Sectarian machinations in Lebanon

"Beginning with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the Salafi and Takfiri anti-Shi‘i propaganda and funding oozing out of Saudi Arabia and (more recently) Qatar, Sunni sectarianism towards Shi‘a in Lebanon took on more prominent religious registers. Start up Salafis and start up Takfiris, funded and protected by Saudi Arabia and the Hariri family (who would rather burn the country than give up its “right” to power) became commonplace in Lebanon—the most prominent among them being Ahmad al-Asir. After Hizballah wholeheartedly, and publicly began to fight alongside the Asad regime in Syria—a conflict that has itself become colored red by Sunni-Shiite sectarianism and Takfiri groups—inter-Muslim sectarianism took on even more religious overtones in Lebanon. The video that claimed the bombing may not be “real,” and we may never know who in fact was behind the carnage. The perpetrators may not be Lebanese, but nevertheless the video has a Lebanese audience versed and primed in its script and its affective registers."