Lebanon is today in a deep economic, financial, and political crisis. The local currency has lost more than 95% of its value in less than two years. More than 200 Lebanese were killed in Beirut in a double explosion in August 2020, which devastated large parts of the city centre. And with a presidential vacuum and a caretaker government, Lebanon’s institutional void is unprecedented. How resilient is the Lebanese state today? How important is the northern city of Tripoli to the current crisis? And what is the way out of the crisis, seen from the perspective of Sunni north Lebanon?
In the seminar, Gade will present the main findings from her new book Sunni City: Tripoli from Islamist Utopia to the Lebanese Revolution, and connect them to the current Lebanese crisis. Tripoli has all the elements of the current nation-wide crisis: While it is arguably the poorest city in the country, it is also the hometown of many billionaires, including current caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati. The city’s Sunni politicians get elected through political patronage and by providing political cover to Islamist militias that create instability in the city.
Based on more than 300 interviews with Lebanese political and religious leaders, the book analyses Tripoli’s contentious politics, its fluid political identity and the relationship between Islamist, sectarian and civil society groups. The book shows that it is primarily Lebanese clientelism and the decay of the state that produced the rise of violent groups in Tripoli. This insight is important for other cities in the Middle East and north Africa, as it nuances the belief that Islamist ideology leads to radicalization.
Tine Gade (PhD, Sciences Po Paris, 2015) is Senior Research Fellow in the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Gade’s work focuses on contentious politics and state-society relationships in the Middle East, especially Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. She is the author of Sunni City: Tripoli from Islamist Utopia to the Lebanese Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and the PI of the STATEISLAM (Responses to State Regulations of Islam in Times of Daesh) research project funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Brynjar Lia is a professor of Middle East Studies at Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo. He has published extensively on Islamist and jihadist movements in the Middle East, and is the author of a number of books, including: "The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement, 1928-1942 (Ithaca 1998), "Architect of Global Jihad: the life of Al Qaeda strategist Abu Mus'ab al-Suri" (Oxford University Press, 2008).
This event will be held in English - The event is free and open to all - Coffee, tea and pastries