Arabism's racism - the 'Anti Christian Maronites' section

[Masti]

Anti-Maronite

Lebanon's Maronites make up the largest Christian community in the country - a community where religion and politics are inextricably mixed. The Maronites, linked culturally and politically to the West, favored teir own continue rule, Lebanese nationalism, and a Western-oriented foreign policy. Sunni Muslims favored Pan-Arabism and were often friendly to Nasir and Syria [source], so was its armed wing the Phalangist's early stance, pro-Western and opposed to Pan-Arabism [source] in the 1970s, the Maronite bloc showed some degree of unity in opposing pan-Arabism, (although recently some have split and allied themselves with Hezbollah and became anti-American) [source]. Any notions of pan-Arabism are anathema to Lebanon’s Maronites, many of whom deny an Arab heritage and trace their lineage... to the ancient Phoenecians. [source]

Arab nationalist leaders could not be fair, because Arab nationalism derived its social force principally from the Islamic solidarity among the Arabs which had to be preserverd at all cost. Any unfavourable judgement passed on an Islamic community, no matter how slight, could put this highly valued solidarity in jeopardy. Christian... Maronites in Lebanon most rejected the notion of Arabism altogether and spoke instead of Lebanism... In Greater Lebanon, after all, it was not only the Maronites, along with other Christians, who could see through the true nature of Arabism as it existed in practice; Shiites and Druze had no more wish to be dominated by a Sunnite ruling class in the name of Arabism than Christians did [source]

In a 2008 interview with Christian Maronite leader Etienne Saqr (Abu Arz) [source], he dscribes the ideology of his party, the "Guardians of Cedars" [gotc.org]: We are not Arabs. Last year my people in Lebanon had a press conference saying exactly that. The next day Siniora sent them (a poet, lawyer and a journalist) to jail for two months and two days because they said Lebanon is not an Arab state. This was their crime. It was nothing they could accuse them of, but still they did not release them. The judge was pressured not to release them. Our big enemy is Arabism. Arabism is the first step toward the Islamization of Lebanon. The ambition of the Saudis is not only to Islamicize Lebanon but also the whole world.... They plant these mosques everywhere and they send preachers to incite the people to Jihad. This was so in Indonesia, so was Malaysia. Who was behind the Islamic movement from day one? They went to the US and hit them inside. You see enemies such as Iran and Syria. But Saudi Arabia is hidden. [source]

Under Syrian occupation, the occupation employed a wide range of policy means to transform Lebanon into a "client state" and a Syrian political satellite. By means of military control and political penetration, media repression and alien colonization, Lebanon has lost its independence. Under foreign rule within the matrix of a foreign-manipulated police state, the Lebanese suffer from Arabization and Syrianization that deny the people, especially the Maronite Christians, their freedom and dignity. Many have been forced into exile across the countries and continents of the Lebanese diaspora. [source]

The Maronites also suffered from Arab-Palestinian & Syrian coalition of murderers at the Damour massacre in 1976 [source] [source] [source] (which brought the 'payback' at the "Sabra Shatila massacre" by the Pahalangists under Elie Hobeika who was "personally impacted" by the massacre [source] sought to avenge the killing [source]) and the Guardians of the Cedars asks about Arabism's fake "noble" mission: Has Arabism moved a finger to stop the horrifying wholesale massacres that the Palestinians and their agents committed in Damour, Jiyyeh, Aishiyyeh, Aintoura, Tal-Abbas, Rahbeh, Shekka and others... killing children, women and the elderly, and sparing neither the material nor the sacred of properties? What has Arabism done to stop the Syrian conquest of Lebanon that violated the land, the people, the existence and the sovereignty?? And did Arabism prevent the Syrian from assassinating Lebanese figures one after the other..? [source]

[G8 Diplomat]

Ethnic Lebanese (Maronites) aren’t even Arabs, they’re Phoenecians.

I’m glad the pro-Western bloc defeated Hezbollah. It’s about time we heard some good news.

[Masti]

Ethnic Lebanese (Maronites) aren’t even Arabs, they’re Phoenecians. As stated in the Catholic magazine: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4103

[Masti]

In the 2006 Hezbollah war on Israel, where they (like Hamas) have been using human shields to cause Arab civilian deaths in order to gather support against Israel, Hezbollah used also Christian Maronite villages In the 2006 Hezbollah war on Israel, where they (like Hamas) have been using human shields to cause Arab civilian deaths in order to gather support against Israel, Hezbollah used also Christian Maronite villages as shields in missile attacksas shields in missile attacks. ...Sami El-Khoury, president of the World Maronite Union, adds that media reports about Christian support for Hezbollah are inaccurate. (source)

[SunkenCiv]

Any notions of pan-Arabism are anathema to Lebanon's Maronites, many of whom deny an Arab heritage and trace their lineage... to the ancient Phoenecians.

This is of course strictly political, because the Phoenician language was Semitic, period. The Lebanese national identity could be an outgrowth of the Phoenician roots, and in any case is preferable to the "Greater Syria" fictions that drive the politics of the Asad dictatorship.

There were a few FR topics about this Phoenician identity movement (': a few years back.

[RebelYell1990]

But even the pro western bloc has Muslims in it. Unfortunately, Kataeb, is a watered down and weakened version of what was a Strong Phonecian Christian Nationalist movement. Groups like the Guardians of the Cedars are banned and the Christian Militias have been disbanded. It is a shame what has happened to Lebanon especially as someone who is part Lebanese Christian. It is a majority Muslim and Arab state that has little self determination, one bloc controlled by the west and the other by Syria.