Blogging from Beirut

With the crisis in Lebanon continuing one blogger is getting a fair bit of attention.

Manal is a Moroccan student studying at the American University in Beirut,the blog is in French but thankfully Global voices has done some translation.

This from Sunday after the fighting calmed down

We really can't tell if it's finally over. Here at the university, it's all anyone talks about, about this nightmaresque weekend whose sonorous memories are still echoing around in our little heads.
No classes this Monday, student life is going back to normal little by little. Debates continue. What is going to happen? Now the Lebanese are speaking about hate! My neighbor, a young Sunni female nutrition student told me that she doesn't want to go see her best friend -who's Shiite- and who lives in the same building as us. She told me this friend of her has pictures of Hassan Nasrallah on her bedroom wall and that is she goes there, she might tear into them because she feels so much hatred.

And a good synopsis of the situation

It's not easy living in a country that counts more than 18 religious groups; a Shiite friend explained to me one day why neighborhoods are segregated [by religion]. For example, why is the Hamra neighborhood mainly Sunni, Dahiyeh is Shiite, Achrafieyeh is primarily Christian? She told me that during the civil war, several families were murdered by their neighbors who were of different religions and, for this reason, the different communities preferred to live amongst themselves to feel more secure! Now the neighborhoods are being attacked according to these divisions…But what I don't understand is that just because I'm Sunni doesn't mean that I support the government, I have lots of Sunni friends who are with the opposition!