Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, recognizing 18 religious sects. [2] [3] The recognized religions are Islam (Sunni, Shia, Alawites, and Isma'ili), Druze, Christianity (the Maronite Church, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, evangelical Protestantism, the Armenian ...
The Lebanese Constitution guarantees the freedom of belief. There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Lebanon, thus many Lebanese atheists communicate via the internet. [2] [dubious – discuss] It is difficult not to have your religion stated at birth, although a baby made history in doing so in 2014. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The conquest of Lebanon during the Arab and Islamic conquests was linked to the conquest of Bilād Al-Shām as a whole, or what is known as the Levant, being an integral part of it, the Arab Muslims swiftly took it from the Byzantine Empire during the era of Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, who ordered the division of the Levant when he conquered it ...
The Constitution provides that Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Muslims be represented equally in Parliament, the Cabinet, and high-level civil service positions, which include the ministry ranks of Secretary General and Director General. It also provides that these posts be distributed proportionally among the recognized religious groups.
The earliest sense of a modern Lebanese identity is to be found in the writings of historians in the early nineteenth century, when, under the emirate of the Shihabs, a Lebanese identity emerged "separate and distinct from the rest of Syria, bringing the Maronites and Druzes, along with its other Christian and Muslim sects, under one government ...
Article 11 of the Constitution of Lebanon states: "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The spoken Lebanese Arabic dialect used in public mixes Arabic with French. Cuisine and literature are deep-rooted "in wider Mediterranean and Levantine norms".
Islam in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. According to a 2020 estimate by the CIA, it is followed by 69.3% of the country's total population. [3] While a 2022 study by Pew Research puts the number of Muslims in Lebanon at 57.6%. [4] According to the CIA study, Sunnis make up 31.9% while Twelver Shia make up 31.2%.
In general it appears that Muslims focus more on the Arab identity of the Lebanese history and culture whereas the Christian communities–especially the Maronites, focus on their history and struggles as an ethnoreligious group as distinct from Arab identity and the Arab world, while also reaffirming the Lebanese identity, as well as ...