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Background:

Since 1920, Lebanese society has been structured according to religious confessions or sects. Within a country of 10,000 km², we have over 17 official religious sects.

Sectarianism is intertwined in our daily life, and has been so for years, officially and in society. Most official positions are based on religious denominations.

Sectarianism was one of the main factors leading to the civil war, but even today, everybody still thinks along religious lines and divides people into sectarian groups.

The topic was always a taboo subject, until the “Spring Revolution” of 2005. With this movement, the creation of civil society groups brought together people from every religion, and made it clear to many that civil society-led initiatives could effectively make a difference.

The campaign:

The campaign focuses on the ridiculous/harmful side of sectarianism/confessionalism and its excesses in our every day life.

Generously conceived for AMAM by a multi-confessional creative team of like-minded people from the H&C Leo Burnett agency, the campaign is bound to make you both laugh and think. The tone, which is innovative, provocative, funny and straight to the point, will most certainly generate debate and provoke much-needed thinking about the reality of how far confessionalism dictates our every day social behaviour.

Like us, you think confessionalism is a plague which has been eating away at this country for as long as one can remember. Like us, you also think this country, despite all its flaws and complexities, remains a place like no other, one we should cherish, support & believe in. Like us, you have surrendered to the Lebanese spell, and have vowed to always keep trying, in your own way, to make things better. Like us, you are a believer in the unique richness and potential found in the Lebanese pluri-confessional make-up. We hope you like this campaign. If you do, and wish to support us for other citizenship-building awareness campaigns of this kind, please get in touch. Thank you.





















source: http://www.05amam.org

Are all those examples for real?

Sorry but I dont get it, Lebanon is a small country right? And people are separately grouped

I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me those signs exist!

Reading up on the independence of Lebanon is enlightening:

In 1946 Lebanon finally achieved formal independence from France. The constitution, which had been drawn up in 1943, institutionalised the division of the country into groups defined by religious confession. Reflecting the approximately 50/50 division of the population between
Christians and Muslims, 50% of the seats in parliament were reserved for each major religion. Under the terms of the "National Covenant" the president was to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, the parliamentary speaker a Shi-ite and the armed forces chief of staff a Druze.

1948 - The dominance of the Maronite Christians began to be threatened by the arrival of 400,000 Palestinian refugees from the first Arab-Israeli War.

In 1975 Phalangist militias attacked the PLO in Beirut and a civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslims broke out.

In 1978 Israel invaded southern Lebanon after PLO guerrilla raids killed Israeli civilians. A United Nations peace-keeping force (UNIFIL) was sent into southern Lebanon. Israel formed its own Christian militia called the South Lebanon Army (SLA) to control the south.

1982 Following the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London, Israel attacked Syrian forces in the Bekaa valley, invaded Lebanon and besieged the PLO in west Beirut. About 11,000 PLO fighters were evacuated from the city. Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel was assassinated. Israel invaded west Beirut and allowed Phalangist militias to massacre 8,000 women and children remaining in Palestinian refugee camps. A multinational force of US, French and Italian soldiers was sent to Beirut to protect Palestinian civilians.

The above from the 2004 AXCO company report on the insurance industry (!) in the region. I've read other reports of the Shabra and Chatilla massacres in 1982 which put the figures killed at less than the 8000 quoted above.

Cheers,
Shafique

These sectarianism examples though not surprising are disturbing to say the least ...

i heard about it but didn't believe it was to that extent...

guys these are not real, they are just strong ads to make a point. That if lebanon keeps going down the sectarian divide one day this is how it might be ..

shafique wrote:I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me those signs exist!

Reading up on the independence of Lebanon is enlightening:

.............

shafique there is an article by Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom on Lebanon that is a really good read .. i will look it up for you.

Lebanese politics is more complicated than quantum physics

Maad - you had me fooled!

I'd be very interested in the article when you find it.

Cheers,
Shafique

I figured those couldn't be real, but I haven't been to Lebanon myself so couldn't confirm. It makes me really sad to see all the countries in the world that are dealing with sectarian or ethnic divides that are hampering the country from obtaining peace and security. Guess there is something to be said for governments trying to make nationalism programs that focus on what everyone has in common. Malaysia seems to be doing a good job with this.

I agree with Kanelli - it is a shame that worldwide sectarian strife is causing problems. I can't think of a corner of the world that doesn't have these issues - from Tibet to Indonesia, Ireland to Cyprus and even in South America between Indians and European descendants.

Sometimes it's just down to religion - Scotland, Ireland and the Balkans - where all are ethnically the same race, but there are problems between whether you are Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim etc!

Sigh.