Lebanon and the Arab Civil Wars: An Import-Export Business – Talal Salman
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/02/lebanon-arab-civil-wars.html
When the Arabs “succeeded” in importing the worst aspects of the Lebanese regime of so-called “pluralist democracy,” designed to camouflage its confessional and sectarian nature, they added a touch of Salafist fundamentalism to it. And now here they are exporting the virtues of these organizations. Afterward they began to export to this small and beautiful country preachers and missionaries preaching of “the righteous faith” — as if they were the first to discover it, and had no choice but to spread it...among the believers.
Here the cancer of sectarianism and confessionalism is ravaging Syria, prompted by the transformation of a political conflict into a project for waging civil war. It is ravaging Iraq as well, spreading the dangers of partition through civil conflict. At the same time it is spreading a climate of confrontation among Egyptians, both Muslim and Copt, who have historically enjoyed exemplary bonds of patriotic kinship.
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The sectarian arsenal is always ready for use in confronting the call to building a viable state in Lebanon. Just as it is always ready to sow discord in national unity, and instability in existing states, in countries throughout the region. It is happening [in Lebanon] now, just as it has been arranged to happen in Syria and Iraq. Regardless of the nature of the ruling regime or the degree to which it approximates democracy.
There are those who are ready to finance this arsenal and to strengthen it with weapons and political cover. It is of no concern to them that they rule their “flock” by the sword, deprive them of elections, forbid women from driving a car, and force them to cover themselves in veils from head to toe … and then they go out “to champion” democracy in other countries by kindling the flames of civil war and sectarian butchery.
It is unfortunate that certain political forces in Lebanon are avid players in the game of stoking civil war, supposing it to be a surefire source of popularity — even if it comes at the expense of the country, the unity of its people, and the stability of its state.
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