❊ Now Wait For Lebanon’s Largest Minaret

There are many good things you can do with $1.5 million. Building a twenty-storey-high cross in Lebanon is not one of them.

Maybe this topic is delicate for me to discuss because I’m a Muslim. But God (and my loyal readers) knows that I would have said the same things if a fortune was spent on a huge Islamic monument that has no function whatsoever.

I want to make it clear that I don’t buy the “world unity” raison-d’etre of this doubtlessly gorgeous monument. Impressive religious symbols which serve no functional role are never about friendship and mushy feelings. They’re about power and estabilshing presence. They are about marking territory and broadcasting influence. In this particular case, this is about a Lebanese group which feels insecure about its existence and is overcompensating.

There’s another problem: The small minded Muslim activists who will decide to one-up the cross by building a huge Minaret, somewhere preferably nearby. If you think I’m exaggerating, remember how the Red Cross changed their names to “Red Crescent” in Musilm countries to avoid precisely such immaturity.

Now comes the inevitable concession: The cross can generate tourism money, but more importantly, it can have the “Beirut Synagogue” propaganda value. Just imagine all the headlines in the variety sections of world magazines and newspapers: “Lebanon Builds Largest Cross in Middle East and North Africa”. Perhaps something good will come from it after all.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.