❊ Lebanon And Islamist Attacks on Churches

It is the duty of Lebanon’s Sunnis to do their utmost to prevent what happened in Iraq to ever happen in Lebanon.

The Daily Star:

Violent attacks by militants against the Lebanese Christian community could potentially tip Lebanon’s precarious sectarian balance, and unleash the violence that has usually been associated with such instability. Worse even, if Lebanon were to seriously spin out of control, the risks that it become one more Al-Qaeda safe-haven in the region are not to be neglected

The Sunnis in Lebanon are taking this matter very seriously. The Future Movement has been very active on that front lately. P.M Hariri, even before the attacks in Iraq, has been building bridges with Christians and making very public statements in inter-religious forums about preserving Christian presence in the Middle East. He even won an award for his efforts.

Mr. Hariri’s motives — in addition to the high-minded ones- are those of political self preservation. His Sunni-Christian alliance is at the center of Hariri’s power coalition and could be greatly damaged by Alqaeda-style attacks against Christians.

M.P. Michel Aoun has been trying to link Mr. Hariri’s to Sunni fundamentalism by reminding everyone of his Saudi connections. Members of the FPM love to brandish the word “Wahhabi” to all Christians allied with Mr. Hariri, and tayyar.org never misses a chance to show pictures of Mr. Hariri in Saudi garb, as if to suggest to its readers that this is the “real” Hariri.

Mr. Hariri should employ all his media and political powers to make Lebanese Muslims sincerely and deeply protective of Christians in their midsts. He should make it shameful for anyone to even secretly approve of what’s happening in Iraq.

So here’s a little suggestion to Mr. Hariri: What if he asked Lebanese Muslim families to put Christmas trees in their homes this year in solidarity with their Christian brothers and sisters who died in Iraq?

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