Word: sectarian
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...Lebanon's endless litany of sectarian violence, no feud has proved more bitter than that between Christians and Druze. The primary battlefield in their long-running confrontation is the Chouf, where both groups sought refuge from Sunni Muslim persecutors 1,000 years ago. Before Lebanon deteriorated into outright civil war in 1975, Aytat and Suq al Gharb lived in peace as summer resorts. Wealthy Arabs were drawn to the towns' cool mountain air scented by thick stands of parasol pines. Since the fighting resumed in earnest last October, the villages have become ghost towns. Gardens are overgrown, grape...
...beloved Lebanese army. We do not want to hurt you. The regime has used you as tools of the Phalangist conspiracy. Do not obey orders! Do not shoot!" It was one of many efforts by the militias to persuade army troops to break ranks by dividing along sectarian lines. Such a development was not unexpected. Earlier hi the summer, a prominent Arab journalist in Beirut had predicted: "If the army has to fight the Shi'ites, it will break apart like a watermelon dropped on the pavement." Not only did the Lebanese army perform creditably last week, but, more...
...fighting last week was not simply the result of sectarian rivalries. It was a show of force, designed to win a larger share of power in Lebanon's political patchwork, by the Druze, a small and esoteric sect with roots in Islam. Last month Walid Jumblatt, Druze chieftain and leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, helped organize a National Salvation Front with the deliberate aim of opposing Gemayel. The front struck an alliance with Syria and demanded that Gemayel renounce the May 17 agreement according to which Israel would withdraw its troops if Lebanon agreed to security and political...
These events in the Holy City are only samples of a troubling increase in sectarian violence involving ultra-Orthodox Jews, many of them members of Israel's numerous Hasidic groups.* Ever since the founding of Israel in 1948, traditionalist Jews who cluster in the Mea Shearim or Geula neighborhoods of northern Jerusalem have often stoned passing automobiles on the Sabbath and otherwise vented their wrath on those who violate God's law. But the recent outbursts reflect a new militancy on the part of extremists and a fundamental change in the relations of the city's religious...
...group said it would fund "educational" activities, but not those "designed to elicit support for religious ideologies [to] promote membership in sectarian groups...