Sectarianism is a political, cultural, or religious conflict between two groups. Prejudice, discrimination, exclusion, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo and if one group holds more power within the government. Often, not all members of these groups are engaged in the conflict. But as tensions rise, political solutions require the participation of more people from either side within the country or polity where the conflict is happening. Common examples of these divisions are denominations of a religion, ethnic identity, class, or region for citizens of a state and factions of a political movement.
The Alawites, also known as Nusayrites, are an Arab ethnoreligious group that live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism, a religious sect that splintered from early Shi'ism as a ghulat branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, revered as the first Imam in the Twelver school, as the physical manifestation of God. The group was founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. Ibn Nusayr was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called Nusayris.
Albert Habib Hourani was a Lebanese British historian, specialising in the history of the Middle East and Middle Eastern studies.
Butrus al-Bustani was a writer and scholar from present day Lebanon. He was a major figure in the Nahda, which began in Egypt in the late 19th century and spread to the Middle East.
The Nahda, also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arab-populated regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia, during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.
Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) was a Palestinian scholar, educator, translator and novelist. Beidas was the father of Palestinian Lebanese banker Yousef Beidas and was a cousin of Edward Said's father.
Sheikh Ahmad Rida (1872–1953) was a Lebanese linguist, writer and politician. A key figure of the Arab Renaissance, he compiled the modern monolingual Arabic dictionary, Matn al-Lugha, commissioned by the Arab Academy of Damascus in 1930, and is widely considered to be among the foremost scholars of Arab literature and linguistics.
Lebanese Shia Muslims, communally and historically known as matāwila, are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role alongside Lebanon's main Sunni, Maronite and Druze sects. The vast majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon adhere to Twelver Shi'ism, making them the only major Twelver Shia community extant in the Levant.
Dr. Hassan Kobeissi was a prominent Lebanese writer, thinker and translator. He was born in Zebdine زبدين Lebanon, and is considered an important figure in the Lebanese intellectual circle. He is noted for writing publications such as "Rodinson and the Son of Islam", and for his award-winning translations of many prominent philosophical, sociological and anthropological writings.
Sectarianism can be defined as a practice that is created over a period of time through consistent social, cultural and political habits leading to the formation of group solidarity that is dependent upon practices of inclusion and exclusion. Sectarian discrimination focuses on the exclusion aspect of sectarianism and can be defined as 'hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group', for example the different denominations of a religion or the factions of a political belief.
Ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām is a political slogan associated with the Arab Spring. The slogan first emerged during the Tunisian Revolution. The chant echoed at Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis for weeks. The slogan also became used frequently during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. It was the most frequent slogan, both in graffiti and in chants in rallies, during the revolution in Egypt.
Abbas Beydoun is a Lebanese poet, novelist and journalist. His poems in Arabic have garnered widespread acclaim and have been translated into multiple languages.
Maia Tabet is an Arabic-English literary translator with a background in editing and journalism. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1956, she was raised in Lebanon, India, and England. She studied philosophy and political science at the American University in Beirut and lives between the United States and Cyprus.
Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. This includes people whose background is from the various Middle Eastern and West Asian ethnic groups, such as the Kurds and Assyrians, as well as immigrants from modern-day countries of the Arab world, Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Armenia.
Raif Khoury was a Lebanese writer, poet, essayist, novelist and playwright who was born in Nabay, Lebanon, then part of the Ottoman Empire towards the beginning of the twentieth century. He went to school in the neighboring town of Brummana to Broummana High School, where he started writing poetry at a very early age. He joined the American University of Beirut as an Arabic literature and history major and graduated with a BA in 1932. Even before he graduated, he started writing in literary magazines and papers such as Al Barq, Al Adib and Al Adab which were issued in Beirut at the time. He was a member of the League Against Nazism and Fascism in Syria and Lebanon which was founded in 1939. He founded a magazine entitled Al Tariq with other members of the League in 1941.
Abbas Amanat is an Iranian-born American historian, scholar, author, editor, and professor. He serves as the William Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Yale Program in Iranian Studies.
Nihad Sirees is a Syrian writer. He was born in Aleppo, and studied engineering at university. He emerged as a fiction writer in the 1980s, and till date has written novels, plays, and scripts for TV dramas. Among his notable works are the historical novel The North Winds and the popular TV series The Silk Market, which has been translated for screening in English, Persian and German. He also wrote a TV series about the Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran. His novel The Silence and the Roar was banned in Syria, and has been translated into German, French and English. His second novel States of Passion, translated by Max Weiss, was published by Pushkin Press in 2018.
Palestinian Metawalis are a Palestinian Shiite community.
Sectarianism in Lebanon refers to the formal and informal organization of Lebanese politics and society along religious lines. It has been formalized and legalized within state and non-state institutions and is inscribed in its constitution. Lebanon recognizes 18 different sects: 67.6% of the population is Muslim, 32.4% is Christian, the majority being Maronites Catholics and Greek Orthodox, while 4.52% is Druze. The foundations of sectarianism in Lebanon date back to the mid-19th century during Ottoman rule. It was subsequently reinforced with the creation of the Republic of Lebanon in 1920 and its 1926 constitution, and in the National Pact of 1943. In 1990, with the Taif Agreement, the constitution was revised but did not structurally change aspects relating to political sectarianism. The dynamic nature of sectarianism in Lebanon has prompted some historians and authors to refer to it as "the sectarian state par excellence" because it is a mixture of religious communities and their myriad sub-divisions, with a constitutional and political order to match.
The End of a Brave Man is a 1989 novel by Syrian author Hanna Mina. Set in coastal Syria during the French Mandate, the coming-of-age story concerns the life of Mufid, a strong, working-class man who struggles with authority and his own sense of virtue. The novel's themes of masculinity and humanity play out during Mufid's two stints in prison, his marriage, the amputation of his leg, and his death.
