Question 1 - Why do most people take it for granted that they were born as Muslims, Christians or Jews…etc?

Islam: Rule of the thumb: You are BORN muslim when your father is Muslim. Period. Kind of a Y related genetic trait.
(and apostates are condemned to death according to the chariaa)

Judaism: You are born Jewish when
your mother is jewish (and it is a matter of “race” or nation; an X related genetic trait)

Christianity: You have the choice (whatever!??) until your baptism; and apostasy is no big deal.

Question 2 – What’s the difference between “raising” your kids as Muslims/Christians and “brainwashing” them into adopt those beliefs?

That is a false problem; in the specific case of Leabnon the problem is a problem of SOCIAL and politic representations not of beliefs.

Christians tend to feel closer to their christian counterparts in the arab world or in the west. Solidarity of the minorities.

Muslims, true muslims, the believers in the chariaa are more related to their nation, the umma than to their christian counterpart.

Islam is scary. It will remain scary until religion and state entanglement is CLEARLY refuted. This is the the legitimate problem of SOCIAL and politic representations.

Question 3 – Do you have the right to present your beliefs to your children as being THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE way? Or are you morally obliged to expose them to the various faiths and ideas instead of YOU choosing their beliefs for them?

Exposing to “various faiths” is bulls**t: where would you stop? would you include budhism? scientology? taoism? zoroasthrism? different sick sects (davidians, sentier lumineux, et)? … etc… etc…
You’ll have to Hussein or else you would still be biased in your politically correct stance.
Stop fooling yourself Hussein!!

Either your an agnostic (or a bad, a very bad Muslim like yourself for example) and you don’t need to expose your children to any religious teaching you don’t believe in in the first place (thus you don’t give them any choice),
Or you are too afraid to be an agnostic, and you “believe”in a certain religion the one of your parents in general, and you will have to be honest with yourself and consider it as the one and only true way… This is whar religion is all about (particularly in the case of Islam which i happen to know)

There is no third way… except for hypocriticals or dreamers. And dreamers might be more dangerous than hypocritical in the present context and in our country LEBANON, the sate of two nations: Muslims and Christians.

My father who was an Imam always taught me that to be a good Muslim one had to be first a good Jew ,then a good Christian and then and only then could he be a good Muslim. He never differentiated between Sunnis and Shia and it was only til I was in my 20’s that I was told that we belonged to the Sunni branch.

As I grew up i was agnostic, which troubled and embarrassed him. But he was very understanding and would say that I had to make my own choices and would quote an aya from the quran -”there should be no compulsion in religion”. He warned me that I would in the end be judged on my deeds not on my beliefs and that Islam was a lifestyle more than a religion.

Religion is not the root of our problems, it is the confessional system that chokes anf gridlocks Lebanon today.

Some of our religious-political leaders are still fighting the Crusades.

This will change in time if we create a foundation for love , equality and tolerance among the people and allow people to vote for candidates that represent ideas and issues rather than religions or sects. unless we break out of this trap of confessionalism , we will forever be in conflict.

Al Taif has a clause for the dismantlement of the confessional system we should push for that.

I believe that we need and can live together in a symbiotic relationship.

I disagree with you Kamal, we are one nation with many groups that should have equal rights and be free to practise or not practise their religion , free to live anywhere in Lebanon and free to marry anyone in Lebanon.

If this dangerous dreamer offends you, Sfeir ,Qabbani, Faddalah and maybe Junblat- then too bad for all of you.

Issam

i have been relentlessly “fighting” with issam over the past weeks, but this time i must admit, i agree with every word he said.

i respect Issam’s father for being an Imam and for being “very understanding”, for letting his children make their own choices and for believing that a person will be judged on his/her deeds not on his/her beliefs.

Therefore, i join the controversial “dangerous” “dreamer” camp. i do not believe in the Lebanon being exclusively a muslim/christian state. i believe that every citizen has the right of an equal representation in his nation as any other one, REGARDLESS of his/her religion.

this is not a dream, this is hard work that we have to do. Religion was meant to be the most profound way for a person to exist and to express his/her humanity. Sadly today, it has become a criteria of differenciation.

When someone agrees that the main criteria of definition of a nation is religion, he/she is condemning its people to have an eternal representation according to this criteria, thus, blocking the way for evolution and for choice. This means implicitally discriminating this people. I DISAGREE with anyone who forces me and my society to be labeled mainly as ‘christian’ or ‘muslim’ and i believe in Lebanon becoming a non-religous state where people are elected and judged according to their performance and human qualities and not according to Anything else.

Jimmy

Jimmy said: “Religion was meant to be the most profound way for a person to exist and to express his/her humanity.”

WRONG
This may apply to Christianity -since Vatican-2 council reforms.

That does not apply to Islam, which is (as an imam, the father of one dear commentator on this site puts it) a whole “LIFESTYLE” and a DIN WA DAWLA issue.
(NB: An uncle of mine is also a muslim cleric -not an imam- as a i hinted earlier)

For the time being, and until some kind of reform is engaged from within Islam, i am afraid you are still dreaming guys.

And no, Jimmy, it is not an “eternal representation”; it is an actual representation we will have to eventually admit. Then live and deal with it. It won’t “block things”: On the contrary it will pave the way to the peaceful and clear-minded evolution of islam (or maybe Lebanese islam-keep dreaming) that will lead to “Lebanon becoming a non-religous state where people are elected and judged according to their performance and human qualities and not according to Anything else.”

Remember I dream and long for the exact same non-religious state that Hussein and Jimmy dream about.
We just disagree on the appreciation of the present day society in Lebanon. There are people, Lebanese people in Lebanon, Muslims and Christians, who want to live and pursue their daily lives without being afraid for their respective “lifestyles” (i loved the word)…
…while the Jimmies, Mustaphas, Husseins, Dohas, and Kamal dream, keep dreaming, and hopefully initiate some form of reform.

Bis repetita.

Maybe Lebanese Christians should stop nagging…
… and act as the Copts in Egypt: Second class citizens, as Islam (not Islamists) dictates.

EMPATHY
Those christian guys don’t have any, i mean ANY model of a democracy where Muslims are the majority and where Christians are full citizens.
(Notice that in arab autocracies, Muslims and Christians are both second-class citizens)

MODESTY
SO they are asked to be Copt-like until Hussein’s children (or grand children) grow up and can maybe change things. Or maybe not.

Kamal,

I understand the revolutionnary “i-don’t-care-about-friggin-niceties” attitude you’re trying to convey, but your last comment lacks eloquence. It is unwisely formulated,unhelpful and will not land on any sympathetic ears.

Convince us, don’t abuse us.

Mustaphe,

Indeed, “i-don’t-care-about-friggin-niceties”.

My last comment may be provocative, but I see no abuse in it. Never intended to abuse; not on this blog at least. Sincerely.

But maybe we have different tolerance thresholds.

Is it unwise? It is facts description.
Is it unhelpful? It is my way to help introduce new parameters to the debate.
Excuse me for not being sympathetic. That was not my purpose.

Anyway, this won’t happen again.
Thank you for keeping this blog alive, Mustapha. I will remain just a faithful reader.

Regards

Look guys and gals, this is really about love and hate. We all want a society and state based on love not hate. We all want to raise our chidren in peace , love and respect. Hate is thae currency of those that have no poliical program other than defending your faith while they go out to sin and profit.

Who is going to protect us from each other in thise cantons?

The Druze are not considered as Muslims by many Muslims . The Shia and Sunni have many differences and conflicts . It was not long ago that the Maronites would not let the Orthodox build a new Church in one Beirut’s districts. Incidently it was the late Kamal Jumblat who came to their aid.

Do not minimize the internal disputes between the sects.

We can only guaanttees each others rights in a multicultural secular nonsectarian state. We all need each other. Do not listen to our confessional leaders and their thugs because they would benifit greatly from any division of our small country.

I challenge anyone to argue how there is a geographical solution to Lebanon. Also how would a divided and cantonized Lebanon survive with our our powerful and interfering neighbours.

The answer is very simple and evident. Therefore, we need to move forward as Jimmy said and do the hard work of moving Lebanon forward and into this fast changing globalized world and not be fighting questions that should have been decided decades ago.

Issam

I have a French friend who considers herself a believer. In fact, she’s a volunteer in a Christian organization that sends people around the world to help other people.
This is exactly what she told me:
“I only understood the importance of la laicite (secularism) when i came to Ghana.”
Ghana, like the American “deep red states” is filled with “mega churches” and abound with Gospel Radios. A lot of people here are eager to teach you about Jesus’s love, and the pictures of Jesus are collaged on most public transport. “It’s suffocating”, she confessed. In France, people can believe without enforcing their believes on other people.

This is the kind of separation i’d like to see in Lebanon.

I agree with Mustapha. In Lebanon, religion is so tied to politics and culture it loses its essence.

When I was a kid, I used to go to church every Sunday, celebrate christmas every year, and my mother would read the story of Jesus to me every easter. But when another six year old kid asked me if I am a Christian or Muslim, I had no idea. I had to go ask my mother.

This is what we are talking about here. In Lebanon, six year olds ask each other if they are muslims or christians… I think that is outrageous!

I think Hussein is being too idealistic because parents will always want to teach their kids their beliefs, be it religion or not. I will take my kids to church and read them the Life of Jesus. But I agree that we should not disown their children if they do not believe. And yes Kamal, my kids can follow whatever religion makes them happy as long as it does not hurt them. And what is wrong with Buhdism??? In essence, it is even purer than Christianity and Islam.

Anonymous,

You said:”parents will always want to teach their kids their beliefs, be it religion or not”.

I’ll just point out a case where your future husband could have had a very different belief system from yours. Then you’ll see that I’m not being too idealistic ;)

I will not argue this point with you here because it’s kinda marginal to the essence of the post, which is to encourage people to start thinking about these issues from a different standpoint.

Issam:

From what you say in your comment, I am sure I would like your Dad. You are lucky to have been raised by someone with so much wisdom.

barney