Two alarming examples of sectarian violence have occurred this week that raise new concerns about the spread of religious-fuelled violence in the Middle East.
In the first, four Egyptian Shiites were killed in a mob attack on their place of worship in Giza. A group of Salafists attacked the mosque, killed the men and then desecrated the bodies. The attackers said the victims were spreading their religious teachings in Egypt.
In the second incident, Sunni Salafists in Sidon, Lebanon, killed at least 30 soldiers and injured more than a hundred in the bloodiest outbreak in the country for years. The Lebanese Salafists, led by the hardline Sunni cleric Ahmed Assir, were angered by what they believe is unfair treatment from the army, accusing the forces of indiscriminately targeting Sunnis while failing to respond to Hizbollah's provocations.
Those clashes specifically threaten to turn Lebanon's Sunni population into victims once again, as the hard-line tendencies of a few come to be seen as speaking for many.
These incidents are particularly alarming as authorities in the two countries have failed to contain sectarian rhetoric in recent months. In both Egypt and Lebanon jihad was declared by prominent Sunni clerics against Shia. Especially in Lebanon, vows like these will raise serious concerns for a nation that has suffered from sectarian war.
Syria, of course, is the crisis that is fuelling much of this violence. Hizbollah's entry into that conflict, over the objections of even Hamas, were always going to sow discord regionally and across the border. Iran's support of the militants, and Gulf and western states' support of opposition fighters, is only adding to the fires.
Most worrying of all is how little the region has learnt from past periods of sectarian bloodletting. Sectarian tensions ripped Iraq to its ideological core in early 2006; that country has yet to recover. The civil war in Lebanon that ended in 1990 still divides the nation.
And yet, rather than tone down rhetoric and actively seek to avoid the pitfalls of regional wars, some clerics and political leaders are looking to gain by stoking populist hatred.
Rather than seeing these events as isolated incidents contained within borders, political and religious leaders must see this latest surge of violence for what it truly is: the makings of a sectarian catastrophe. The clashes in Giza and Sidon are tragic reminders that everyone loses when men and women of different beliefs attack those whose only crime is to disagree.
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Cricket World Cup League 2
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RESULTS
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16 second leg
Paris Saint-Germain (1) v Borussia Dortmund (2)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
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Rating: 5/5
UPI facts
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Karwaan
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Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
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FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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