Bring Down the Walls: Lebanon’s Postwar Challenge PDF
Preview Bring Down the Walls: Lebanon’s Postwar Challenge
Bring Down the Walls Lebanon's Postwar Challenge Carole H. Dagher Ú Bring Down the Walls This page intentionally left blank Ú Bring Down the Walls Lebanon’s Postwar Challenge Carole H. Dagher BRINGDOWNTHEWALLS Copyright © Carole Dagher,2000.All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.For information,address St. Martin’s Press,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010. ISBN 978-0-312-29336-9 ISBN 978-0-230-10919-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230109193 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dagher,Carole Bring down the walls :Lebanon’s post-war challenge / Carole H. Dagher. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Lebanon—Politics and government—1990- 2. Religion and politics—Lebanon. 3. Political culture—Lebanon. I. Title. DS87.54D34 2000 956.9204’4—dc21 99–41936 CIP Design by Letra Libre,Inc. First edition:February 2000 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my brothers, Nagib and Nabil, who,like millions before them, have “chosen”to plant in the West the seeds of their Lebanese and Maronite heritage,talents,and hope Dear young,...you are the treasure of Lebanon....Bring down the walls erected in the painful past,don’t raise new barricades in your country.Build new bridges of communication among people,families and communities.Make gestures of reconcil- iation that will turn distrust into trust.The changes you are aspiring for in your country start with a transformation of the hearts.Don’t forget your Christian iden- tity.It is your glory,it is your hope,it is your mission. —Pope John Paul II in his message to the youth of Lebanon, at Notre-Dame of Harissa,May 10,1997. You’re probably the only country in the world where civilization is born and is still bearing fruits.A country where Christians of all confessions are assembled in such a tiny space,and where the great non-Christian religions are also present....Be- cause of your diversity,you can achieve what is impossible to do elsewhere in Eu- rope where the Eastern and the Western lungs of the Church are choking one another instead of breathing together.Because you are a people who has never ceased to pray and to believe,you can advance the unity of the Christians much easier than in Paris,Geneva,Moscow or New York....You are probably the only ones in the world to be in a situation one might describe as ambiguous,because you belong to two cultures at the same time.But this is why it is also the only place in the world, here in the Middle East,where a true dialogue can take place and where Chris- tianity,Islam and Judaism can meet in mutual respect and freedom.You are ascribed to be the bridge between these worlds originating from the same trunk.If you can- not make it,the world won’t be able to make it. —Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger,Archbishop of Paris, at Notre-Dame of Harissa,Lebanon,October 1995. If Lebanese are put in the difficult situation of having to choose between convivial- ity and freedom,Lebanese people,and the Christians first,will not hesitate:they will choose freedom. —Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir,at the inauguration of the meeting of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops,November 30,1992. Lebanese Muslims cannot exist as Lebanese without the Christians,and Chris- tian Lebanese cannot exist as Lebanese without the Muslims.Lebanon is not Lebanon without the Christians. —Sheikh Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine, head of the Islamic Shi’a Supreme Council This page intentionally left blank viii Bring Down the Walls In Lebanon,we have too much sectarianism and too little of religion.If we want to suppress confessionalism,we have to deepen real Christian and Muslim values. —Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, spiritual mentor of Hezbollah Some Islamist groups have a tendency to eyeball Arab Christians with suspicions, and to view them as the bulwark of the West (or the cat’s paw for western influ- ence).They are not.Nor are they the fifth column of colonialism....Christianity is not an ideology imported from the West. —Mohammad Sammak, in Introduction to the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Eastern Christians are a bridge between Arab and Western civilizations.Their demise and exodus from the Arab countries will provide an excuse for those who are publicizing the image of an intolerant Islam that is unable to live and interact with another religion or another culture and that does not respect freedom of religion and belief. —Michel Sabbah,Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Contents Acknowledgments xi Foreword John L.Esposito xiii Introduction 1 Part I Cognitive Coexistence Chapter 1 Christian Soul-Searching 15 Chapter 2 Muslim Self-Assertion 33 Chapter 3 Dialogue:A Necessity or a Burden? 49 Part II Coexistence in Facts and Figures Chapter 4 Sharing Exile 67 Chapter 5 Broken and Forfeited Bonds to the Land 79 Chapter 6 A Synod for Lebanon 91 Chapter 7 Three Weeks in Rome 107 Chapter 8 Cloaked in Coexistence 123 Chapter 9 The Swings of the Pendulum 137 Chapter 10 Coexistence in Uniform 159 Part III The Leaven in the Dough Chapter 11 The Democracy of the National Pact 167 Chapter 12 John Paul II in Lebanon 183 Chapter 13 Peace without Eastern Christians? 201 Conclusion 217 Notes 221 Selected Bibliography 241 Index 245
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