Because it doesn’t make sense not to have something of everything in Lebanon, we also have our own Neo-Nazis. Have they read Mein Kampf? I doubt. Do they know what Nazism stands for? I doubt as well.
I really have a hard time understanding how someone’s mentality could actually bring them to be this convinced with Hitler and his ideology that they’d take the time to paint the swastika on a building in Beirut. I even know one person from my hometown who wears the swastika around his neck.
I recently visited the Wadi Bou Jamil area in Downtown Beirut to check out the infamous synagogue, currently being renovated. The area itself is a security zone within a security zone – call it security zone-ception. They have security forces for Hariri’s “Beit el Wasat,” the Serail and the synagogue itself.
You can get to the synagogue by walking up the stairs of the Serail and then walking on the street towards the Capuchin church. Once you reach the church, proceed to the street that is sealed off with one of the red plastic barricades, with an ISF person guarding the entrance to the synagogue’s street. Don’t worry about him, though, just proceed as if he doesn’t exist.
As a result of the security zones, the synagogue is off limits by a huge gate that is sealed shut. You can still see the building from outside but you are not allowed to go in. Furthermore, you are prohibited from taking pictures of any kind whatsoever.
We asked the security guard present near the synagogue if we can get access if we happened to be Jewish and he said no. He then said no one comes to this area except for very few tourists who want to look around, which is understandable because the area is so segregated from Downtown Beirut and yet so close that finding it is a task on its own so many Lebanese don’t care it exists to begin with.
I wonder, though, what’s the point behind so much security if the synagogue’s renovation is supported by the different political parties in Lebanon? I guess what’s been declared is drastically different from the hidden intentions…. Typical of Lebanon.
Until then, the synagogue is such a beautiful location in Beirut, in a very serene area of Downtown Beirut, whose calm contrasts drastically with the bustle of the surrounding shops and streets. It won’t be long before they ruin it with high-rises as well. They’re already talking about demolishing the Roman hippodrome near the synagogue to replace it with a high-rise.
I’m sick of articles shared by Lebanese “activists” that tell us how neighboring countries, such as Jordan, have more “freedom” than Lebanon. You tell them it’s not true, they ask for an example outside your basic Lebanese pride.
Well, here’s one for you. A Jordanian Christian woman was fired from her work not because she was incompetent, not because she wasn’t good at what she did but because she refused to wear a veil.
The woman, named Vivianne Salameh, was asked to hear a headscarf which goes with the uniform the bank, Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank, enforced for female employees earlier this year. Five other Christian female workers had already caved in. She refused to wear the veil. The headscarf doesn’t conform with her principles, she said.
The uniform the bank imposed on female employees wasn’t even registered at the trade and industry ministry, which means their initial uniform, despite them being “Islamic,” didn’t impose a headscarf.
Following the bank’s logic, it should be allowed for other companies to fire women who wear the veil. Right? Aren’t they breaking uniform? But other companies don’t do so because there is a very simple thing that seems to have eluded this bank: the concept of freedom of religion.
Muslim women are free to wear the veil, they are also free not to. Christian women are not supposed to wear a veil, according to their religion. Forcing them to is violating their freedom.
But how would a bank that’s straight out of the dark ages know that?
It’s a sad day when refusing to wear a piece of clothes means your source of living gets cut. I praise Vivianne Salameh for standing up to her faith. She’s exactly the type of people these retarded banks need.
I had heard that the patriarch received a figurative slap on the wrist from the Vatican for the drastic detour he took the Maronite church aboard. With his latest statements, he’s on a change of course.
This is more than a welcome change for Bkerki’s discourse, one that takes it back to the historical path it was always known for: where Maronites do not cower away from telling things like they are and hiding behind the fake protection of dictatorships.
“The Syrian regime is dictatorial and the Lebanese have suffered from it…Assad’s collapse does not affect at all the presence of Christians in Syria.”
Now let him go back to where the Maronite church stood regarding Hezbollah’s weapons and I’d be one happy member of the congregation. After all, he seems to be listening to my advice.
For all matters and purposes, Mawlawi is irrelevant. In a few weeks, he will only be remembered as the man who was important some time ago. But for his followers, Mawlawi represented a cause, a reason to fight and stand up to a state they hardly consider their own.
Arrested last week, the salafists got into fights that led to destruction and chaos amounting to millions of dollars. Mawlawi got bailed out yesterday for $300. His release was celebrated in the streets of Tripoli: the return of the savior, the hero, the “messiah” of the salafists, the one who represents their struggle.
Mawlawi’s release has showed the salafists what they can do. It showed everyone what can be done to get what you want. Induce chaos. Start havoc. Block the streets. Burn tires. Kill people. Bomb buildings.
The government? It will cave.
The army? Too weak to retaliate.
The ISF? Too involved to be relevant.
Political leaders? Their influence is waning.
Shadi Mawlawi’s release has showed an inherent flaw in the design of Lebanon. There is no state. This is a farm of “people” grouped together. The toughest “person” who can get the others to cower the most for a specific period of time rules.
One of the many diseases in Lebanon is the “Shadi Mawlawi” disease. It exists in many sects and political parties: people who rise from zero to hero in the matter of seconds, who manage to rally the masses behind a “cause,” who get the masses to die for that “cause” and who end up burning the country for a matter that is irrelevant.
There are too many Mawlawis in Lebanon to count, too many people above any consideration, above any law, above any form of government, above any form of civility. Shadi Mawlawi, Samir el Kentar, the airport officer who led to the May 2008 events, the Islamists of Nahr el Bered…
And then there are those who are taken by the Mawlawis of Lebanon and who believe burning tires is the best solution to get your voice across. The sad thing is they are getting results. It is here that I reiterate the question I asked yesterday: in a country of savagery, is civility the best option for self-preservation?
“Hay balad? hay mesh balad… hay shellet 3alam. Majmou3in? La2. Madroubin? La2. Ma2soumin? La2. Matrou7in? La2. Oum fout nam w sir 7lam enno baladna saret balad.” – Ziad el Rahbani.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 