Let’s start with a chiller: Although Lebanon would be losing one major impediment to civil progress with the inevitable fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, this will not in itself move Lebanon any closer to building a strong sustainable state for its people.

The political forces that stand to benefit from a definite end to the Assad tutelage over Lebanon must treat coming events not as an unexpected gift from the heavens but as an enabler of progress and an opportunity to confront five major challenges that Lebanon can now face, and solve, away from the Baath shadow.

1- Ending the age of impunity

The use of violence or threats of violence to gain political advantages must end. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is the first serious attempt to try the perpetrators of such acts of political violence. It is therefore our best chance of ending this age of impunity where aggression and killing have become a too easy recourse for many players on the Lebanese political scene. Read the rest of this entry »

Journalist Gebran Tueni was killed on December 12th 2005. His voice resonates in the hearts of every citizen committed to an independent and sovereign Lebanon. He did not accept to tamper with freedom and make it part of any trade-off.
Six years later, Gebran Tueni’s dream lives through the fight of millions of Arab citizens thriving for freedom and democracy. By walking the opposite path, Lebanon would be killing Tueni twice.

Veteran journalist Kelli Arena has been training many political parties and citizen journalists in the region over the last few months. She posts on her blog many sharp remarks and impressions on how things are moving amidst the Arab Spring.

Her blog post on election results in Egypt and the high scores of the Muslim Brotherhood is a straight-to-the-point reality check.

In another blog post about the situation in Syria, while painting an overall gloomy picture, she finds in my words a rare hopeful voice:

My friend Ayman Mhanna [Tajaddod Youth coordinator], executive director of the Beirut-based media watchdog Samir Kassir Eyes Foundation says “It’s worth betting on the Syrian people”. Mhanna believes a stronger Syria will eventually emerge that has “sounder relations with its neighbors, and focus more on its own development rather than destabilizing Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine”.
Politics aside, I hope he’s right and that the suffering that’s been endured will result in something positive.

Does our friend BeirutSpring still think I’m pessmistic?

Has Patriarch Bechara Rai relaunched the civil marriage campaign in Lebanon? During a Q&A session with school students yesterday, the Lebanese Maronite Church’s top priest voiced his support for compulsory civil marriage,  which he said would solve the problem of Christian and Muslim “non-believers” who want to get married.

But before we get excited that a powerful religious leader is finally on our side, let’s take a closer look at what Rai’s words really mean, because with this wily priest, matters are rarely as straightforward as they seem.

First of all, Rai is calling for compulsory civil marriage, and not optional civil marriage, which was the demand of the campaign during the late 1990s. Optional civil marriage gives citizens the choice of having their personal status issues (namely marriage, divorce, and in the case of Muslims, inheritance as well) dealt with by state institutions (i.e. the judiciary). In both cases, the Maronite Church and other religious sects would lose significant influence over people’s lives. And, dare we say it, they would lose some of their income as well.

By calling for compulsory civil marriage, Rai effectively and intentionally closes the door on any progress on the issue because he knows very well that his Muslim counterparts oppose it. By discarding optional civil marriage and stating that it should be compulsory for all Lebanese, Muslim and Christian, he has blocked any chance of debate with Muslim religious leaders. Compulsory civil marriage is his response to demands for the abolition of political sectarianism: he asks for full secularism, knowing that it will be rejected. The Patriarch is resorting to the old trick (political sectarianism vs. full secularism) that characterized the Muslim-Christian intellectual debate in the 1960s-1970s. The war and subsequent political arrangements got many to forget this period.

This is why it is important not to fall into the trap. If activists and citizens who genuinely support civil marriage approach him for support, his likely response would be: “I support COMPULSORY civil marriage, so don’t talk to me, go to the other religious leaders.”

Although counter-intuitive, and in façade less progressive, a real civil marriage campaign should focus on optional civil marriage, i.e. giving citizens the choice to have their personal status issues administered by the state courts and not religious courts.

Democratic transition in Egypt has been painful. People’s aspiration to freedom has been faced with a military council that often resorts to its old regime behavior and with a surge in religious extremism. Nonetheless, this great country votes today. People have the chance of shaping their own future. Google as well decided to pay tribute to this day (Monday, November 28th 2011).

On Saturday November 12th 2011, the Arab League suspended Syria’s participation in the Arab League, called for economic sanctions and the suspension of diplomatic ties with Damascus. A new page was opened and the struggle with the Assad regime was taken to a new, unprecedented level.

In recent months, there has been much debate on the future of minority Christians sects in the Arab world following the popular uprisings. The Maspero tragedy in Egypt, during which Coptic Christians were attacked and killed by the army, and the resurgence of Islamic parties in the region has led many Christians, especially in Syria and Lebanon, to question whether they will survive the Arab Spring. Many have also questioned the wisdom of regime change in Syria, arguing that the downfall of the Assad regime, long perceived as a protector of minorities, threatens the existence of Christians. But the question is to what extent is the Arab world hostile to Christians? And how wise is it for them to support the Assad regime?

Doreen Khoury, executive committee member of the Democratic Renewal Movement, published the following paper on the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s website.

Many headlines in the Western press have recently dubbed the Arab Spring as the Christian “Winter”, focusing on the plight of minority Christian sects in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings, following the tragic outcome of the Maspero demonstrations on 9 October 2011. Lebanese Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai had already begun the debate with controversial remarks on the future of Christians in the region during an official trip to Paris in early September 2011. Rai focused on the Syrian uprising, warning that the downfall of the Assad regime would either lead to sectarian civil war, disintegration of Syria into sectarian mini-states or a fundamentalist Sunni regime. All three scenarios, according to Rai, would be detrimental for the future existence of Christians.

The Maspero tragedy, as well as the apparent Islamisation of the Arab Spring, with the resurgence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the strong showing by the Islamist Nahda Party in the Tunisian elections, seemed to confirm his fears. Rai’s concerns are certainly legitimate, especially since it is natural for minorities to feel insecure during times of upheaval when outcomes are unclear and the nature of future political systems is still unknown. There is always a sense within Christian minority groups that mainstream Muslim cultural and religious norms will be imposed on them. The events leading up to the Maspero tragedy certainly embody this fear: Coptic Christians were protesting against the destruction of a church in Aswan by Salafists, and were attacked, with up to 27 protesters killed by the Egyptian army.

The Maspero incident focused attention on Christians elsewhere in the Middle East, especially the Christian sects in Syria who roughly make up about ten percent of the total population. But relations between minorities and the regime are not the same in all Arab countries.

While Coptic Christians, as integral to Egypt as Muslims, have been discriminated against by the Mubarak regime, Syrian Christians historically have not experienced sectarian attacks, neither from society or the regime. This has lead many Christians, particularly in neighbouring Lebanon, to support the Assad regime against the popular uprising.

But four main assumptions have to be examined closely and where necessary, debunked: first that Rai’s fears of the Arab Spring and the Syrian uprising are shared by all Christians; second, that the uprisings will lead to repressive Islamic regimes; third that the Assad regime has protected Christians from sectarianism; and thus four, that it is a wise strategic choice to support the Assad regime.

Do all Christians share Rai’s views?

In Lebanon, Christians are divided on Rai’s depiction of the Syrian uprising as harmful to the presence of Christians in the region. While Christian leaders in the March 8 coalition, particularly Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, have been vocal in their support of the Assad regime, the March 14 coalition Christians have been highly critical of the regime’s violence against the protesters.

These positions reflect each camp’s geopolitical considerations. Aoun’s alliance with Hezbollah through the 2006 Memorandum of Understanding, is based among other things, on his belief that existence of Christians is guaranteed by a coalition of minorities (between Shiites, Christians and Allawites) against the Sunni majority in the region, hence his support for Shiite Iran and the “Allawite” Assad regime. Aoun has been much more direct that Rai in his pessimism towards the Arab Spring and his support for the Assad regime. During one interview with the Iranian Press TV he described the changes and revolutions in the Middle East as a threat to “all non-Muslim minorities, as the existence of Salafists challenges remaining freedom”, and that the fall of Assad will be dangerous for Christians, because the Muslim Brotherhood, believes that “democracy is against Shari’a Law, and that this is worrying for non-Muslim minorities.”

Christian politicians of the March 14 coalition, aligned to the United States and Saudi Arabia, have been wary of criticizing Rai directly, largely because attacking the Patriarch remains a taboo. But the leader of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea has frequently condemned the Assad regime’s violent reaction to the popular uprising.

A recent conference, for example, organized by the Lady of the Mountain Gathering, an NGO comprised of mostly March 14 personalities and other leading independent Christians, addressed the role of the Christians in the Arab Spring, and concluded that Christians should not be passive bystanders in recent regional events, nor should they ally themselves with “fading authoritarian regimes.”

Understanding where Syrian Christians stand vis-a-vis the regime and the uprising is more complex. The regime’s ban on foreign journalists entering the country makes it difficult to gauge to what extent Christians genuinely support the regime, or do so out of fear.

On the ecclesiastical level, recent statements by Patriarch Hazim of the Greek Orthodox Church (which represents the biggest Syrian Christian community) indicate that he does not share Rai‘s outlook on possible scenarios if the Assad regime falls nor his fear for Christians. Because of his base in Damascus, Hazim‘s political statements are usually ambiguous and open to interpretation, but two statements are noteworthy. On 21 October, during a radio interview, he said that although
he shared Rai‘s fears of fundamentalists taking power in Syria, he also refuted the argument that minorities supported dictatorships, criticizing the notion that “Christians defend their existence at the expense of freedom and human rights”. Following the Orthodox Antioch Conclave on 27 October 2011, he said that “the Church cannot stand helplessly by amid oppression and discrimination from which the peoples and groups are suffering.“

Mount Lebanon Greek Orthodox Bishop George Khodr has said that although Christian Copts in Egypt have recently experienced sectarian violence, the same cannot be said for Christians in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.

Interestingly, he notes that the Church is in constant contact with Christians in Syria, who have not been subject to sectarian pressure, even in cities like Homs and Hama which have witnessed mass protests.

Syrian Christian activists have also criticised Rai’s linking of the fate of Christians to the Assad regime.

Intellectual and dissident Michel Kilo, has criticized the Maronite Patriarch for his statements, calling for the use of calm language, despite legitimate fears over the current situation. On 17 September a statement by Syrian Christian activists and intellectuals condemned Rai’s interference in internal Syrian affairs, and “stirring up sensitivities between citizens of all sects“. Affirming that Christians are an integral part of the Syrian nation and do not need protection, they also rejected the Assad regime‘s ploy in branding itself as the protector of Christians, as the Syrian crisis is political and not sectarian, and that the protests are a popular civil revolution. Supporting the popular uprising or not is also a generational issue. While the older generation seems to be wary of the protests, the Local Coordination Committees (grassroots organisations of the uprising) contain many young Christian activists who are frustrated with the conservative stance of the church leaders.

Has the Arab Spring been Islamised? Read the rest of this entry »

On the eve of the Arab League meeting that will discuss the bloody developments in Syria, and the Assad regime’s de facto rejection of the born-dead Arab League Initiative, Syrian protesters send a vibrant message to the institution.

On Monday, October 31st 2011, Palestine became the 195th member state of the UNESCO, despite American and Israeli blackmail. May this recognition be a first step towards the establishment of a democratic and sovereign Palestinian state, marking the end of decades of conflict and misery in the Middle East.

Notre photo du jour (samedi 29 octobre 2011) est francophone. Le 18^e Salon Francophone du Livre de Beyrouth est un rendez-vous annuel avec les plus grands auteurs libanais et internationaux d’expression française. Comme chaque année le salon offre aux Libanais un espace de liberté propre à l’essence même de Beyrouth, haut lieu de la diversité culturelle.