Lebanon walks the tight wire

Lebanon’s Sunni Street Takes Charge
Ibrahim al-Amin – 21 May, 2012

The tensions erupting and moving to different areas indicate that a big problem is looming over the country. The main political forces do not need to be told. The exceptional intensity of anger at street-level is enough to turn a minor incident into a major explosion. The killing of a politically-active sheikh thus threatens to set the country ablaze.

The basic issue is clear, though many try to avoid or to embellish it. Anger is gripping the Sunni street. Its causes vary. Domestically, it is due to the exclusion from power of the forces which lead the majority of Sunnis. Regionally, it is due to the Syrian crisis, and the failure to topple a regime which for most Sunnis represents minority rule by a different sect.

But the enraged Sunni street is not, at present, seeking to hold its own to account for their shortcomings. It is instead punishing them by ignoring their wishes.

This constituency wants to secure the “rights” it believes it has been robbed of. These are not confined to regaining an agreed share of power, or getting rid of those they do not consider to be their genuine representatives. They extend to acquiring the right to support the Syrian opposition with money and arms, not just politically and rhetorically.

This constituency has lost trust in the state so long as it is not under its supervision. People now want the realization of Saad Hariri’s slogan: Either me, or the people’s wrath. …more