In Lebanon, a country where political power is scrupulously divided between Muslims and Christians and religion pervades private life, some people are tirelessly campaigning for a secular state.
Four activists launched a civic movement, Hayyabina (Let's Go), ahead of parliamentary polls that began in May "to promote secularism in our society," said 35-year-old co-founder Alexandre Medawar.
"The current political system represents a faulty and simplistic conception of Lebanese politics, precluding genuine national unity by forcing citizens to divide themselves along confessional lines rather than uniting behind common interests," says the group's website, Hayyabina.com
The equation "64 + 64 = 0" tops the site's main page with a slogan that reads "for a secular republic."
"In brief, 64 Christian and 64 Muslim lawmakers equate to zero Lebanese MPs," said Medawar, in reference to the 128-member parliament where Christians and Muslims have parity.
Hayyabina also campaigns for secular personal status laws and a religion-free public administration.
A similar movement called Aalmana (Secularism) also contends on its website, Aalmana.org, that "secularism itself is the guarantee for a stable national unity and true citizenry, true religious faith, the building of a country based on social justice, equality and democracy, no future civil war."
Civil war raged in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990.
Randa Aractingi and Michele Tyan, two women promoting a secular Lebanon, said concrete actions must be taken to reform the educational system, "where civic education is essential."
They also believe personal status laws, which are currently dictated by religion, must be amended "so that men and women are equal when they marry, divorce or inherit."
But their battle won't be easily won.
The Taif accord - an agreement signed in 1989 that helped end Lebanon's civil war -- envisioned that religion be excluded from politics and kept to the private sphere, but the changes have still not been passed into law.
The new parliament that emerges from Lebanon's four-round elections, ending on June 19, should tackle the issue of secularism, said Greek Orthodox MP-elect Ghassan Mukheiber.
"It's an issue that will shake the political scene," he said, predicting that "the parliament will start discussing it but will not pass a law. It will take years."
Ammar al-Huri is an MP-elect and Sunni member of the anti-Syrian coalition of Saad Hariri, the son of slain Muslim ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. He said "the state must eventually become secular and political parties must become non-confessional, without interfering with individual religious freedom."
"The 1926 constitution already stipulated that religious sectarianism (in politics) was temporary," he said.
Article 95 of the constitution says the "Chamber of Deputies is elected on an equal basis between Muslims and Christians and must take the appropriate measures to abolish political denominationalism."
But if some in Lebanon ask for a completely secular state, others say only politics should be immune to religion.
"Our electoral platform insists on the necessity of abolishing political sectarianism," said MP-elect Hassan Fadlallah from the hardline Shiite group, Hezbollah.
"But there is a difference between separating religion from politics and separating it from social life ... Religious diversity is a source of wealth" in Lebanon, he added.
Muslim clerics, Christian churches and most politicians, who recruit their followers on the basis of religion, fervently oppose the secularization of the state.
But Medawar insisted that if Lebanese want to live in peace in a country home to 18 different communities of believers, religion must be separated from state.
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