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This article traces the debates of communists regarding the issue of sectarianism during the Lebanese civil war. Sectarianism in the Middle East has received significant attention, and in the same vein, there is a rising interest in thoughts opposing sectarianism. However, ‘sectarianism’ is an ambiguous term, and it is important to delineate exactly what a specific antisectarian thought opposes. The debates of the Lebanese communists prove this point well. Lebanese communists took part in the civil war (1975–1990), calling for the abolition of political sectarianism, but also collaborated with forces promoting interests specific to Muslims, and this was deemed by some as ‘sectarian’. Thus, the communists had a difficult task of theorizing their position opposing sectarianism, while allying themselves with allegedly ‘sectarian’ forces. In this context, communists debated the meaning of ‘sectarianism’, deliberating whether sectarianism is a social or political problem. By tracing these debates, I will argue that it is necessary to consider antisectarianism not as one thought that opposes an already determined ‘sectarianism’, but as specific thoughts that contest the definition of ‘sectarianism’ it seeks to overcome. Such a view will enrich our understanding of the history of secular thought in the Arab region.

What does antisectarianism oppose? Lebanese communists’ debates on sectarianism, 1975–1981