Syrians Flocking To Lebanon To Use Facebook

An “unintended consequence” that can benefit the Lebanese if well channeled.

In the old days, many Lebanese used to associate Syrians with either dusty soldiers or wretched men coming for cheap labor. This is why the sight of spiffy young Syrian men and women in our Starbucks coffees browsing the web can seem odd to some (Except for Hamra residents who are used to seeing Syrian AUB students)

As Mark Mackinnon writes in the Globe and Mail, many young cyber dissidents are settling in Beirut where “they feel free to express their opinions and continue their political activism.”

“It’s a safe place for us as Syrians. All the other Arab countries are dictatorships,” said 23-year-old Ahed al-Hindi as he sat on the terrace of a Starbucks coffee shop in Beirut’s trendy Hamra neighbourhood.
Mr. al-Hindi knows that first-hand. He was arrested in a Damascus Internet café late last year after the café manager filmed him posting what Mr. al-Hindi says were “political comments on the human-rights situation” on a Syrian news website and reported him to the police.

In other words, as Syria is getting more heavy handed, more and more Syrians are coming to Lebanon to freely express themselves. This sounds like an opportunity for Lebanon.

I argued before that since Syria uses brutal force to influence Lebanese politics, it is only fair for us the Lebanese to use our competitive advantage -open society and free flow of information- to influence Syrian politics.

This is why the Lebanese should make use of the Syrian crackdown to start actively interacting with the Syrians who are now calling Beirut their cyber-refuge. In addition to that, the government should take the opportunity to remind the Lebanese of why these freedoms are important and why they shouldn’t be taken for granted. 

We should remember after all, that we fought and we are still fighting for those very freedoms, not for some “treacherous” alliances with America and Israel, a theory that is peddled by the same people who are afraid of facebook.

Also read:

Syrian bloggers react to Facebook ban (Global Voices Online)

Related Beirut Spring posts:

• In December of 2005, I argued that Lebanon should provide sanctuary for Syrian dissidents • Also, don’t forget to read the previous article on how the Syrians could get around the Facebook ban.