Religious discrimination in Lebanon - Speech or Presentation Example

However despite the country’s diversity in religious factions, it has not been a beautiful scene in in the country’s development over the years due to discrimination based and biased on religious lines (HRW). The discrimination based on religious factions has been evident in the Lebanese political and social structures of the country. Political landscape carries more weight for wrangles based on the very religious discrimination because every faction wants the bigger piece of the cake of dominance.

It can be traced back to the 1860 conflict between Maronites and the Druze to the old Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 which was as a result of the conflict between the Muslims and the Christians. In the early 19th century around the wake of World War II Lebanese political structure was designed in a way it recognized a historic agreement amongst the Lebanese leaders that political goodwill will be divided according to positions in the governmental structure in agreed fair proportions for the Christians and Muslims (Khalaf 2013, p.43). This particular political concept in the mid-1970s appeared to be losing ground resulting to “hell breaks loose” a civil war that was seen to be a sort of competition for power between the majority Muslims and the minority ruling Christians.

Before the old Lebanese civil war that was in every way a struggle between the Sunni Islam and the Christians was a Druze and Maronite (Christians) conflict (Khalaf 2013, p.65). The conflict happened in the mid 18nth century in the north of Mount Lebanon area entailing the rebellion of Christians Maronites peasants against the Druze lords that spread to the south and as a result more than 20,000 Christians were killed, 370 Christian villages destroyed and a large number of churches destroyed (Sisk 2011, p.109). Maronite peasants were against the heavy taxes and feudal practices