A Battle For The Hearts And Minds Of Lebanese Christians

The highest Christian seat in the land is vacant and many Christians are dispirited. Politicians see oportunities and threats

The Hakim making his case..

In the Lebanese sectarian system, it means a lot when your top position is vacant. The Patriarch famously refused to allow a demonstration to unseat ex-President Emile Lahoud because he didn’t want the “presidency” to be tarnished. The Sunnis were furious when they felt that the opposition wanted to topple Mr. Seniora, and their reaction — large demonstrations in Sunni cities all over Lebanon in addition to having the Mufti praying next to Mr. Seniora in the seraille — helped keep him in power.

Against this backdrop, it is understandable why the Christians are feeling down with an empty Baabda palace, especially when the constitution mandates that the presidential powers should move temporarily to the Prime Minister.

Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun sees an opportunity to whipp up sectarian sentiments against Mr. Seniora and paint him as the usurper of Christian rights. The General has been trying to position himself as the strong protector of the Christians. His latest gimmick is a plea to all “Christian political, spiritual, economic, Labor and media personalities” to come to his house for consultations.

The Prime Minister is not oblivious to the Christians’ vulnerability and is aware of Mr. Aoun’s designs. This is why he visited the Patriarch today, told him that there’s no conspiracy to Islamize Lebanon and said things like “no one can take the position of the President”. He also stressed that this is a highly exceptional situation. Of course, he didn’t forget to actively ignore Mr. Aoun.

Also, Majority leader Saad Hariri tried as much as possible to mask his euphoria at Lahoud’s exit and to pull off messages like “This is a sad day for the repulic”, “we pormise the Christians to work hard to elect a new President” and “we are always glad to work under the leadership of someone from a sect that gave Lebanon some very fine men” 

All eyes are on the Lebanese Christians, and I’m confident that they’ll make the right choice.

Related Beirut Spring Posts:

• Last July, I was very critical of the Maronites’ Bishops “Islamizing Lebanon” comment • Two days later, I asked them to apologize because they were proven wrong.