Lebanese Students Want to Move Politics Away From Religion

(From September 8, 2015) The growing trash heaps and angry protests in Lebanon over a government that is failing to provide one of the most basic services have drawn attention to the political deadlock among a government that is largely divided along religious lines.

What is less well known is that a student-based movement is calling for a secular state that would end the sect-based government.

Back in 2008, the government tried to clamp down on Hezbollah, the Shi’a militant group and political party, and an armed conflict erupted between a coalition aligned with Hezbollah and a coalition aligned with a group known as the Future Movement. Some students on the campus of the American University of Beirut brainstormed how they could fight for real political change. That was the beginning of the AUB Secular Club.

“Everyone was sad about what was happening in Lebanon, so we started thinking of an alternative to the Lebanese sectarian politics,” Ali Noureddine, the first president of the AUB Secular Club explained. “At that time there were some leftist or secular clubs at AUB, but they all had alliances or coalitions with one of the two sides.” (READ MORE at Al Fanar Media)