ISLAM-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE

12 THE TRAGEDY OF THE ARAB CHRISTIAN Corriere della Sera page 11 - 06.12-1985 I would like to recall the precarious si- tuation of Arab Christians in the Middle East. The Arabic-speaking countries are predominantly Muslim, with a total of 120 million inhabitants, 12 million of whom are Christians, in a minority in all coun- tries, except Lebanon. In the Arab world Lebanon is the only country in which a Christian enjoys all the rights of a citizen for the same amount of a Muslim. This is the reason why Christians in the Middle East look to Lebanon as a country of refu- ge in the event of heightened discrimina- tion and where Lebanese, especially Chri- stians, are determined to safeguard their identity. Following the partition of the Ot- toman Empire after the First World War, the various confessions lived together pe- acefully. In the last 30 to 40 years this co- existence has been exploited by interna- tional elements outside the control of the Lebanese themselves, culminating in the events that everyone knows and with the latent danger that the only refuge of Arab Christians might disappear. They are now refugees in their own country, "aware" of being Christians. In the last 18 months, 125,000 Christians scattered among the various regions with a Muslim majority (Chouf and South) have been forced to abandon everything and take refuge in safer territory or emigrate abroad. Why does almost no one speak of this silent tragedy?