Daily Star:

Labor Minister Butros Harb has authored a draft law that would prevent Christians and Muslims from selling property to each other for a period of 15 years, in order to “safeguard national coexistence.” In the draft legislation, Harb cited fears that the demographic balance in Lebanon would be affected by a recent, “quasi-organized” trend in land sales from members of one religion to another.

This law is an insult to each and every one of us. It lays bare the state of bankruptcy that our sectarian democracy has reached. I understand the uneasiness some Christians are feeling, but the solution is not in passing a law that prevents the sale of lands from Christians to Muslims. This is the part where we look in the mirror and realize what a farce our country has become.

We have separate civil laws for Muslims and Christians. We prevent women from granting the Lebanese nationality to their children because we’re afraid for the “demographic balance”. We prevent Palestinian refugees from leading dignified lives because of the “demographic balance”. We have artificial politics and bureaucracy structures based on sects to preserve the “demographic balance”. We don’t have an official, scientific census of the Lebanese population because -you guessed it- we’re afraid that the results might upset the demographic balance.

But you have to know that the tyranny of the demographic balance can conquer politics, culture and even sports. But it cannot touch the free market. Adults will always find ways to sell their property to a willing buyer, even if they had to go to Cyprus to do it.

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