Shame, Shame, Shame

It’s a shame how some Christians have reacted to what is a valid concern for our community: that is the dwindling numbers of Christians in Lebanon and the increasing number of land sales in villages to ‘outsiders.’ The later is the result of the country’s economic growth and prosperity being stifled by internal discord within Hariri’s coalition government and the sheer pigheaded stubbornness the Lebanese are so famous for.

For a lawyer and legislator like MP Boutros Harb to suggest a law banning the sale of land owned by Christian Lebanese to Muslim Lebanese and vise versa is shocking. Even a moratorium on such sales for 15 years is most certainly and undeniably unacceptable and unconstitutional. The right to private property, a basic pillar of a free society and the right to freely dispose of such property or transfer its ownership, while subject to state tax of course must never be diminished in any way by the state without legal cause.

But I have heard concerns being raised from many in my own community, my own neighbors who fear that our own part of Metn is slowly being transformed demographically with the influx of Lebanese Muslims to areas like Mansourieh, Beit Mery, Monteverde. I tend to see this as a good sign, maybe because I grew up in a Muslim country.

But, if Lebanese of one sect are buying property in areas where another sect is dominant and they feel comfortable living in mixed areas, then that is a very good sign indeed. When we stop seeing religious ‘color’ and only see three primary colors, red, white and green, that is a very good sign and we should rejoice! To hear the Muazin and the Church bells chime-in together to shatter the silence and stillness of xenophobia is a source of comfort to me and a sign that we are finally edging closer to our goal of a country run by all its people not by sectarian leaders.

I can understand where Harb is coming from; he is a Lebanese Forces MP from Batroun after all! But somehow he always wore the garb of reasonableness and moderation, or so I always thought. I certainly never expected such a suggestion from him. But fear does strange things to people; it can turn a reasonable man into an unreasonable one.

At the risk of sounding like a cliché and repeating an oft quoted line from that debonair democrat of New Deal Fame, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” And that was a man who knew what he was talking about, his America was facing a tough fight on all fronts, militarily and economically, FDR himself faced a daily battle against his disability, but his heart shone through, his character and leadership were unblemished. Unfortunately for Lebanon it is precisely in the toughest times that many of our leaders show no character whatsoever and surprise us by making dramatic u-turns (Walid Jumblatt of course) in midstream, leaving their people, lost, angry and confused.

So, forgive me MP Harb, this diatribe of mine is not directed against you, just your proposal which I oppose most emphatically and think it a recipe for national disaster. In Arabic, three words come to mind: Takrees al-farz al-Ta-ifi. I actually thought of buying property in Doha al Hoss not too long ago, not for any reason other than it’s a nice place to live, would I be a threat to the demographic/sectarian balance?

My Muslim friend who would never think of leaving Beirut, summers in Broumana and keeps a house there is he a threat? His brother and Christian wife, where should they buy property? What about their children, should they be allowed to buy property in Christian areas or Muslim areas? Or would they too pose a threat to that delicate balance? The answer: most certainly they, I, all of us are a threat, everyone who does not conform to what people expect a Christian or a Muslim Lebanese to be are a threat, a threat to the sectarian order. Guess what MP Harb, we are all one people whether the resident of Me3rab likes it or not!