20 Wednesday Mar 2013
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon
Tags
elections, Lebanese Elections, Lebanese Elections 2013, Lebanese people, lebanon, Michel Aoun, Orthodox Law, sectarianism
Michel Aoun is one of the direct and blunt politicians in Lebanon which makes him say stupid things a lot of time, if not most.
In his continuous and pointless sectarian defence to his sectarian electoral law proposal (Orthodox Law) which stipulates each sect electing its MPs, and getting the Christians to elect 50% of the parliament, he said:
03 Sunday Feb 2013
Posted in LB Culture, LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics
Tags
elections, Lebanese Elections, Lebanese Elections 2013, Lebanese people, lebanon, Orthodox Law, Satire, sectarianism
After nearly 29 years on the implementation of the federation of sects which started in 2013 with the Orthodox Gathering electoral Law, strong voices are reappearing again calling for the “correction of the injustice” that some minorities within the same big sects still face.
These minorities include the Maronites living outside Mount Lebanon, Shiites living outside the South and Bekaa, and Sunnis outside Beirut and the North. Their concerns revolve around their feeling of being third grade citizens within their big sects. These feelings led to the formation of extremist organisations like MMMM (Maronites Mad Max Man), MWSJ (the Military Wing of the Shiite of Jbeil) and DMB (Druze Militia of Beirut). Also, Sunnis show relatively more severe disintegration than other sects with another dimension of the clash being between the four main religious doctrines: Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanafi, and Hanbali.
30 Sunday Sep 2012
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, LB Politics, Lebanon, Politics
Tags
Islamism, Islamists, Lebanese Salafists, lebanon, politics, Religion, Saad Hariri, Salafi, Salafists, sectarianism, Tripoli
A new addition is expected to the Lebanese political scene, which would seriously contribute to its contrasting colourfulness. Apparently, Lebanese Salafists are looking to establish a political party to participate in the 2013 electoral elections and the beyond scene.
This could a bit advanced for them considering they don’t usually recognise post-Caliphates states, so some internal rifts within their movement is possible.
16 Sunday Sep 2012
Posted in Arab World, LB Culture, Lebanon, Other Arab issues, The rest of the world, World
Tags
Anti-Islam Movie, Innocence of Muslims, Islam, Islamophobia, Lebanon. Muslim World, Religion, sabra and shatila, Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses, Sectarian violence, sectarianism
I didn’t intend to comment on that anti-Islam and anti-Prophet movie originated somewhere in California, but seeing the reaction it caused makes it difficult for me not to be involved. The movie caused some strong reactions across most Arab and Muslim countries including some violent ones in the newly established Arab Spring countries like Egypt and Libya.
24 Friday Aug 2012
Posted in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV
Tags
Bachir Gemayel, Lebanese Forces, Lebanese people, lebanon, March 14, MTV, Sectarian violence, sectarianism
It was not long time ago when I declared the death of the political peaceful argument of March 14. Now, I can ‘safely’ declare the near-completion of their combating formations. All what you need to do to know this, is to watch the festival that took place yesterday by the Lebanese Forces in commemoration of the 30th anniversary election of Bashir Gemayel as a President.
I was gobsmacked to watch a ‘Lebanese Resistance Anthems Concert’ (on MTV) glorifying the military past of the Lebanese Forces and Bashir Gemayel – after all their current talk about the peaceful resistance and building the state. Although it didn’t look very odd with the current chaotic mood and high sectarian tensions in the country. It did actually blend well in that scene…
19 Tuesday Jun 2012
Posted in Syria
Tags
Bashar Al-Assad, Humanity, Reuters, sectarianism, Shabeeha, Shabiha, syria, Syrian Civil War, Syrian Regime
Reuters is running a strange but believable story about looting markets in Syria, where regime thugs (known as shabiha) sell in the open street market items they looted from raided houses.
12 Thursday Jan 2012
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria
As if the Syrian uprising is not living enough surrealism at these times. To muddle the picture even more, Israel said that it’s getting ready to receive Syrian refugees, or to be more precisely – only Alawites. The remarks were made by Israel’s army chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz to the Knesset committee on foreign affairs and defence:
On the day the Assad regime falls, it is expected to harm the Alawite clan. We are preparing to receive Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV
Tags
Al-Akhbar, Domestic Violence, Free Patriotic Movement, Future Movement, Islam, lebanon, Marital Rape, Non-governmental organization, Religion, sectarianism
It’s very pleasing and reassuring to see members of the Lebanese parliament drafting a law to protect women from domestic violence, or rape in some cases. But such law can never pass without our disease getting in the way – religious Lebanese theocracy. Some MPs want to remove the reference to rape in the new law, thus making it useless in practice, and keeping our laws dating back to the middle ages. Apparently, according to this opposition to the law, rape can’t happen if the couple are married, and this law tears the ‘social and religious fabric’.
02 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria
Tags
arab spring, Bashar Al-Assad, Homs, Press, sectarianism, syria, The Atlantic
One of good articulated stories that came out of Syria was A Tour Inside Syria’s Insurgency by Paul Wood (of the BBC) to The Atlantic; a really fascinating read, but black in its overall theme. I highly recommend reading the full 4,000-words article, which is comprehensive and diverse in its coverage.
The article shows how corrupt and brutal the regime is, but paints the picture of how the peaceful protests were forced to turn their dignity struggle with the government to be increasingly violent (check this Arabic announcement which I copied from a local revolution facebook page) and militarised. The story talks about the torture of Qutaiba, the peaceful protester who is looking now to buy pistol silencers in Lebanon to protect himself.
Continue reading »
17 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Politics
Muslims oppose a state close to anything secular, while Christians oppose a state not based on sectarian quotas (if you are a non-Lebanese reader, you should be confused to know there is a subtle difference between secular and non-sectarian states in Lebanon!). To avoid the hassle of finding a non-sectarian solution, why not just go with the sectarian flow? Obviously, I am being sarcastic here, but this is exactly what the Christian Maronite leaders meeting in Bkerki decided yesterday. They signalled that they want each sect to elect its own MPs i.e. turning sects officially into tribes.
The electoral system is known under the Orthodox Gathering name, championed by Elie Ferzli, the pan-Arabist pro-Syrian Christian Orthodox; what an irony. What’s worrying is that the former Deputy-Speaker Elie Ferzli thinks that the idea is so progressive that it can be exported to the Arab countries that are currently experiencing the Arab Spring. Lebanon, again, wants to export the wrong product.
