A new concern has been added to the fears of the Lebanese people, whose Muslim community in this multireligious country is fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The security concern that surfaced in debates and discussions even before the start of Ramadan on June 28 has now taken the shape of bombs and immediate threats to non-Muslim Lebanese and other residents in Lebanon.

For decades, Lebanon has prided itself on being the only place of religious and cultural diversity in the Middle East. All its officials boasted that it is the only country in the world where Muslims and Christians coexist without problems and legal disputes regarding the way each group formulates its private and public life. For instance, wearing the hijab or placing religious symbols in public schools or private institutions was never a problem, and neither was the observance of religious holidays. Even the personal status affairs, which were left to the discretion of religious officials and were completely abandoned by the government, were never an issue. Muslims lived as they pleased in their private and public lives, and so did Christians. However, it seems that this situation has now changed.

Before the start of Ramadan, an unprecedented issue occurred. It dictated how local municipal authorities should deal with the individual behavior of its citizens during Ramadan. The story started in Abra, east of Sidon, the capital of the Lebanese south that is an especially delicate region. The town’s original inhabitants are Christians, but during the civil war and forced displacement of Christians and the sale of their lands to Muslims, Abra acquired a paradoxical demographic composition. Christians constitute a 90% majority of listed voters.

However, there is a Muslim Sunni majority equivalent to more than 80% of Abra residents. Another problematic issue added insult to injury. A few years back, the same town became the stronghold of a major Salafist sheikh in Lebanon, Ahmad al-Assir. Assir tried to form a militia that attacked the Lebanese army. The incidents ended with a decisive confrontation with the army in June 2013 and with the arrest of Assir’s militants and his escape and disappearance.