Radical Islam and Its Unfinished Agendas Case 1 – Lebanon
 
Unfinished Agendas of Radical Islam: Case 1 – Lebanon

Just like Lebanon’s demography was radically altered in favor of Muslims by rapid growth rate and quick influx from neighboring Islamic countries, India is also experiencing the same with the growth rate of Indian Muslims much higher than Hindus and the influx of crores of Bangladeshi Muslims into India.

@PankajSaxena84
Commentary | 10-01-2020

Lebanon is a sample case of how Muslims become majority from minority overnight. We have already seen that just at 2% or 4% they can throw a military dictatorship like Myanmar into turmoil and raise such hue and cry through their global Islamic networks that the world’s attention turns against the non-Muslims of the mentioned country. At around 16%, they have managed to scale nation-wide riots against the majority Hindus in India.

What happens when they are as strong as around 44%? We don’t have to imagine. We have a historical case study: Lebanon.

A Democratic Island in an Islamic Theocratic Ocean

Lebanon is a Middle Eastern country and the only country of the Middle East except Israel where, until 1970s, a functioning democracy was in place. The sheer fact that the only two countries in the Middle East, which were practicing democracies were non-Muslim majority, tells us that there is something deeply incongruent between radical Islam and democracy.

Lebanon is also important because it is the only country where an ancient branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, called the Maronites still live. Along with some other branches of minority Christian sects, it was also home for the last Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities of the Middle East. All of these Christian sects are minority within Christendom itself and thus did not have global friends and lobby groups. It also had some minority pagan and nominally Shia sects. [1]

In 1956, Lebanon was 54% Christian and 44% Muslim with the rest of 2% comprising of other religions and atheists. Thus Christians were in majority and Muslims were in minority. Lebanon is a small strip of land running north to south, comprising of cool mountain valleys to the west and the narrow strip of land hemmed in between the mountainous and the Mediterranean Sea. Due to its geography it had been a refuge to the communities persecuted under the long rule of Islam.

That is why the Crusaders too included Lebanon in their safe haven for Christians during the Middle Ages. Even in the Ottoman times, it somehow managed to survive as a country with sizeable populations of non-Muslims. Beirut, called the Paris of the East, was a great centre for trade and it helped Lebanon survive as a non-Muslim majority region.

In 1920 with Turkey’s defeat in World War I, Lebanon came under the French Mandate which included the present day Syria and Lebanon. In 1943, the Mandate was partitioned between Syria and Lebanon. Syria was Muslim majority and quickly acquired characteristics of an Islamic dictatorship. The minorities were not safe there, even though it was not officially an Islamic state. Lebanon, on the other hand, was a functioning democracy, with one of the finest educational, social and political institutions in the Middle East. Beirut was a world class city with multi-cultural milieu and an environment which induced free trade and open culture. [2]

How Radical Islam uses Democracy to destroy it

But all of this was to change soon. The Lebanese, like many other non-Muslim states all over the world made the same mistake. The democratic rights were extended to the Muslim minorities, despite the fact that the Muslims were growing at a far greater pace than the Christian communities. Little did they realize that radical Islam uses democracy as an opportunity to capture important institutions and then grab power and destroy the very same democracy. In essence, they use democracy to destroy it. The rights that are extended to the Muslims when the non-Muslims are in majority are never extended to the non-Muslims when the Muslims become majority.

This is not the time or place to go into the details, but Islamic theology does not give rights to non-Muslim subjects. The idol worshippers like Hindus have no option but to convert to Islam, leave the country or to die at the hands of the devout Muslims. The people of the book, like the Christians and the Jews have some rights but they have to pay high taxes under Jizyah and lead a very humiliating and debilitating life under severe restrictions. It leads to eventual conversion of the entire non-Muslim population to Islam. [3]

How Lebanon was destroyed by Radical Islam through Demography

A multi-cultural Lebanon met its end through demographic explosion of Muslim population. The creation of Israel gave a pretext to the Palestinian Muslims to infiltrate Lebanon. As a strategic move, Jordan, an Islamic State, evicted its Palestinian Muslim refugees in 1970 and 1971. Despite being a Sunni Muslim country and despite being the designated country for Palestinian Muslims, Jordan refused to take their fellow Muslims in and instead sent them to Lebanon.

This is interesting as Islamic countries never fail to raise their voice for any other Islamic community in the world, but when it comes to taking Muslim refugees, they are always sent packing towards non-Muslim countries. Many birds are killed with one stone here. They don’t have to deal with any refugees. And the Islamic agenda of taking over non-Muslim lands is also furthered. Jordan did the same with the Palestinian ‘refugees’ which were nothing more than front soldiers of Islamic terrorist groups invaded and changed the demography of Lebanon. (We can see an ongoing version of this where the Syrian and other Muslim refugees are flooding the European countries while all Muslim countries refuse to take their co-religionists in.)

Coming back to Lebanon, encouraged by the PLO and other Islamic terrorist groups, the Muslim bodies started infiltrating the democratic institutions of Lebanon. The Muslims of various sects grouped under the banner of the ‘Left’, though more than half of these groups were directly associated with Islamic terrorists and had nothing communist, leftist or secular about them. They were rabidly Islamist but used the label of the ‘Left’ which came in handy in projecting the Muslims as the victims and the hapless Christians as ‘rightists’. After the World War, the word ‘rightist’ had become the greatest political slur and any group which was labeled as such was considered the ultimate personification of evil by the global media dominated by the Left. [4]

One by one these Islamic terrorist organizations within Lebanon, hiding under Leftist labels, started taking over Lebanese cities one by one. First they took western Beirut, then Sidon and then Tyre. They were now in a position to launch a Civil War. Along with a higher growth rate, the influx of Palestinian Muslims into Lebanon also contributed to sharp rise in Muslim numbers in Lebanon. [5]

In 1975, when the Muslims had become 44%, a civil war started. Scholars have different take on who is exactly to blame for starting the civil war, but the Muslims were growing increasingly violent and intolerant of the Christians and thus the Maronite Christians started to defend their territory and their people with arms. Muslims quickly upped the ante and a full scale Civil War was upon Lebanon very soon.

The Civil War went on for 15 years and when it ended in 1990, the Muslims had become majority and Christians had become minority, almost overnight. More than a lakh of people were killed and more than a million had fled to other countries. Right now, there are 54% Muslims in Lebanon (exactly how many Christians were there in 1975) and Christians are now in minority with only 40% of population, even less than what the Muslims were in 1975.

Global Islam against Local non-Muslims

Many scholars have covered the ugly story of the Lebanese civil war, and Bridgette Gabriel is one of the most famous. She tells the tale of destruction of democracy and of the Christian population of Lebanon that happened almost overnight. [6] Keeping their vision local cost a great deal to the Christian community of Lebanon. For when the Civil War started, Christians found themselves isolated, fighting a lone war against a global coalition of radical Islamists and Islamic terrorist groups fighting alongside the Lebanese Muslims against the Christians.

While the Christendom of the West rarely cared about or identified with the ancient leftovers of Eastern Christianity in Lebanon, the Islamic countries and organizations had long been invested in the domestic situation of Lebanon as Islam brooks no national boundaries and has a global vision. While the Christian communities of Lebanon kept thinking that the rapidly changing demography of Lebanon with an exploding Muslim population was just a local phenomenon; the Muslims were very well aware of their Islamic goals and agendas. They were indoctrinated and radicalized to use demographic explosion as a tactics of war against the Kaffir Christians of Lebanon. And so the outcome of the Lebanese Civil War was decided even before it officially started. A loose infighting coalition of local Christian militias, beleaguered by the West, were no match against the well coordinated Muslims, backed by the Islamic countries all over the world, and with a global and millennial vision as their goal.

When the Civil War officially ended in 1991, the Muslims were in such a comfortable majority that the Christians can never raise arms against them. All the Christian militias were forced to disband, but the Islamic terrorist groups like the Hezbollah kept functioning, thus keeping the Christian population perpetually terrorized. Along with the Hezbollah which fights for the Shias of Lebanon, the Hamas and the PLO kept fighting for the Sunni Muslims while the Christians were left to fend for themselves with little or no international protection or support. The Islamic terrorist organizations also used Lebanon as training camp for Islamic terrorists and to launch attacks on Israel from there.

Within fifteen years, an ancient multi-cultural democracy of the Middle East died a horrible death. It became a hellhole of Islamic terrorists. Non-Muslims were ruthlessly massacred there. Genocide of Maronite Christians was perpetrated by the Muslims. [7] The rest began an exodus towards the Western countries, particularly France and America. And those Christians who dared to remain are rapidly dwindling as the growth rate of Muslims is still far higher than the Christians.

Parallels and Lessons for India

India has many frightening parallels with Lebanon. The Islamists of India are also aligned with the global and national Left. In reality, under the façade of the Left they carry on their openly Islamist and racist agendas. They portray the majority Hindus as fascists, neo-Nazis, racists and above all rightists. In reality, India’s Hindus have nothing to do with the Right either. They just want to survive against the onslaught of Radical Islam.

Islam and the Left try to localize the problem of radical Islam and portray India as the aggressor and Muslims as the victims. While looking at the situation globally, India is just another victim of radical Islam and Islamic terrorism. While Muslims have the support of all the Islamic countries and various Islamic organizations and individuals all over the globe, the Hindus are fighting a lone fight with absolutely no friends overseas.

In Lebanon too, the neighboring country of Syria continuously provided arms and help to Islamic terrorists of Lebanon, particularly the Hezbollah while the Christians had almost no overseas help. Jordan on the other hand provided immigrants. In India, too, while Pakistan provides terrorists, Bangladesh perpetrates silent terrorism on India by sending all excess population of Muslims to India, thereby radically altering India’s demography in favor of radical Islam.

In Lebanon, the Christians saw the conflict locally and thus were always infighting. The Hindus in India too are shortsighted and keep infighting looking at the problem at a local level and thus do not see the eminent threat that radical Islam and rapidly expanding Muslim population poses.

Just like Lebanon’s demography was radically altered in favor of Muslims by rapid growth rate and quick influx from neighboring Islamic countries, India is also experiencing the same with the growth rate of Indian Muslims much higher than Hindus and the influx of crores of Bangladeshi Muslims into India. With this deadly combination India’s demography is rapidly changing in favor of Islam and some of its states like Kerala, West Bengal and Assam are rapidly reaching the tipping point.

It is granted that Lebanon was a small country and tipping the demographic balance was easier there, India is not an impossible task for radical Islam which has grown from a new religion of few secret communities to more than 2 billion strong global community. Radical Islam has felled great countries and civilizations on its way to present, Ancient Persia and Byzantium being the most prominent two. Felling India, especially with modern means will not be so hard either.

If the Hindus hope to survive as Hindus and preserve Hindu culture, civilization and the way of living, the case of Lebanon is a grim reminder and a potent warning about what lies ahead in the path.

REFERENCES

  1. Hiro, Dilip. Lebanon: Fire and Embers: A History of the Lebanese Civil War. Palgrave Macmillan, 1993.
  2. Deeb, M. Syria’s Terrorist War on Lebanon and the Peace Process. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  3. Narain, Harsh. Jizyah and the Spread of Islam. Voice of India, 1990.
  4. Gabriel, Brigitte. Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. Macmillan US, 2016. p. 17-18.
  5. Ibid. p. 167
  6. Gabriel, Brigitte. They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do it. Macmillan US, 2016. p. 15.
  7. Gabriel, Brigitte. Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. Macmillan US, 2016. p. 167.

Featured Image: Lib Guides

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