LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND ACTUAL APPLICATION
In Lebanon, Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims are roughly equal in number totalling just under 60 percent (with small percentages of Alawites and Ismailis) while Christians, at just over 30 percent, represent the highest percentage of Christians in the Arab world. (These percentages refer only to Lebanese resident citizens, excluding the predominantly Sunni Palestinian and Syrian population.)
There are 18 officially registered religious communities: five Muslim groups (Shi‘a, Sunni, Druze, Alawite and Ismaili), 12 Christian groups (Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Assyrian, Chaldean, Copt, evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic), and Jews. Baha’is, Buddhists, Hindus, several Protestant groups, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not officially recognised.
Religious demographics are at the heart of the country’s political life, and demographic shifts have major political implications. This is one of the reasons why no official census has been conducted since 1932 as confessional groups, most notably Christians, that are demographically declining fear what might happen to their political representation if the actual numbers were known.
Lebanon is a parliamentary republic with no official religion, but it is not formally a secular state. The political system is denominational and reserves the highest political offices and high positions in the civil service to the various communities according to well-defined criteria: the Office of the Presidency of the Republic falls to a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister’s Office (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) belongs to a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the National Assembly is a Shi‘a Muslim. Religious communities are also represented in parliament according to fixed quotas.
Lebanon’s constitution provides for freedom of religion. According to Article 7, “all Lebanese are equal before the law”. Article 9 states that “freedom of conscience is absolute”. It further stipulates: “In assuming the obligations of glorifying God, the Most High, the state respects all religions and creeds and safeguards the freedom of exercising the religious rites under its protection, without disturbing the public order. It also guarantees the respect of the system of personal status and religious interests of the people, regardless of their different creeds”.
Article 10 says: “Education is free so long as it does not disturb the public order, does not violate the morals, and does not touch the dignity of any religion or creed. The rights of communities to establish their own private schools cannot be violated, provided they comply with the general requirements laid down by the state with respect to public education”.
On 9th March 2020, President Michel Aoun supported the idea of a unified personal status law that would replace current personal status laws based on religious affiliation. But no further steps were taken.
The Lebanese Penal Code criminalises blasphemy and insults against the name of God and the practices of any religion with a maximum term of one-year imprisonment, but these concepts are not clearly defined. Defamation and contempt for religion can be penalised by a maximum prison term of three years.
Conversion from one religion to another is legal. A senior official of the religion the person would like to convert to, has to authorise the change. The person will then be able to register the new religion with the Ministry of Interior’s (MOI’s) Personal Status Directorate. Converts can face strong social resistance and even in some case, threats.
Matters of personal status (such as marriage, parentage, inheritance) are dealt with under the separate jurisdictions of each of the 18 religious communities recognised by the state (12 Christian, 5 Muslim and one Jewish).
Each community possesses its own rules and manages its own welfare organisations and educational institutions. Certain religious communities (Yezidis, Baha’is, Buddhists and Jehovah’s Witnesses), however, are not legally recognised and therefore have no rights as institutional groups. Instead, they are obliged to declare themselves as members of recognised religious groups in government records in order to ensure their marriage and other personal status documents remain legally valid. They are nonetheless permitted to perform their religious rites freely.
Members of non-recognised religious communities who would like to get married, or those who may want to have a civil marriage, have to do so abroad. The law relating to civil marriage and its effects are those of the country where their marriage was celebrated. The question of whether civil marriages may be held inside the country is a matter of debate and there have been repeated attempts by some civil society and human rights groups to push for its official adoption. Civil marriages are rare due to administrative and legal difficulties, and when they happen, they make headlines.
On 10th September 2021, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced a new government. The cabinet consisted of 22 ministers: 5 Maronites, 2 Greek Orthodox, 2 Greek Catholics, an Armenian apostolic, and a Catholic of the Latin rite.
On 15th May 2022, legislative elections were held. Although the general situation tends to remain as before, some changes have taken place. Most notably, while more than 80 percent of the 128 parliamentary seats are still held by traditional parties, the Hezbollah group lost its majority and independents increased from one to 13 seats. At the time of writing, the new government has not been yet formed. At the end of October 2022, the Lebanese President Michel Aoun withdrew from office with no sign of an imminent successor, leaving the country without a president and without cabinet.
Lebanon has the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita in the world with an estimated 1.5 million. It also hosts more than 479,000 Palestinian refugees under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (as per the UNRWA). The high number of refugees causes tension and anguish among Christian communities who fear their proportion will continue to decrease compared to Muslims.
INCIDENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS
In a country where politics and religion are tightly intertwined, the right to freedom of religion depends on domestic politics, which to a large extent depends on the actions of broader regional and international actors.
On 1st July 2021, Christian leaders from various Christian Churches and communities of Lebanon gathered at the Vatican with Pope Francis for a day of prayer and reflection on the situation in the country.
On 14th October 2021, violent clashes erupted in the Christian Tayyouneh area of Beirut where the Palace of Justice is located. Demonstrating Hezbollah and Amal Movement supporters demanded the resignation of Tareq Bitar, the judge in charge of investigating the August 2020 Beirut port blast, accusing him of politicising the investigation and of bias. According to witnesses, and as seen on social media, when the Shia supporters reached the Christian area, they caused material damage and shouted “Shia! Shia!”. Snipers started firing. In a report by the Carnegie Middle East Centre, Malcolm H. Kerr states: “It remains unclear whether the sniper fire was a reaction to the entry of the youths into the quarter or a premediated effort to warn Hezbollah and Amal that they would no longer go into Christian neighbourhoods without paying a price for this. Very likely, it was a mixture of both.” At least seven persons were reportedly killed and more than 30 injured.
A few days prior, on 11th October, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had called for Bitar’s removal. The next day, during a Cabinet meeting, Hezbollah and Amal ministers again demanded Bitar’s dismissal, threatening their resignation from the government. At the end of January 2022, however, “in response to the needs of the citizens” and in order “to prevent being accused of obstruction”, they returned to the Cabinet.
On 5th November 2021, for the first time, the Lebanese Ambassador in France organised in Paris a reception with Lebanese Jews. The initiative was presented to “hail the Lebanese Jewish diaspora as a symbol of Lebanon’s role as a beacon of civilization and tolerance in the Arab world”. Around fifty Lebanese Jews attended this “family reunion”. Although many considered it as a positive move, a rapprochement with the community, the initiative was also met with condemnation. Among the articles published about the event, Lebanese historian Nagi Gerji Zeidan, who wrote the book “Juifs du Liban” (Jews of Lebanon), took the occasion to describe the continuing administrative challenges faced by Lebanese Jews (i.e.: trying to renew their passports or issuing birth certificates, etc.).
On 20th December 2021, Cardinal Bechara Al-Rai, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X Yazigi, the Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Aram of Cilicia, and representatives from the Sunni, Shiite and Druze communities met with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Lebanon. In a joint statement, they insisted on a “commitment to openness, tolerance and coexistence as the essence of Lebanon’s identity and stability”. They stressed the importance “to focus on what unites Lebanon and brings its people together” encouraging their communities “to do the same and to adopt dialogue as a means of resolving differences in a spirit of consensus and togetherness”.
During his visit to Lebanon, from 31st January to 4th February 2022, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, said that the Holy See was already “studying the possibility for a [papal] visit, perhaps even by the end of the year”. Although originally planned for June 2022, due to health reasons, the visit was postponed.
Amid the extraordinary financial crisis, Archbishop Gallagher criticised Lebanon’s politicians and called for an end to “the few profiting off the suffering of many”. Condemning outside interference in Lebanon's affairs, he furthermore appealed to “stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interest and profit”. Although he did not explicitly mention the Iran-backed Hezbollah, these declarations were made in a context where Gulf countries are retreating from Lebanon due to Hezbollah’s influence in the country (up until recently holding the majority in the parliament, controlling a militia believed to be more powerful than the army, and seeking to influence domestic and foreign policy). Archbishop Gallagher added that the Holy See would be ready to host a dialogue among different actors if all parties agree.
On 21st March 2022, during a three-day visit to Italy, President Michel Aoun met with Pope Francis. Upon his arrival in Rome, he declared that “Christianity in Lebanon is not in danger”.
After 15th May 2022 Parliamentary elections, three newly elected Sunni MPs, Halime Kaakour, Ibrahim Mneimne and Waddah Sadek declared on TV their support to civil marriage. Sheikh Hassan Merheb, Deputy Inspector General of Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in the country, accused them of “not representing Sunnis”. He asked believers to “spit in their faces” if they didn’t change their mind on the matter. On 10th July 2022, a Lebanese Druze-Shia couple celebrated an “online” civil marriage.
In June 2022, Patriarch Al-Rai requested the international community to help find a solution for the Palestinian refugees and displaced Syrians in Lebanon. He insisted on the “human and brotherly feelings that we have for these two brotherly peoples” adding that they “do not nullify the national thinking in the interest of Lebanon”. These declarations sparked criticism from certain groups.
On 18th July 2022, Moussa Al-Hage, the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa and Jerusalem, who resides in Jerusalem, was arrested by the Lebanese General Security on the orders of military court Judge Fadi Akiki. He was released after being interrogated for twelve hours and was forced to leave his passport and cell phone together with $460,000 and medicines. The cash and medication were sent by families of Lebanese origin residing in Israel to their relatives in Lebanon. General Security said that the measures taken towards the archbishop were legal and “on the instructions of the judiciary, in relation to […] all passengers who travel between the two countries, without exceptions”. But Church officials declared that the incident creates a serious precedent. “Neither principles, nor laws, nor customs allow such an arrest,” adding that an archbishop cannot be arrested without referring to his hierarchical authority. Al-Hage later declared in an interview that his arrest was clearly meant to “send a strong message to the Patriarch” who has increased his criticism of Hezbollah and continues to call for the affirmation of Lebanon's neutrality. The Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (ACOHL) issued a statement in which they regretted the detention Al-Hage. They also expressed their solidarity with Al-Hage “in the work of charity that he has been carrying out generously, for a long time, bringing regularly material aid and medicines collected by benefactors in favour of poor Lebanese families of all religions, Christians, Muslims and Druze”. They also supported a statement made by the Maronite Patriarch which was signed by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa and by Fr. Marcelo Gallardo, General Secretary ACOHL, concluding: “We wish and ask to allow the Church of the Holy Land to continue its work of communion, which is in no way dictated by political considerations, and which is necessary for the maintenance of the presence of Christians in the Holy Land, by favouring their solidarity with Christians in the Middle East, [and to allow it] to continue to carry out freely, without interference, its humanitarian work in favour of the poor”.
On the 12th of August 2022, writer Salman Rushdie was stabbed by Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese American. Raised in the United States, he had visited in 2018 his father who lives in southern Lebanese village of Yaroun under Hezbollah’s control. The attack provoked mixed reactions within the Shiite population in Lebanon. An older video of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was recirculated in which he stated that “no one would have dared to attack Islam’s Prophet Muhammad again” if Rushdie had been killed immediately after the 1989 Khomeini’s fatwa. Although there were no official reactions from either the Hezbollah or Amal movements, most of their supporters celebrated the attack on social media. On the other hand, some Shia voices condemned the aggression against Rushdie. Prominent Shia journalist Dima Sadek received rape and death threats on social media after posting on her Twitter account a photo of Khomeini and General Qassim Soleimani (a top Iranian general killed in a U.S. strike in 2020), with the caption “satanic verses”.
Shiite journalist Mohamad Barakat was also attacked after writing that by stabbing Rushdie, Hadi Matar “stabbed Shiites who live in Europe and America.” On the other hand, Radwan Akil, a journalist at the daily An-Nahar said that he understood the fatwa against Rushdie but condemned the killing of anyone. An-Nahar also published a statement declaring that a call to murder contradicts their policies. Although political leaders have not commented on the Rushdie attack, Mohammad Mortada, Shia caretaker Culture Minister close to the Amal movement criticised Rushdie’s depiction of the prophet and stated on his Twitter account that “Freedom of speech should be polite”.
PROSPECTS FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Lebanon remains a country of unresolved crises. The ever-present shadows from the 1975-1990 civil war; the October 2019 social and political unrest; the banking crisis and the loss of most savings belonging to Lebanese depositors; the extreme devaluation of the local currency with its resulting destitution of the middle class; the COVID-19 crisis; the devastating port explosion on 4th of August 2020, principally impacting Christian neighbourhoods and communities, have left profound scars and disillusionment, particularly among the young.
At the end of October 2022, Maronite President Michel Aoun left office with no successor, leaving a gap in the presidency. The country now has no political leadership: no cabinet (only caretakers), no president, and no prospect of agreeing to reforms demanded by the IMF necessary for a bailout.
Today, most Christian graduates are leaving the country after university, robbing the country of its talent, and upsetting the delicate demographic balance. The emigration (and unequal birth rates between the different religious communities), is creating an unevenness in the hitherto relatively balanced confessional composition, which serves as a bedrock of the power sharing agreement. The concern among leadership is that the Christian population decline, which has to date guaranteed a certain voice for all religious communities within Lebanon’s political landscape, coupled with the growing political power of Hezbollah and influence from Iran, is threatening Lebanon’s position as a relatively free and democratic society in the region. As these conditions deteriorate, so too the prospects for the full enjoyment of the fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Lebanon