One-third of the nation’s Christian population has left since the beginning of the 1975-90 Civil War.
Lebanon was formed, incidentally, in the same way Israel was formed. It was never a country in modern times. Historically, it was "Phoenicia," but from around 1400 to around 1918 it was part of the "Ottoman Empire." After the Ottoman Empire fell in WW1, the French took over under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, and later freed as noted above. Prior to the Ottoman Muslim conquest it was part of the Byzantine Empire (Christian), and before that it was part of the eastern Roman Empire, and before that it was part of the Persian Empire and speckled throughout were various ancient periods where tribes living there were not paying tribute to someone - for the most part, it was always part of one empire or another. In 1926 France created Lebanon, however, just as Israel was created, just as Iraq was created and just as Jordan was created - arbitrarily. Islam is o.k. with Iraq and Jordan, because they are "Muslim countries." They couldn't tolerate Lebanon being a Christian country, so they fixed that "problem." And, they're howling mad about Israel.
To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDe ... z1FRhwq7dhFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing,” following deadly attacks on churches in the region.
Some of the worst slaughters in Lebanon's civil war happened in the quiet villages that straddle these hills. Whole villages stand intact but nearly empty, filled with houses that no one lives in anymore.
Damour, for instance, a lovely Christian Maronite hamlet dating to the Crusades, was depopulated when it blocked the path of Palestinian and leftist forces fighting their way up from Sidon in 1976; its houses are standing but the people who lived in them are mostly gone. A hand-painted message on the wall of a house leaves the signature of the last ones to pass through here: "The Forces of the Slaughterhouse."
As world headlines lament the "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon stands as a grim, largely forgotten reminder that all this has happened before.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-20/ ... n-families"This is a lesson," said Youssef Younes, who is leading the return of Maronite Christians displaced by ethnic cleansing to the village of Kfarkatra in the Shouf Mountains.
The Lebanese have a significant "diaspora" population - Lebanese who have left Lebanon for other countries - estimates range from 8 to 15 million people, 90% of whom are Christian.
Make no mistake about it. We hear a lot of railing and whining on the part of many Muslims about the "illegal" State of Israel and how Israel has no right to exist as a nation because it is on 'Muslim' land. People don't want to admit that the unthinkable is really possible - that enough Muslims would be agreeable to "pushing the Joos into the sea" - and it's often written off as an impossibility, or only a fringe, radical, extremist view. One only need to look to Lebanon and see what happens.
History shows us that Islam does not abide non-Islamic populations in power. It will grudgingly tolerate dhimmi and minority populations that submit to the priority position of Islam, but that's all. There is a racist movement all across the middle east - coptic Christians in Egypt are under assault - Jihad was declared against Christians in Iraq, and many Christian refugees fled the country. Christians have been run out of Lebanon.
