession; making for a “solution” that does not remain satisfying to all concerned.
The original “recipe” for Lebanon did not prevent the constant recurrence of civil strife and civil war there.
Yes there are certain reasons at play this moment.
In 10-20 years there are likely to be other reasons.
The only thing that might “cure” it would be a political mandate that required all political parties to have members and leaders from all of Lebanon’s sectarian groups.
My first year Arabic teacher (Syrian Christian), back when their civil war was young and bushy-tailed, told me that when she lived in Lebanon, it was virtually crime free and peaceful. If there was so much as a purse-snatching in Beirut it was a scandal, and neighbors would be talking about it for months.
What changed it? Black October. After the Palis tried to unseat King Hussein, he chased the PLO out of Jordan and into Lebanon, where they disrupted civil society and set the different ethnicities at each other’s throats, just around the time I was in High School taking first year Arabic from Mrs. Shmelko.
I have a Lebanese Christian friend who fought in the civil war in Lebanon.
I have no personal experience in Lebabon. But he says what looked peaceful at the surface “back in the day” was mostly on the surface; that underneath the Pali refugees were not the kicker; the troubles they brought were an excuse, an excuse used by ALL sides against all sides. If it had not been the Pali refugees, something else would have looked like the catalyst. It has always been a fragile and unstable state.
Like I said, he lived through it, so I leave his word on it alone.
Likewise - I know a Lebanese Muslim here in the States (one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known, by the way). His DREAM is to return home to a nice estate and live out his well-earned retirement (believe me, he deserves a nice retirement, given what he’s accomplished in his career).
The fact that he is a Muslim makes it VERY DIFFICULT for me (i.e., a Right-Wing Extremist) and many of the people that know him, to simply label Muslims as useless terrorists - it’s rough - because this guy would give his life for you (any of us), in a heartbeat.
But now this crap makes a mess of everything for him. Like I said, he deserves to go home - maybe even tell the locals that The Infidel isn’t always bad - but now that may not happen.
On the plus side, the US gets a fine man and maybe he can chill-out some of his brethren here, because even us Tea Party people respect people like him and wish him the best (and will do all we can to help him).
Good plan. : )
This article is really interesting given the article you posted earlier about the middle east going up in flames against each other and ‘millions’ dying.
Yes, tonight there is a theme. Muslims are about to slaughter each other. They are good at mass murder, so they will. Sangfroid.
Is it 12th Imam at the well time or something? What’s the sudden impetus?
Iran is close to getting the bomb. Obama is an ineffective idiot. Europe is incapable of gathering the will to defend itself from barbarians. This all makes them so hot for Imam #12 that they just gotta kill each other, so the last one standing can destroy Israel and conquer the West, which to them is a mere formality.
Islam is about to self-destruct?
About time.
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