Table Of ContentBring Down the Walls
Lebanon's Postwar Challenge
Carole H. Dagher
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Bring Down the Walls
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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
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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
