Word: ites
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...obvious now that there is a very serious problem between Shi'ites and Sunnis. And I think it's going to get worse," says Mohammed Attar, 25, one of several thousand mourners attending Mahmoud's funeral at the "Two Martyrs" cemetry in Beirut's Shi'ite-dominated southern suburbs. As Mahmoud's coffin is carried into the pine-tree lined cemetery, the mourners slap their foreheads, a Shi'ite gesture of mourning, and chant, "Far and wide, the Shi'ites will shake the ground...
...very different sentiment is aired nearby in the mainly Sunni district of Tarek Jdeide, where a group of laughing young men chant crude insults at Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hizballah's charismatic leader. "If the Shi'ites topple the government, Hizballah will take power and we will have a Shi'ite state, but we won't let that happen," says Yussef Beydoun, 21. "Tarek Jdeide will continue to be a citadel of resilience against the Shi'ites...
...Although a Shi'ite, Mahmoud lived in the Sunni neighborhood of Tarek Jdeide. While mourning pictures of Mahmoud plaster the ochre-colored wall of his simple two-story home, most of the drab apartment buildings and storefronts carry posters of slain prime minister Rafik Hariri or of his son, Saad, displaying their allegiance the Sunni political leadership. Mahmoud was killed on his way home from a mass sit-in downtown, where tens of thousands had demanded the ouster of the government...
...Whatever the truth behind Mahmoud's death, it was not an isolated incident but came amid outbreaks of violence in several mixed Sunni-Shi'ite areas of Beirut this week that have left dozens injured and inflamed sectarian tensions. Hundreds of Lebanese troops have deployed in Beirut's trouble spots. But using the Lebanese Army in this way is untenable, warned its commander, General Michel Suleiman. Suleiman says that sectarian violence "drains the army's resources and weakens its neutrality," and warned, "This weakness will make the army unable to control the situation in all areas of Lebanon...
...Sunni-Shi'ite battle is also being fought out on the airwaves, where the Hariri-owned Future TV and Hizballah's Al-Manar network have been accusing their sectarian rivals of stoking the conflict. A key Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ali al-Jozo, the mufti of Mount Lebanon, has repeatedly attacked Hizballah, describing Nasrallah as a "dictator" and accusing him of advancing a foreign, Syrian-Iranian agenda...