Date: Friday 24 June 2005
Subj: China's Bamboo Curtain
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
-----------------------
CHINA'S BAMBOO CURTAIN
-----------------------
On 26 May, Chinese Diplomat Mr Chen Yonglin (37) abandoned his post at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, Australia, and requested political asylum from the Australian government. On 4 June, at a rally in Sydney commemorating the 16th anniversary of the "1989 Tiananmen Democratic Movement", he unexpectedly, announced publicly his resignation from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mr Chen, who claims that one of his jobs was to monitor Falun Gong in Australia, accuses the Chinese government of political and religious repression and persecution, and says that his conscience will not permit him to serve the CCP any longer. Along with his wife and young daughter, Chen is seeking asylum in Australia on the grounds that his liberty and even his life are now at risk because of the way the CCP punishes dissenters. (Link 1)
Mr Chen's defection sent seismic shock-waves through Australia's political, Chinese, and human rights advocacy communities. China's ambassador to Australia, Madame Fu Ying publicly denied Chen's remarks saying, 'China has moved on a long way from what it was like in the 1970s. China is not a country behind the bamboo curtain any more.' (Link 2)
Madame Fu's statement deserves scrutiny. While China has moved a long way from what it was like it the 1970s, it has only done so with one foot – the economic foot. China's city skylines are striped with skyscrapers and industrial cranes. China's sparkling, modern shopping arcades, bastions of the new Chinese materialism and capitalism, are are bustling with consumers, many of them foreign workers. CCP leaders now shake hands and seek photo opportunities and trade deals with Western leaders. In this regard, yes, China has moved a long way from what it was like in the 1970s.
However, the other foot – the human rights foot – remains firmly planted in the Mao era. Today the very same instruments of repression that Mao himself established and used from the early 1950s, are still being employed by the ruling CCP to crush dissent. As long as this is the case, China cannot boast that the bamboo curtain has come down.
There is however, an element of truth in Madame Fu's remark that "China is not a country behind the bamboo curtain any more". Through the 1950s, 60s and 70s the CCP firmly believed the threat to its power lay in external forces, so, with foreigners expelled, it erected a "bamboo curtain" around the nation for protection. Then, through the 1980s, the CCP watched internal forces bring down Communism in Poland. On 4 June 1989, the CCP resorted to violence to crush destabilising internal forces gathered in Tienanmen Square.
Today the CCP knows that China's economic growth and power enable it to deflect external pressures. The CCP also now knows that the main threat to its totalitarian rule is internal. So, as a self-preservation measure, the CCP wraps its bamboo curtain around its internal social problems and uncontrollable elements; i.e. prostitutes, drug addicts, and "counter-revolutionaries" such as political and religious dissidents. So while China might not be "behind" the bamboo curtain any more, the bamboo curtain has not come down, it has simply been brought inside.
LAO-GAI
China's bamboo curtain is integral to, indeed inseparable from, the Mao-instituted lao-gai – a vast network of concentration camps and slave labour prisons that has functioned for some 50 years as a tool of CCP repression.
Chairman Mao established the lao-gai in the early 1950s, primarily as a source of slave labour. He was executing "counter-revolutionaries" but quickly came to the conclusion that he was wasting a precious resource. He decided it would be more beneficial to incarcerate a percentage of these "counter-revolutionaries" for the purpose of exploitation. So he employed Soviet advisors and established the lao-gai following the model of the Soviet Gulag. In their new book "Mao – the unknown story", Jung Chang and Jon Halliday estimate that some 27 million Chinese died in labour camps during Mao's rule.
The lao-gai are completely separate from China's official justice system, and as such, operate totally outside the law. Those incarcerated are done so without criminal charge or trial. The lao-gai enable the CCP, through its various instruments (such as the Religious Affairs Department or the Public Security Bureau) to quickly and quietly lock away, behind the bamboo curtain, any internal force that threatens the unity of the masses or the totalitarian power, image or propaganda of the CCP. (Link 3)
The fact that the Chinese economy is, to a large extent, dependent upon this system of forced slave labour introduces a whole new ethical dilemma to the "Made in China" label.
Harry Wu, executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation, wrote in a 1999 essay published by CNN, "The Laogai is not simply a prison system; it is a political tool for maintaining the Communist Party's totalitarian rule. A fundamental policy of the Laogai states that 'forced labor is a means toward the goal of thought reform'."
Wu, who says the CCP runs at least 1,100 prison labour camps, says that in the lao-gai physical submission is achieved through violence, but "psychological and spiritual submissiveness, known as 'thought reform', is considered the optimal goal." He says, "We cannot condemn the evil actions of the Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Gulag while we ignore the continuing brutality of the Laogai." (Link 4)
RHETORIC VS REALITY
While Chinese authorities are vociferously defending China's human rights in the wake of Chen's defection and allegations, Chinese police on the mainland are violently cracking down on house-church Christians, who refuse to submit to CCP control.
Catholics in Hebei Province, surrounding Beijing, are crying out that a campaign of violence has been unleashed upon them by the country's Religious Affairs Department which, they say, has declared an all-out war against the Church. Eight of Hebei's Catholic bishops and 13 of Hebei's Catholic priests are either imprisoned or "disappeared", behind the "bamboo curtain". (Link 5)
On Sunday 22 May, police and Public Security Bureau officers raided 60 house-churches simultaneously in Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province (north-eastern China, bordering North Korea). Another 40 churches in the area were raided over the following days. More than 600 house-church Christians were taken into custody. Whilst most of those arrested were released after 24 to 48 hours' interrogation, some 100 influential Christians – house church leaders, university students and professors, academics – remain in various detention centres, behind the "bamboo curtain". (Link 6)
Links
1) Chinese spies asking for asylum spark a crisis in Peking-Canberra relations. 20 June, 2005 CHINA – AUSTRALIA
http://asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3546
ALSO
Chinese defector breaks down, fears return to China
22 June 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8859974
2) Diplomat 'has nothing to fear': China
PM - Monday, 6 June 2005
Reporter: Alexandra Kirk
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1385831.htm
3) Issue in China: Labor Camps That Operate outside the Courts
By Jim Yardley, The New York Times, 9 May 2005
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/050905LA.shtml
4) Labor camps reinforce China's totalitarian rule
CNN Special. By Harry Wu. 1999
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/red.giant/prisons/wu.essay/
5) Persecution in Hebei, a liability for Hu Jintao’s plans
by Wang Hui, 8 June 2005, CHINA – VATICAN http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3464
6) Massive, coordinated crackdown on Chinese Christians
9 June 2005, The Voice of the Martyrs
http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=327
ALSO: China Aid Association http://www.chinaaid.org/
Friday, June 24, 2005
Thursday, June 2, 2005
Canada: Quebec rejects Sharia to preserve equality and rights.
Date: Thursday 2 June 2005
Subj: Canada: Quebec rejects Sharia to preserve equality and rights.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
On 26 May Quebec's legislative assembly unanimously rejected the use of Sharia tribunals. Quebec is the first Canadian province to explicitly ban the use of Sharia Law (Islamic Law), and they are doing so to preserve equality, rights and liberty for all irrespective of race or religion.
The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has cheered the decision and hailed it as courageous.
Meanwhile, the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal likened the decision to Hitler's treatment of the Jews, and hinted that it might consider filing a complaint to the United Nations. Of course this would be quite a legitimate course of action now that the UNCHR has agreed to monitor "defamation" of Islam by "extremists" who "wrongly" associate Islam with human right violations. http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/CHR/resolutions/E-CN_4-RES-2005-3.doc
-------------------------------
October 2003 ONTARIO
-------------------------------
At a conference in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, in October 2003, Muslim delegates elect a 30-member council to establish the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. Muslims move to establish Sharia Arbitration Courts whose rulings will be enforced by Canada's secular courts. For background see: Canada: Applying Shariah through Islamic arbitration. 15 Dec 03
--------------------------------
December 2004 ONTARIO
--------------------------------
Ontario attorney general Marion Boyd issues a report recommending that Muslims in Canada should have the right to seek arbitration based on their religious laws.
------------------------------------------------------------
26 May 2005: QUEBEC REJECTS SHARIA TO PRESERVE EQUALITY AND RIGHTS
------------------------------------------------------------
On 26 May, Liberal backbencher Fatima Houda-Pepin, who was born a Muslim in Morocco, put forward a motion in the Quebec Assembly to reject Sharia tribunals in Quebec. Ms Houda-Pepin told members of the Assembly that Sharia Law discriminates against women. She
alleged that Muslim women in Canada want to integrate and the drive to introduce Sharia Law in Canada "is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community, so it will submit to an archaic vision of Islam. These demands," she continues, "are being pushed by groups in the minority that are using the Charter of Rights to attack the foundation of our democratic institutions. It's a political agenda in the name of Islam." (Link 1)
She also cautioned that any move to allow Islamic family law would lead to similar demands in criminal and civil legal areas.
-------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE from the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW)
-------------------------------------------------------------
CCMW press release (excerpts): "The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has welcomed the Quebec National Assembly’s unanimous adoption of a motion declaring that no Muslim tribunals for family matters will be allowed in the province, and that the laws of Quebec will apply to all its residents, regardless of religion, ethnicity or culture.
"This public motion is a courageous act and though it may be criticised by some, its message is strong that religious women will not be isolated and placed under any other form of law. Quebec has clearly understood that different laws for different citizens leads to discrimination and has nothing to do with multiculturalism or Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedom."
Regarding the present debate in Ontario over whether or not to introduce Sharia tribunals CCMW said, "Ontario should not discriminate against religious women nor isolate them because of their faith. The government should also not be persuaded that there is a conflict between religious freedom and women's equality rights, nor that pluralism should lead to segregation of citizens on the basis of religion, ethnicity or race. It is a fallacy which shows a lack of understanding and caring when the facile argument is made that the use of private legally binding arbitration is a matter of 'choice' or that it is 'voluntary'.
"We urge Premier McGuinty to demonstrate leadership so that Canada does not set a precedent which is of grave concern to the international community." (Link 2)
-------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE from the Muslim Council of Montreal (Quebec)
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily Times (Pakistan) reported the outrage of Salam El Menyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, who fumed, "'Taking such action is tantamount to religious bigotry and discrimination against a religious minority. Muslims are being excluded from rights other religions have. And this exclusion is very dangerous because that is exactly what Hitler did to Jews.' He added, 'I have been inundated with calls and e-mails from the Muslim community asking that we should file a complaint with the United Nations.'" (Link 3)
-----------------------------
QUEBEC: EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL
-----------------------------
According to an article in Canada's National Post, Ms Houda-Pepin claimed that Islamic fundamentalists from the Muslim World League, based in Saudi Arabia, held a conference in Washington in 1991, where Canada, because of it's rights guarantees and official multiculturalism, was specifically targeted for the introduction of Sharia. (Link 4)
She claims the Islamist plan is to set Canada up as a precedent for all Muslims in the West, encouraging them to reject Western laws and push for Sharia where they are.
The National Post reported, "Ms. Houda-Pepin also wondered what form of sharia would be adopted in Canada, noting that it means different things in different countries.
"In Pakistan, a woman who is raped can be flogged unless she can produce four male witnesses to prove she was raped, she said, while in Nigeria a woman can be stoned to death for sexual relations outside marriage. Sharia in Iran allows men to have as many 'wives of pleasure' as they want, she noted. In Saudi Arabia, in the name of sharia, a woman cannot drive a car.
"The victims of sharia have a human face," she said. "They are Muslim women."
There is concern that if Sharia Arbitration tribunals exists then Muslim women might find themselves pressured to sign pre-nuptial agreements promising to use Sharia arbitration in the event of a dispute, thus depriving them of the rights available to non-Muslims.
It should also be noted that according to Sharia family law, Muslims who commit apostasy (leave Islam) are automatically divorced and lose custody of their children. According to Canada's rules of arbitration, Canada's secular courts are obliged to enforce the religious rulings.
The National Post quotes Marilou McPhedran, legal counsel to the Canadian Counsel of Muslim Women, as saying that there was "a well-intentioned naivete about this [Boyd] report. Why would we in Ontario privatize family law when we already have a public system of family law that is predicated on the constitutional values of equality in this country, in this province, that should be available to each and every woman living in Ontario," she said.
Canadian Press reports, "Premier Jean Charest's Liberals are putting pressure on the Ontario government, which is expected to make a decision [regarding Sharia law] before summer. Charest said he simply wants to send a clear message that all Quebecers are equal under the law. 'It's important to send a very clear message that there is one rule of law in Quebec,' Charest told reporters. 'We are a very inclusive society, but a society that will govern itself according to one set of rules'." (Link 1)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Quebec rejects introduction of Sharia law into legal system in the province
LES PERREAUX, QUEBEC (CP), 26 May 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050526/ca_pr_on_na/que_sharia_2
2) CCMW Welcomes Quebec motion on Sharia law. 27 May 2005
http://www.ccmw.com/ShariainCanada/CCMW%20news%20release_May%2027.pdf
3) Canadian Muslim women welcome rejection of sharia tribunals
By Khalid Hasan, 29 May 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-5-2005_pg7_49
4) National Post: Quebec bans sharia
Blow to proponents of using Islamic law in Canadian society
Kevin Dougherty, with files from Mike de Souza, Elizabeth Thompson
and Lee Greenberg
CanWest News Service, 27 May 2005
http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html?id=7d268ffa-8cc2-4272adaa-1fb780adad29
Subj: Canada: Quebec rejects Sharia to preserve equality and rights.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
On 26 May Quebec's legislative assembly unanimously rejected the use of Sharia tribunals. Quebec is the first Canadian province to explicitly ban the use of Sharia Law (Islamic Law), and they are doing so to preserve equality, rights and liberty for all irrespective of race or religion.
The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has cheered the decision and hailed it as courageous.
Meanwhile, the president of the Muslim Council of Montreal likened the decision to Hitler's treatment of the Jews, and hinted that it might consider filing a complaint to the United Nations. Of course this would be quite a legitimate course of action now that the UNCHR has agreed to monitor "defamation" of Islam by "extremists" who "wrongly" associate Islam with human right violations. http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/CHR/resolutions/E-CN_4-RES-2005-3.doc
-------------------------------
October 2003 ONTARIO
-------------------------------
At a conference in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, in October 2003, Muslim delegates elect a 30-member council to establish the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. Muslims move to establish Sharia Arbitration Courts whose rulings will be enforced by Canada's secular courts. For background see: Canada: Applying Shariah through Islamic arbitration. 15 Dec 03
--------------------------------
December 2004 ONTARIO
--------------------------------
Ontario attorney general Marion Boyd issues a report recommending that Muslims in Canada should have the right to seek arbitration based on their religious laws.
------------------------------------------------------------
26 May 2005: QUEBEC REJECTS SHARIA TO PRESERVE EQUALITY AND RIGHTS
------------------------------------------------------------
On 26 May, Liberal backbencher Fatima Houda-Pepin, who was born a Muslim in Morocco, put forward a motion in the Quebec Assembly to reject Sharia tribunals in Quebec. Ms Houda-Pepin told members of the Assembly that Sharia Law discriminates against women. She
alleged that Muslim women in Canada want to integrate and the drive to introduce Sharia Law in Canada "is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community, so it will submit to an archaic vision of Islam. These demands," she continues, "are being pushed by groups in the minority that are using the Charter of Rights to attack the foundation of our democratic institutions. It's a political agenda in the name of Islam." (Link 1)
She also cautioned that any move to allow Islamic family law would lead to similar demands in criminal and civil legal areas.
-------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE from the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW)
-------------------------------------------------------------
CCMW press release (excerpts): "The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has welcomed the Quebec National Assembly’s unanimous adoption of a motion declaring that no Muslim tribunals for family matters will be allowed in the province, and that the laws of Quebec will apply to all its residents, regardless of religion, ethnicity or culture.
"This public motion is a courageous act and though it may be criticised by some, its message is strong that religious women will not be isolated and placed under any other form of law. Quebec has clearly understood that different laws for different citizens leads to discrimination and has nothing to do with multiculturalism or Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedom."
Regarding the present debate in Ontario over whether or not to introduce Sharia tribunals CCMW said, "Ontario should not discriminate against religious women nor isolate them because of their faith. The government should also not be persuaded that there is a conflict between religious freedom and women's equality rights, nor that pluralism should lead to segregation of citizens on the basis of religion, ethnicity or race. It is a fallacy which shows a lack of understanding and caring when the facile argument is made that the use of private legally binding arbitration is a matter of 'choice' or that it is 'voluntary'.
"We urge Premier McGuinty to demonstrate leadership so that Canada does not set a precedent which is of grave concern to the international community." (Link 2)
-------------------------------------------------------------
RESPONSE from the Muslim Council of Montreal (Quebec)
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily Times (Pakistan) reported the outrage of Salam El Menyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, who fumed, "'Taking such action is tantamount to religious bigotry and discrimination against a religious minority. Muslims are being excluded from rights other religions have. And this exclusion is very dangerous because that is exactly what Hitler did to Jews.' He added, 'I have been inundated with calls and e-mails from the Muslim community asking that we should file a complaint with the United Nations.'" (Link 3)
-----------------------------
QUEBEC: EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL
-----------------------------
According to an article in Canada's National Post, Ms Houda-Pepin claimed that Islamic fundamentalists from the Muslim World League, based in Saudi Arabia, held a conference in Washington in 1991, where Canada, because of it's rights guarantees and official multiculturalism, was specifically targeted for the introduction of Sharia. (Link 4)
She claims the Islamist plan is to set Canada up as a precedent for all Muslims in the West, encouraging them to reject Western laws and push for Sharia where they are.
The National Post reported, "Ms. Houda-Pepin also wondered what form of sharia would be adopted in Canada, noting that it means different things in different countries.
"In Pakistan, a woman who is raped can be flogged unless she can produce four male witnesses to prove she was raped, she said, while in Nigeria a woman can be stoned to death for sexual relations outside marriage. Sharia in Iran allows men to have as many 'wives of pleasure' as they want, she noted. In Saudi Arabia, in the name of sharia, a woman cannot drive a car.
"The victims of sharia have a human face," she said. "They are Muslim women."
There is concern that if Sharia Arbitration tribunals exists then Muslim women might find themselves pressured to sign pre-nuptial agreements promising to use Sharia arbitration in the event of a dispute, thus depriving them of the rights available to non-Muslims.
It should also be noted that according to Sharia family law, Muslims who commit apostasy (leave Islam) are automatically divorced and lose custody of their children. According to Canada's rules of arbitration, Canada's secular courts are obliged to enforce the religious rulings.
The National Post quotes Marilou McPhedran, legal counsel to the Canadian Counsel of Muslim Women, as saying that there was "a well-intentioned naivete about this [Boyd] report. Why would we in Ontario privatize family law when we already have a public system of family law that is predicated on the constitutional values of equality in this country, in this province, that should be available to each and every woman living in Ontario," she said.
Canadian Press reports, "Premier Jean Charest's Liberals are putting pressure on the Ontario government, which is expected to make a decision [regarding Sharia law] before summer. Charest said he simply wants to send a clear message that all Quebecers are equal under the law. 'It's important to send a very clear message that there is one rule of law in Quebec,' Charest told reporters. 'We are a very inclusive society, but a society that will govern itself according to one set of rules'." (Link 1)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Quebec rejects introduction of Sharia law into legal system in the province
LES PERREAUX, QUEBEC (CP), 26 May 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050526/ca_pr_on_na/que_sharia_2
2) CCMW Welcomes Quebec motion on Sharia law. 27 May 2005
http://www.ccmw.com/ShariainCanada/CCMW%20news%20release_May%2027.pdf
3) Canadian Muslim women welcome rejection of sharia tribunals
By Khalid Hasan, 29 May 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-5-2005_pg7_49
4) National Post: Quebec bans sharia
Blow to proponents of using Islamic law in Canadian society
Kevin Dougherty, with files from Mike de Souza, Elizabeth Thompson
and Lee Greenberg
CanWest News Service, 27 May 2005
http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html?id=7d268ffa-8cc2-4272adaa-1fb780adad29
Friday, May 20, 2005
LEBANON: Elections will entrench Christian marginalisation.
Date: Friday 20 May 2005
Subj: Lebanon: Elections will entrench Christian marginalisation.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Lebanon's Christians have been marginalised by a programme of Islamisation. This has included the pro-Syrian regime's Naturalisation Decree of 1994 that naturalised hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians while disenfranchising the predominantly Christian diaspora.
Now, at the insistence of the UN, the USA and France, Lebanon will go ahead with parliamentary elections commencing 29 May, despite Lebanon's Christians being further marginalised by the unjust, discriminatory election law enacted by the pro-Syrian regime in 2000.
This experiment in Christian-Muslim co-existence is yielding tragic results for Lebanon's once prosperous Christians, and will continue to do so while these injustices remain.
CHRISTIANS MARGINALISED BY ISLAMISATION
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab Muslims sought an Arab super-state where Jews and Christians would remain a repressed minority under Muslim domination in Islamic territory.
While Israel was created as a Jewish state, Lebanon was created not as a Christian state, but as a secular Arab state to showcase to Christian-Muslim co-existence.
The creation of Lebanon, independent and separate from Syria and Palestine, with a prosperous, pre-eminent Christian majority and religious freedom, was a painful blow for many Arab Muslims, and something they could not tolerate.
Arab Muslims who become apoplectic at the very thought of a Jewish state existing in what they regard as the dar-al-Islam (land of Islam) are equally opposed to the presence of a secular state, especially one dominated by Christians, and offering full religious freedom.
The program of Islamisation that ensued has been advanced by Muslims both inside and outside Lebanon. As Muslims have poured in, tensions have escalated and Christians have poured out. Christians are now a minority, around 30%-40%. Furthermore, the Naturalisation Decree introduced by the pro-Syrian regime in 1994 granted citizenship to some 400,000 mostly Syrians and Palestinians (80% of them Muslims) whilst denying the Lebanese diaspora (who are mostly Christian) their citizenship right. This illegal decree, which increased Lebanon's population by around 10% almost overnight, was opposed by Lebanese of all faiths as not being in the national interest.
CHRISTIANS MARGINALISED BY ELECTORAL LAW
Lebanese will soon head to the polls. Voting will take place over four consecutive Sundays from 29 May to 19 June, and will be done in accordance with the electoral law enacted in 2000 by the pro-Syrian regime to ensure the election of pro-Syrian candidates. Lebanese Christians have opposed the pro-Syrian electoral law since its inception, as it entrenches the marginalisation of Christians through a gerrymander whereby Christian constituencies were divided up and redistributed amongst large Muslim constituencies, severely diluting the Christian voice.
In accordance with the 1989 Taif Accord, Lebanon's 128-member legislature is split equally between Christians and Muslims. However, the 2000 electoral law ensures that Muslims elect about 49 of the 64 Christian seats.
Lebanese Christian leaders fear that if elections are held using the unjust, discriminatory 2000 electoral law, it will be a decisive blow to Christian-Muslim co-existence. Lebanon's Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir has rejected the 2000 electoral law as unfair and requested that it be revised before the parliamentary elections. According to Lebanon's 'Daily Star', it would be possible to delay the parliamentary elections. "Former Speaker Hussein Husseini told The Daily Star: 'Any MP could propose a draft law that demands the extension of the Parliament's term.'" (Link 1)
However, pressure is being exerted from the UN, the USA, and France to proceed with the elections on time despite the electoral law being discriminatory.
Lebanese Muslims on the other hand, are generally unconcerned about the injustice of the electoral law because it is not the Muslim voice that is diluted. What's more, they are confident, given the huge swell of nationalism, that they will defeat the pro-Syrian candidates at the polls, except in the south where Hezbollah is entrenched and dominant. (See link 2)
While the current Parliamentary Speaker, Nabih Berri, has acknowledged that the country's current election law is unjust, he is not complaining. Berri, leader of the pro-Syrian Amal militia, is teaming up with the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah for joint tickets likely to sweep votes in south Lebanon and return many of Syria's allies to parliament. (Link 3)
When Lebanon's Maronite Bishops Council recently criticised the pro-Syrian election law, warning that it "violates coexistence between Christians and Muslims and does not allow for fair elections", Beirut MP Atef Majdalani, a member of Hariri's parliamentary Dignity Bloc, responded by labeling the Maronite Bishops Council's "strong words" as a "violent reaction" and "sectarianism". (Link 4)
A CALL TO INCLUDE THE DIASPORA
As noted by the Christian Science Monitor, "The Lebanese abroad, who are as a whole, rich, educated and influential, are not allowed to vote in the Lebanese elections. The majority of the Lebanese diaspora is Christian.
"The international diaspora is vital to Lebanon's future. There are as many Lebanese outside the country as there are in it, if you consider the last number of Lebanese who have emigrated over the past three or four generations. Expatriate Lebanese are hesitant to invest heavily in their country as long as its future is in great doubt.
"The Lebanese reform movement of the winter and early spring has weakened. There has been a rapid softening of political demands of nation building: elimination of militias, control on the escalating national debt, dealing with corruption and communal reconciliation. The approaching elections are fueling sectarian tension rather than serving as an opportunity for the empowerment of the state.
"There are no easy ways to deal with sectarian power sharing since religious and family loyalty rival interests of the state in Lebanon and the entire Middle East. But there are ways to make representation of the various religious communities fair and communal rather than a zero-sum destructive game.
"Creating a rotating formula for a 'cabinet of presidents' (a smaller group that would take turns as president) representing the major religious communities may reduce sectarian rivalry. Allowing the diaspora to vote would reduce demographic tension within Lebanon itself.
"A gradual formula of secularization of the country through popular education, civil marriage, and party-based representation are some long-term measures that the Lebanese should discuss to free their country from structural and attitudinal barriers to nation building. Finally, Lebanese politicians would do well to listen to the voices of the youth, who are determined to change the nature of current tribal politics." (Link 5)
- Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
LEBANON: A CALL TO PRAY FOR ITS FUTURE
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin - No. 325 - Wed 11 May 2005
1) Lebanon can still delay polls
By Nada Raad, Daily Star staff, 12 May 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=15024
2) Lebanon Church Seeks New Election Law
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon, 11 May 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4999463,00.html
3) Lebanese Parliament Speaker Calls Election Law Faulty,
Says He Will Run in Legislative Elections
By ZEINA KARAM, The Associated Press, 15 May 2005
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=758322
4) Lebanon's Maronite Bishops slam 'unjust' electoral law
12 May 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=15023
5) The invisible occupation of Lebanon
By Ghassan Rubeiz, 18 May 2005
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0518/p25s01-cogn.html
Subj: Lebanon: Elections will entrench Christian marginalisation.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Lebanon's Christians have been marginalised by a programme of Islamisation. This has included the pro-Syrian regime's Naturalisation Decree of 1994 that naturalised hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians while disenfranchising the predominantly Christian diaspora.
Now, at the insistence of the UN, the USA and France, Lebanon will go ahead with parliamentary elections commencing 29 May, despite Lebanon's Christians being further marginalised by the unjust, discriminatory election law enacted by the pro-Syrian regime in 2000.
This experiment in Christian-Muslim co-existence is yielding tragic results for Lebanon's once prosperous Christians, and will continue to do so while these injustices remain.
CHRISTIANS MARGINALISED BY ISLAMISATION
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Arab Muslims sought an Arab super-state where Jews and Christians would remain a repressed minority under Muslim domination in Islamic territory.
While Israel was created as a Jewish state, Lebanon was created not as a Christian state, but as a secular Arab state to showcase to Christian-Muslim co-existence.
The creation of Lebanon, independent and separate from Syria and Palestine, with a prosperous, pre-eminent Christian majority and religious freedom, was a painful blow for many Arab Muslims, and something they could not tolerate.
Arab Muslims who become apoplectic at the very thought of a Jewish state existing in what they regard as the dar-al-Islam (land of Islam) are equally opposed to the presence of a secular state, especially one dominated by Christians, and offering full religious freedom.
The program of Islamisation that ensued has been advanced by Muslims both inside and outside Lebanon. As Muslims have poured in, tensions have escalated and Christians have poured out. Christians are now a minority, around 30%-40%. Furthermore, the Naturalisation Decree introduced by the pro-Syrian regime in 1994 granted citizenship to some 400,000 mostly Syrians and Palestinians (80% of them Muslims) whilst denying the Lebanese diaspora (who are mostly Christian) their citizenship right. This illegal decree, which increased Lebanon's population by around 10% almost overnight, was opposed by Lebanese of all faiths as not being in the national interest.
CHRISTIANS MARGINALISED BY ELECTORAL LAW
Lebanese will soon head to the polls. Voting will take place over four consecutive Sundays from 29 May to 19 June, and will be done in accordance with the electoral law enacted in 2000 by the pro-Syrian regime to ensure the election of pro-Syrian candidates. Lebanese Christians have opposed the pro-Syrian electoral law since its inception, as it entrenches the marginalisation of Christians through a gerrymander whereby Christian constituencies were divided up and redistributed amongst large Muslim constituencies, severely diluting the Christian voice.
In accordance with the 1989 Taif Accord, Lebanon's 128-member legislature is split equally between Christians and Muslims. However, the 2000 electoral law ensures that Muslims elect about 49 of the 64 Christian seats.
Lebanese Christian leaders fear that if elections are held using the unjust, discriminatory 2000 electoral law, it will be a decisive blow to Christian-Muslim co-existence. Lebanon's Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir has rejected the 2000 electoral law as unfair and requested that it be revised before the parliamentary elections. According to Lebanon's 'Daily Star', it would be possible to delay the parliamentary elections. "Former Speaker Hussein Husseini told The Daily Star: 'Any MP could propose a draft law that demands the extension of the Parliament's term.'" (Link 1)
However, pressure is being exerted from the UN, the USA, and France to proceed with the elections on time despite the electoral law being discriminatory.
Lebanese Muslims on the other hand, are generally unconcerned about the injustice of the electoral law because it is not the Muslim voice that is diluted. What's more, they are confident, given the huge swell of nationalism, that they will defeat the pro-Syrian candidates at the polls, except in the south where Hezbollah is entrenched and dominant. (See link 2)
While the current Parliamentary Speaker, Nabih Berri, has acknowledged that the country's current election law is unjust, he is not complaining. Berri, leader of the pro-Syrian Amal militia, is teaming up with the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah for joint tickets likely to sweep votes in south Lebanon and return many of Syria's allies to parliament. (Link 3)
When Lebanon's Maronite Bishops Council recently criticised the pro-Syrian election law, warning that it "violates coexistence between Christians and Muslims and does not allow for fair elections", Beirut MP Atef Majdalani, a member of Hariri's parliamentary Dignity Bloc, responded by labeling the Maronite Bishops Council's "strong words" as a "violent reaction" and "sectarianism". (Link 4)
A CALL TO INCLUDE THE DIASPORA
As noted by the Christian Science Monitor, "The Lebanese abroad, who are as a whole, rich, educated and influential, are not allowed to vote in the Lebanese elections. The majority of the Lebanese diaspora is Christian.
"The international diaspora is vital to Lebanon's future. There are as many Lebanese outside the country as there are in it, if you consider the last number of Lebanese who have emigrated over the past three or four generations. Expatriate Lebanese are hesitant to invest heavily in their country as long as its future is in great doubt.
"The Lebanese reform movement of the winter and early spring has weakened. There has been a rapid softening of political demands of nation building: elimination of militias, control on the escalating national debt, dealing with corruption and communal reconciliation. The approaching elections are fueling sectarian tension rather than serving as an opportunity for the empowerment of the state.
"There are no easy ways to deal with sectarian power sharing since religious and family loyalty rival interests of the state in Lebanon and the entire Middle East. But there are ways to make representation of the various religious communities fair and communal rather than a zero-sum destructive game.
"Creating a rotating formula for a 'cabinet of presidents' (a smaller group that would take turns as president) representing the major religious communities may reduce sectarian rivalry. Allowing the diaspora to vote would reduce demographic tension within Lebanon itself.
"A gradual formula of secularization of the country through popular education, civil marriage, and party-based representation are some long-term measures that the Lebanese should discuss to free their country from structural and attitudinal barriers to nation building. Finally, Lebanese politicians would do well to listen to the voices of the youth, who are determined to change the nature of current tribal politics." (Link 5)
- Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
LEBANON: A CALL TO PRAY FOR ITS FUTURE
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin - No. 325 - Wed 11 May 2005
1) Lebanon can still delay polls
By Nada Raad, Daily Star staff, 12 May 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=15024
2) Lebanon Church Seeks New Election Law
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon, 11 May 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4999463,00.html
3) Lebanese Parliament Speaker Calls Election Law Faulty,
Says He Will Run in Legislative Elections
By ZEINA KARAM, The Associated Press, 15 May 2005
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=758322
4) Lebanon's Maronite Bishops slam 'unjust' electoral law
12 May 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=15023
5) The invisible occupation of Lebanon
By Ghassan Rubeiz, 18 May 2005
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0518/p25s01-cogn.html