This country has always puzzled me! At every turn, I find us, the Lebanese, rushing to line up in corners, lying in wait for each other, and entrenching ourselves behind hateful slogans of bigotry. I have always wondered how a country of such beauty could have people who produce such hateful and racist rhetoric? Isn’t it said that a person is a product of their environment and that the geography of a place leaves its mark on people’s souls? Where is the Lebanese people in all of this beauty?
The Other, l’autre, this concept that has preoccupied philosophers, writers, and thinkers, and about which they have written many philosophical theories, novels, and academic studies, the “other” whom Jean-Paul Sartre described as “hell,” has always been our game and the companion of our positions and evaluations. And so that the rest of the pronouns would not blame us, we added to our discourse “we,” “they,” and “you,” as if the narrow view was no longer sufficient, so that this linguistic division would come to increase the severity of the dispute.
Are we destined to be sectarian? Has this characteristic become a necessity of the Lebanese personality, given that it is officially documented in the civil registry extract? While we cannot deny the enormous impact of a hateful civil war that lasted fifteen years, and the subsequent control of parties that entrenched their existence through sectarian narratives, in creating psychological barriers between the Lebanese, it may be that our country’s geographical map has produced a fanatical sectarian mindset, which appears in the form of a sharp vertical division at every critical juncture.
Yes, the regional sectarian distribution created for each sect the conditions of its existence, and consequently its convictions, values, political affiliations, customs, and traditions that differ from other sects. Since geographical determinism plays a fundamental role in shaping the destinies and fates of societies, no one can deny that the presence of Israel on the southern borders and its perpetual attacks on the southerners led to it being considered the absolute and sole enemy in their collective consciousness, especially the Shiite consciousness, and made them all “resistance fighters.” Many Lebanese may sympathize with them and share this hostility, but not to the same degree of interaction.
On the other hand, a large segment of the Lebanese, especially the Christians, suffered greatly from the Syrian presence, which they called an occupation like the Israeli occupation, and they considered the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon to be their primary issue. During the dark period in which the “resistance fighters” were subjected to waves of kidnappings and assassinations, the other parties were not concerned with this suffering.
The scene was divided into two images: mothers weeping for their sons who were martyred while resisting Israel, and others weeping for their sons who disappeared into the darkness of Syrian prisons. Here, the theory of the “other” is manifested in its most glorious form, for every “other” has an enemy, every “other” has a cause, and every “other” has its occupation, its resistance fighters, and its martyrs, thus eliminating the way to build common ground for meeting!
The first war of support opened a new path to division, and when the second war of support came, the Lebanese reached the peak of division. While Israel destroys their lives, they are seen differing in their assessment and interpretation of events. Some defend and justify, while others reject and attack, and between them grows a new stereotyping narrative with new standards for a new “other”…
The basic criterion here is not the extent of our hostility towards Israel, but rather the extent of our hostility towards each other. I was shocked by the intellectual upheaval that befell some of my friends who were very open-minded and far removed from sectarianism, but emotion overcame them, and they began to issue sectarian judgments on our partners in the homeland. Perhaps fear for the future drives many to retreat into the sect or group!
I have never been sectarian and I never will be. I remember when the official school in my village of Arab Salim was bombed in 1999, and a number of students were injured. A Lebanese television station was broadcasting celebrations of the “Al-Hikma” team’s victory in the Asian Cup, and I heard some angry comments about the nature of our country, and how, while some Lebanese are suffering, we find others celebrating and rejoicing as if they are on another planet. At that time, I was happy with this sporting achievement, and I asked myself, “Why should all Lebanese suffer? Whoever finds an opportunity to rejoice, let him rejoice.”
Were you mistaken?
The calculations of decision-makers have always been very different from the feelings of people on the ground, as the need to continue living was a natural, instinctive feeling.
Therefore, I hope that our honorable state will take some basic steps to eliminate the imaginary barriers between the Lebanese, such as reviving the public school, unifying the history textbook, and reopening the doors of the Teachers’ Training College. But the most important step in my opinion is the return of national service, as the military institution is the most important national umbrella under which all Lebanese gather, and there is no Sunni, Shiite, Christian, or Druze, there is only the Lebanese.
And until these wishes are fulfilled, I made a dangerous decision: I will be sectarian, but in my own way! Since the outbreak of the current war, I have been hearing stories about the high rents and the impossible conditions imposed by landlords on displaced Shiites, and the refusal of some of them to receive veiled women, but I have decided to see beauty, all beauty, and nothing but beauty… May God help me with that.
I will only see that Sunni woman who rushed with her children from her home in Tariq Jadida to the hospital to donate blood for the wounded from the “Pager” bombings on that fateful day. I will only see that Christian Kataeb family who offered their home in the town of Matin to my veiled southern friend’s family. I will only see “Umm Gharib” who comes every day in her religious dress to take her children to continue their studies at the Evangelical School. I will only see my Druze friend with whom I had fruitful discussions and dialogues during the days of the civil movement, and our hope together is to eliminate corruption and the corrupt in our country.
I will never submit to sectarian logic, because despite all the horrors I went through, both when I stayed in my home in Arab Salim and when I recently left it, I swear to God I saw nothing but beauty…