What an amazing long week-end in Beirut and its surroundings! It seems that Lebanon is an island in the Middle East where various communities and religions coexist. On Hamra street, you find women wearing Islamic clothes walking along girls dressed up with short skirts and high heels. No disdainful look at each other. Instead, smiles are exchanged and path are crossed. Here, Shias, Sunnis, Christian Maronites, Druzes, proponents of Hezbollah, the March 14 Alliance, the Future Movement, Lebanese National Bloc, Amal, Free Patriotic Movement, the SSNP and the Lebanese Communist Party live together and share ideas in what can be truly called a democracy.
However, do the lessons of the longest civil war (1975-1990) have really been understood?
While driving next to a mosque that is being built in a Christian
neighboorhood, I made a simple and genuine comment that sparked hours of vehement debate about Lebanese society and politics. I said to my friends that I found it natural to build mosques in Beirut and Lebanon since there are many churches in the cities and villages. Muslims and Christians live together thus, there should be an equal representation of the different religious groups.
The discussion between my two Lebanese Christian friends started as follows:
K. expresses his fear about the demography in Lebanon because, while Lebanon is a Christian country (according to the constitution, the Lebanese President has to be Christian, the Prime Minister Muslim Sunni and the Speaker of the Parlement Muslim Shia), Christians now constitute only 22% of the whole population and Muslims are steadily increasing. K. argues that the modern Lebanon is the result of the work of Christians only and not Muslims and, if Muslims were empowered in Lebanon, the country would become an Islamic state. Lebanon would then give up what shapes its identity: freedom and democracy.
Z. strongly disagrees with such statements and believes that Muslims have their share in the current success of the Lebanese society. He claims that he is ashamed of his Christianity because, when he was younger and living in Beirut, his family had to run away from the country and settle in Jordan and in refugee camps in Syria because of their political affiliations. He explains that a Christian sold them, that is why he feels resentful towards Christians in Lebanon. He goes on blaming Lebanese Christians of siding with Israel during the civil war against Muslims. (In this respect, I strongly suggest you to watch Al Jazeera's 15-episode documentary about the Lebanese civil war: http://justice4lebanon.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/al-jazeeras-the-war-of-lebanon/)
K. replies that he does not care about history and that what matters is the current political and demographic situation in Lebanon today.
Both of them shift to an emotional political talk that ends up with the conclusion: we agree that we disagree. The discussion goes back to the components of the Lebanese society and the respective role of Christians and Muslims in Lebanon followed by a hopeless religious conversation.
K. believes that Christians are threatened by Muslims all over the region. He wonders why Christians are not allowed to build a church in Saudi Arabia for foreigners while Muslims can build a mosque next to the Vatican (though not in the Vatican). It seems that this argument is quite weak because there is no point in building a mosque in an fundamentalist Islamic country which applies verbatim the Sharia and w
here no Christian lives.
K. finally contends that he finds the Bible, which makes entirely sense to him, better than the Koran that, according to him, preaches war and belittle Christians.
This three-hour talk that I tried to condense was more worthy that hours reading books about the Lebanese society. It did raise a tremendous point: how can you learn from the mistakes of the past if you refuse to learn about history?
Before travelling to Lebanon, I thought that the Lebanese society, which had been deeply affected by the civil war, was now ready to live in peace together. This is true when it comes to fighting a common threat, such as Israel. However, it seems that there is a long way to go before trust can be regained between Christians and Muslims. This also applies to the Middle East, and even the entire world, because Lebanon is a microcosm of the whole region.
However, do the lessons of the longest civil war (1975-1990) have really been understood?
While driving next to a mosque that is being built in a Christian
neighboorhood, I made a simple and genuine comment that sparked hours of vehement debate about Lebanese society and politics. I said to my friends that I found it natural to build mosques in Beirut and Lebanon since there are many churches in the cities and villages. Muslims and Christians live together thus, there should be an equal representation of the different religious groups.The discussion between my two Lebanese Christian friends started as follows:
K. expresses his fear about the demography in Lebanon because, while Lebanon is a Christian country (according to the constitution, the Lebanese President has to be Christian, the Prime Minister Muslim Sunni and the Speaker of the Parlement Muslim Shia), Christians now constitute only 22% of the whole population and Muslims are steadily increasing. K. argues that the modern Lebanon is the result of the work of Christians only and not Muslims and, if Muslims were empowered in Lebanon, the country would become an Islamic state. Lebanon would then give up what shapes its identity: freedom and democracy.
Z. strongly disagrees with such statements and believes that Muslims have their share in the current success of the Lebanese society. He claims that he is ashamed of his Christianity because, when he was younger and living in Beirut, his family had to run away from the country and settle in Jordan and in refugee camps in Syria because of their political affiliations. He explains that a Christian sold them, that is why he feels resentful towards Christians in Lebanon. He goes on blaming Lebanese Christians of siding with Israel during the civil war against Muslims. (In this respect, I strongly suggest you to watch Al Jazeera's 15-episode documentary about the Lebanese civil war: http://justice4lebanon.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/al-jazeeras-the-war-of-lebanon/)
K. replies that he does not care about history and that what matters is the current political and demographic situation in Lebanon today.
Both of them shift to an emotional political talk that ends up with the conclusion: we agree that we disagree. The discussion goes back to the components of the Lebanese society and the respective role of Christians and Muslims in Lebanon followed by a hopeless religious conversation.
K. believes that Christians are threatened by Muslims all over the region. He wonders why Christians are not allowed to build a church in Saudi Arabia for foreigners while Muslims can build a mosque next to the Vatican (though not in the Vatican). It seems that this argument is quite weak because there is no point in building a mosque in an fundamentalist Islamic country which applies verbatim the Sharia and w
here no Christian lives. K. finally contends that he finds the Bible, which makes entirely sense to him, better than the Koran that, according to him, preaches war and belittle Christians.
This three-hour talk that I tried to condense was more worthy that hours reading books about the Lebanese society. It did raise a tremendous point: how can you learn from the mistakes of the past if you refuse to learn about history?
Before travelling to Lebanon, I thought that the Lebanese society, which had been deeply affected by the civil war, was now ready to live in peace together. This is true when it comes to fighting a common threat, such as Israel. However, it seems that there is a long way to go before trust can be regained between Christians and Muslims. This also applies to the Middle East, and even the entire world, because Lebanon is a microcosm of the whole region.
