“Combatting Sectarianism Is Far Too Serious An Issue To Leave To The Secularists”

Hazem Saghiyeh gets to the bottom of it:

It is an illusion […] to suppose that it is possible to overcome sectarianism by “changing the sectarian regime.” This is because the primary source of sectarianism is Lebanese society itself. It is not true that the sectarian leaders are oppressing their sects in the sense in which Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali oppressed their peoples, or in which Moammar Qaddafi is still oppressing the Libyans. Rather, sects adhere to their leaders, and sectarianism thereby becomes, in a sense, a popular phenomenon of a broadly representative nature

and

Let us imagine: What would be the wretched fate of the anti-sectarianism youth if he ran in parliamentary elections against Amal and Hezbollah in the Shia regions, against the Future Movement in the Sunni regions, against the Progressive Socialist Party in the Druze regions, or against the Free Patriotic Movement or the Lebanese Forces together in the Christian areas?

I’ve made many of these arguments before, but Sahiyegh’s article is a good reminder of why a “revolution against sectarianism” won’t lead to change in Lebanon anytime soon..