February24, 2007:
One of the reasons Lebanon is always in such political disarray, despite
its advantageous geographical position, highly educated population (relative to
its neighbors) and long history of banking and commerce, is religion. A century
ago, Lebanon was mostly Christian. That was one of the reasons for the high
education rate and ample commercial activity. Europeans felt more comfortable
dealing with Arab Christians, and Arabs trusted the Lebanese Arab Christians
more than they did the Europeans. The Turks controlled the region for over five
hundred years, and were content to let the Lebanese do business, and pay high
taxes (Islamic law tolerates Christians and Jews, as long as they pay higher
taxes than Moslems.) But as Turkish control began to weaken, hostility towards
Arab Christians increased, and the Christians began to leave, often for the
United States. By the time the Turkish empire dissolved in 1918, only about
half the Lebanese were Christian. Shortly thereafter, the Lebanese formed a
democratic government. They dealt with the religious differences by agreeing
that the government jobs would be given out in proportion to each sects portion
of the population. For example, the president of Lebanon would always be a
Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni Moslem and the Parliament speaker a Shia
Moslem.
But
the intolerance towards Christians was still there, and the Arab Christians
heard from earlier migrants that there were economic opportunities, and freedom
from persecution, in America and Europe. Today, only about 35 percent of
the population is Christian, and there are a lot more Shia and Sunni Moslems.
Yet the old arrangement for handing out power and jobs has not changed much at
all. This causes friction, but no one wants to do another census, confirm what
everyone already knows, and risk another round of civil war. But all this is
but part of a larger problem, in Lebanon, and throughout the Arab world. The
problem is a lack of loyalty to the nation. People are more loyal to a family,
social or religious group, than they are to a national government. While a
Lebanese, when asked what he is by a foreigner, will say, "Lebanese," when it
comes to Lebanese politics, there are no Lebanese. There are Sunni, Shia, or
Christian. Actually there are nearly two dozen major religious sects in
Lebanon. This is what people swear allegiance to, and are willing to die for.
Not Lebanon, and that's what makes running Lebanon, or Iraq, or Egypt or Saudi
Arabia, any other Arab country so difficult.