Hezbollah Ignites a Sectarian Fuse in Lebanon

...That sentiment has stirred fears that moderate, secular Sunni leaders like Mr. Hariri could lose ground to more radical figures, including the jihadists who thrive in Lebanon’s teeming Palestinian refugee camps. Fatah al Islam, the radical group that fought a bloody three-month battle with the Lebanese Army in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon last year, issued a statement Thursday condemning Hezbollah’s actions. The group also gave a warning: “He who pushes our faces in the dirt must be confronted, even if that means sacrificing our lives and shedding blood.”

A New Kind of Conflict

The Sunni-Shiite conflict is relatively new in Lebanon, where the long civil war that ended in 1990 revolved mostly around tensions between Christians and Muslims, and their differences over the Palestinian presence in the country. But after Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the early 1980s, Lebanon’s long-marginalized Shiites steadily gained power and stature. They have also grown in numbers. Although there has been no census since 1932, Shiites are widely believed to be more numerous than Sunnis or Christians, the country’s other major groups.
This will prove interesting. It is not entirely correct in that the "Muslim" bloc in Lebanon when I was there was hardly a bloc--Sunni versus Shia tensions did exist but they were overshadowed by Muslim-Christian tensions, especially when it came to the Israeli occupied south. A Shia versus Sunni struggle will also echo across the border in Syria with an Alawite (Shia derivative seect) regime and a Sunni majority.

Tom