Lebanon (country)

B

Religion

The government policy of confessionalism, or the grouping of people by religion, plays a critical role in Lebanon’s political and social life and has given rise to Lebanon’s most persistent and bitter conflicts. At the time of Lebanon’s independence in the 1940s, there were more Christians than Muslims. In the following years, many Muslims immigrated to Lebanon and had a higher birthrate than the Christians; as a result, Muslims became the majority group in Lebanon. Today, an estimated 70 percent of Lebanese are Muslim, while most of the remaining 30 percent are Christian. Every person’s religion is encoded on a required, government-issued identification card. The government recognizes 17 distinct religious sects: 5 Muslim (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Ismailite, and Alawite), 11 Christian (4 Orthodox, 6 Catholic, and 1 Protestant), and Judaism.

C

Education

Lebanon has one of the most educated and technically prepared populations in the Middle East. In 2005, 88 percent of Lebanese aged 15 and older were literate. Primary education in Lebanon is free and compulsory for five years; school attendance is near universal for primary school-aged children. Beirut is home to six universities: the well-known American University of Beirut; the Jesuit-sponsored Saint Joseph University; the government-supported Lebanese University; the Egyptian-sponsored Beirut Arab University; the Lebanese American University; and the Armenian Hagazian College. Lebanon also has more than 100 technical, vocational, and other specialized schools.

D

Way of Life

The Lebanese value individualism, which contributes to their creativity and inventiveness. Close family relations, loyalty to family and friends, and honor are also important. People strive to gain influence and to accumulate and display wealth, which are signs of success that win respect. Men and women mix freely and attend schools in equal numbers. Christian women are similar to Western women in dress, attitude, and activities. Most Muslim women are more conservative in attitude and dress than their Christian counterparts. Men generally wear Western clothes, although some older Muslim men wear the Arab headdress, or kufiyah. In their leisure time, Lebanese people enjoy lively conversations over Turkish coffee, participating in outdoor activities, and eating good food. Traditional foods include kebbe, a dish of lamb and crushed wheat, and tabbouleh, a salad made of parsley, mint, tomatoes, and crushed wheat. People enjoy a variety of foods, however, and restaurants serve everything from French, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Greek specialties to hamburgers and pizza.

E

Social Issues

Economic disparities, made worse by the civil war, have long created friction between Lebanon’s rich and poor. Better-educated Christians and elite Sunni Muslims tend to dominate the upper and middle classes. One-third of the population is considered poor; most of these are Shia Muslims, who resent the disparity in income, living conditions, and political power, and are increasingly determined to gain greater power. The stateless Palestinian refugees are also resentful; displaced from their homes by Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948-1949 and 1967, they remain confined to unsanitary camps, and many are frustrated by their lack of citizenship (see Palestine, Modern). Two more beleaguered groups, clustered mostly in the overcrowded suburbs of southern Beirut, are poor families who migrated from other parts of the country and people who were displaced by fighting in southern Lebanon. In general, the government has focused less attention on solving Lebanon’s social problems than on postwar reconstruction.

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IV

Culture

Lebanon’s rich history has been shaped by many cultural traditions, including Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Islamic (including Mamluk), Crusader, Ottoman Turkish, French, and recently American. The resulting culture is distinctively Lebanese, a combination of East and West, past and present. Folk music and dancing have a long tradition and are very popular. Influential Lebanese writers emerged in the early 20th century and greatly influenced the Arabic language. Painters, sculptors, and performers and producers in theater, film, and television have recently distinguished themselves.

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