Home OpinionCommentThe Islamic divide

The Islamic divide

by Moe Ali Nayel

  It has been a year of dreaming dangerously for some Lebanese Sunnis who see the perpetually impending downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as an opportunity to reassert their historical dominance over the country’s Shia. February’s escalation of the long-running feud between pro-Assad Alawites and anti-Assad Sunnis in Tripoli set a polarizing tone for 2012; tensions spilled south with anti-Hezbollah Salafis protesting in Saida. This came almost concurrently with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s self-imposed exile from Lebanon. Hariri, leader of the country’s largest Sunni political party, the Future Movement, first announced his departure was for personal safety; later he tweeted that he was busy managing his overseas businesses. Hariri’s departure left a vacuum and a new Sunni personality soon emerged: Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, whose posters have been slowly replacing Hariri’s in Sunni strongholds across Lebanon. A Salafist preacher, Assir first garnered widespread media coverage in March by staging

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