The reconstruction of Beirut’s city center after a devastating war (1975-1989) involved the nation in long debates and struggles for years in the 1990s. Solidere, the real-estate company that was in charge of reconstruction, was to buy out all rights-holders (owners, tenants) and compensate them in company-shares. The plan was met with criticism from rights-holders, architects, and planners. However, with considerable political backing, Solidere proceeded, expropriating most right-holders. Unbeknown to many, one of the few who was able to retain assets was the Directorate General of Islamic Waqfs (endowments). This presentation examines the successful mobilization against the expropriation of the Islamic waqfs in the city-center, based on their inalienability in Islamic law. I argue that the success of the mobilization of the Sunni Muslim community in the preservation of the waqfs as opposed to the failure of mobilization around the right to the city (through a rights-holders’ association and lawsuits) mobilized publics as Sunnis and thus further instantiated the Sunni Muslim community as a political sect reproducing in the process a cornerstone of the Lebanese political order.