Internal Security Forces removed early Sunday religious banners and political posters in the northern city of Tripoli, in line with an agreement reached during dialogue sessions between the Future Movement and Hezbollah to defuse sectarian tensions in the country.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, policemen removed religious and political posters from Tripoli’s Al-Nour Square.
The removal of Islamic banners from the roundabout immediately prompted protests by area residents and the city’s officials.
At 1 a.m. Sunday, controversial MP Khaled Daher, the Muslim Scholars Committee and the city’s religious leaders flocked to the Al-Nour Square, where they claimed that the removal of Islamic banners served as an offense to Islamic symbols that have decorated the city since the '80s.
Protestors formed a delegation and headed to Tripoli’s Serail where they met with Brig. Bassam al-Ayoubi who in turn vowed to rescind the removal of Islamic banners that were raised in the roundabout.
The Muslims Scholars Committee, a gathering of Salafist sheikhs, and Tripoli’s Dar al-Fatwa also contacted Sunday Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, demanding the preservation of religious banners in the Al-Nour Square.
In response, Machnouk vowed that no religious banner would be removed from the area.
Last week, North Lebanon Governor Ramzi Nohra instructed security forces to remove all political banners from the city, starting in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, which was the scene of several rounds of sectarian fighting over the past few years.
Saturday’s measures come three days after political posters and party banners were taken down in Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli.
