Sidon, Lebanon - The vegetable vendor in Sidon’s Taamir neighborhood only recently discovered that his neighbor Abu Ahmad Masri is a Shiite. “I swear to God that I only recently learned that he is a Shiite,” he said.
But the sect of Masri, who usually defeats the vendor when playing cards, will not affect ties between the two, the latter said. “We are all Lebanese, we are Muslims,” said the Sunni resident of Sidon who is in his 70s.
But the good relations between Masri and his neighbor may prove the exception rather than the rule as sectarian tensions continue to rise in pre-dominantly Sunni Sidon, which also has Shiite and mixed neighborhoods.
Three people were killed in Taamir in November in clashes between partisans of the Sidon-based Salafist Sheikh Ahmad Assir and Hezbollah supporters.
Assir has emerged over the past two years as a harsh critic of Hezbollah’s arms and role in supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The resistance party’s involvement in fighting in Qusair recently has compounded tensions between the groups, prompting Assir to send fighters to support rebels in the Syrian town and establish his “Free Resistance Brigades” in Sidon to defend it against threats the sheikh claimed were made by Hezbollah.
“Yes, Sidon is for Sunnis and there is no place for Shiites here,” a Sunni sheikh said at a Friday sermon in a Sidon suburb last week. The same sheikh has typically been characterized by his moderate stances.
An armed clash was narrowly avoided in the city Wednesday when supporters of Assir along with other Salafists in the city and partisans of AlJamaa al-Islamiya blocked the entrance to the city’s Sunni cemetery to prevent the burial of a Sunni-turned-Shiite Hezbollah fighter killed in Syria. Hezbollah eventually decided to bury the man in a Shiite cemetery amid strict Army measures.
“Could these incidents end up being peaceful every time? Can the Army preserve security and civil peace?” asked Ahmad Yaman, a resident of Sidon.
Tensions remain high in the city, as Assir plans to attend Friday prayers at a mosque in the Villat suburb which has Sunni and Shiite inhabitants and is close to the mixed neighborhood of Taamir as well as the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh.
Sources voiced fears that Assir’s supporters would clash with partisans of Hezbollah and the Popular Nasserite Organization, amid information that Assir could hold a sit-in in the area against Hezbollah.
Other sources said that among those taking part in Wednesday’s protests in Sidon were Islamists who did not usually join Assir in his demonstrations against Hezbollah.
Bassam Hammoud, an Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya official in the south, argued that Hezbollah’s fighting alongside the Syrian regime was enhancing sectarian sentiment in the city.
“People of Sidon do not give political differences a sectarian nature, but Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria for sectarian considerations is causing differences to have a sectarian nature,” Hammoud said.
Sheikh Maher Hammoud, who leads prayers at a mosque in the city, lamented that “the rhetoric of rational people who warn against the danger of Sunni-Shiite strife, particularly in Sidon, is unfortunately absent.”
Maher Hammoud, who is an ally of Hezbollah, is shunned by Islamists in Sidon as being a Sunni of “Iran and the Shiites.”
But such accusations do not discourage the sheikh from making efforts to prevent strife, which he is confident will not erupt.
“This confrontation did not and will not break out. The general mood now in Sidon is sectarian, but I believe this is only temporary,” he said.
Maher Hammoud lashed out at Assir, saying he was an “irresponsible and agitated person” whose acts were aimed at sparking strife.
Political activist Ahmad Kurjieh argued that Sidon’s “patriotic” figures were not doing enough to combat the rise of extremist and takfiri groups.
Takfiri groups are those who consider as infidels all Muslims who do not share their extremist ideology.
Kurjieh said there were signs that an Islamic emirate was emerging in Sidon: “The rules of this emirate are being imposed by intimidation and threats. What does blocking roads to prevent the burial of a Hezbollah fighter from Sidon killed in Syria mean? Who gave these groups the right to classify the dead?”
Sectarian sentiments have in recent years been largely unexpressed in Sidon, which lies at the entrance to the predominantly Shiite south.
Many of its residents have business links with people in the south and vice versa. The sharp political difference between the Future Movement and the pro-Hezbollah PNO over the past two decades never took on a sectarian character, and the city has been known to be among the most peaceful in the country.
But many residents of Sidon are now raising the following slogan: “We sacrifice our businesses to protect the dignity of our sect.”
Another source of worry for observers in Sidon is Ain al-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, which lies at the southern entrance to the city.
Many fear that Salafists in the city could try to push groups in the refugee camp to fight with them against Hezbollah and its allies in Sidon, taking advantage of the military expertise of Palestinian refugees.
But Abu Sharif Aqel, the spokesman of Usbat al-Ansar, an Islamist group in the camp, said that no one could drag Ain al-Hilweh into strife: “As Palestinians, our rifle will be only aimed at Jews.”
Sheikh Jamal Khattab, who is the head of the Islamic Jihadi Movement in the camp, agreed.
“We disagree with Shiites over some religious issues, but this will not drag us to fighting,” he said. “We are addressing a great tragedy, that of Palestinians displaced from Syria, and we have our Israeli enemy that is ready to attack us.”
Former Sidon MP Osama Saad, the secretary-general of PNO, is optimistic as well.
“There will be no Sunni-Shiite strife,” he said. Saad explained that extremist groups in Sidon were weak, and this made them try to seize any opportunity to say, “we are here.”
“Maybe the general mood in Sidon is sectarian and this is linked to attempts to partition the region on a sectarian basis,” he said. “But we have to continue to stress that Sidon is a city of political and religious diversity and openness.”
For his part, Abdallah Teryaqi, the head of a small pro-Hezbollah group in Sidon, said that confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites won’t erupt:
“Sidon is a diverse city, its residents are Sunnis, Shiites and Christians. There are so many mixed marriages as well between Sunnis and Shiites.”
For his part, Yaman prays to God that strife will not happen: “Sidon is in the hands of God. May God protect it.”