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“A Modern, Integral, and Open Understanding”: Sunni Islam and Lebanese Identity in the Makassed Association

Lebanon’s violent past and sectarian strife have made the country’s name synonymous with violence and disunity. Yet the discourse of at least one Lebanese religious institution can complicate the simplistic narrative about a country of warring religious groups with no national sentiments. The writings produced by the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut, a Sunni Islamic charitable organization that operates over 42 schools throughout Beirut and the rest of Lebanon, continually describe an identity that includes both religious and national components. This article discusses how these Sunni schools express simultaneously their religious and national affiliations. Their presence in a diverse society such as Lebanon, with its large Muslim population, requires a reconsideration of the interplay between national affiliation and Islamic education. In addition, this article examines how the Makassed Association reconciles these two concepts by embracing a pluralistic vision of Lebanese society. To do this, the article looks at the association’s publications both in the 1980s and today to understand how the association consistently articulated its Sunni-ness and Lebanese-ness as equally important and relevant parts of its identity.