Lebanon’s Christians, A Lesson for Hindus

By PREM MITAL

The Christian Lebanon holds special bond to Rome. In the early 16th century, Pope Leo X described the Maronite Catholics as "A rose among the thorns," presumably due to the large Muslim presence in the country.

Today, the Christian rose has not only wilted but it is vanishing under the heat of their rivals’ high birth-rate and ‘prophetic’ politics.

"All Christians are frustrated," reported The New York Times (May 9). Though guaranteed by convention and Constitution a central role in Lebanon’s affairs, their role has become more and more shunted and marginalized. Indeed, their frustration caused the outbreak of civil war in 1975 with escalating violence between Christians and Muslims that lasted for 15 years. Under the agreement that ended the war, Christians are allowed half the seats in Lebanon’s 108-member legislative body and the top posts are divided between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

That arrangement, an artifice, obscures the fact that Christians have become a small and shrinking minority with their population reduced to barely 30 percent of country’s 4 million people.

Also, under the post-war constitutional changes, executive power is shifted from a Christian President to a Sunni Muslim Prime Minister, stacking the decks against Christians. And with the acquiescence of the Muslim Government, Islamic Syria and its 35,000 troops exercise the dominant role. Thus, the country "is not sovereign and independent, all is controlled by Syria," bewails the 76-year-old Maronite patriarch Cardinal Sfeir.

Last December, gunmen in the predominantly Christian quarter of Beirutd fire on a van carrying Syrian troops. All of those arrested were Christians.

Three months before Pope John Paul II’s planned visit in May 1994, a Maronite church North of Beirut was bombed that killed 11 Sunday worshippers and wounded 59. Later, the Muslim Government arrested a Maronite leader for the bombing and other crimes and sentenced him for life in jail.

The Times’ report clearly shows that Lebanon’s Government is persecuting the Christians. However, on the eve of the Pope’s visit Christians’ hope is that he might use his visit to register a protest against Syria’s role. Amen!

Is there any message to the Hindus of (partitioned) India in Lebanon’s unfolding?

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