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...pretext for a Hizballah power-grab. "The Taif Accord [which brokered an end to Lebanon's civil war] divides power among religious groups, regardless of demographic changes," said Rami Rayess, a spokesman for the Progressive Socialist Party, the leading Druze faction of Siniora's coalition. According to Rayess, Shi'ite parties, who represent the fastest growing part of Lebanon's population, want to flex their muscles after what they see as Hizballah's "Divine Victory" over Israel this summer. "We have the fear that national unity is a cover for undermining Taif...
...Hizballah allies say that a unified government is necessary precisely because the country is divided and angry, and because of fear that the hostility between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq could spread to Lebanon. "This is a critical moment in Lebanese history, and in a region that is boiling from Baghdad to Gaza," said Ali Hamdan, a spokesman for the Amal Movement, a Shi'ite party allied with Hizballah. "It would be helpful for Lebanon to face these challenges with one heart...
...lurk on Iraq's campuses and the daily perils facing their professors. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, more than 180 Iraqi academics have been murdered. Some were targeted by terrorists determined to sow chaos into post-Saddam Iraq; others were victims of a murderous campaign by Shi'ite death squads against former members of Saddam's Ba'ath party. "In Saddam's day, you had to be a member of the party if you wanted to be a teacher," al-Rawi told me. "Most of us were members only in name, not by conviction - but now it's come...
...Unsurprisingly, many Iraqi teachers fear for themselves and their families. Sectarian violence has become a fact of life on many campuses, with Shi'ite political parties and religious groups goading students to attack Sunni teachers. Many educators have simply thrown in the towel, taking their skills to other countries. In August, the Ministry of Higher Education said over 3,250 professors had fled Iraq since the outbreak of sectarian killings in February, when the major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra was bombed...
...rapidly deteriorating conditions that underlie the political arm-wrestling recall the opening months of the wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. "Ethnic cleansing" has continued apace inside Baghdad, as Shi'ite militias extend their control over mixed neighborhoods by violently forcing out Sunnis. But if the Shi'ite militias control much of the capital, reports suggest that Sunni insurgent groups are tightening their grip along road-transportation routes into and out of the capital. Such tactics have previously allowed the Sunni insurgents to choke fuel supplies into the capital. With that kind of virtual stalemate prevailing, Maliki...