By: Seshan Iyer
Beirut is in the news today – but for the wrong reason: a devastating explosion took place there. Beirut is the capital of Lebanon – a country bordering Israel. In Beirut, there was an explosion of over 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which was seized by the authorities from so-called militants six years ago. Initially, the explosion was taken to be detonation of some kind of atomic device but it turned out this huge deadly chemical explosion. Who were these “militants” illegally possessing such big quantity of explosive material?
One would recall that in the 1970’s, Lebanon was called a ‘Paradise’ and its capital Beirut was the ‘Paris of the East’. It was a peaceful place of a modern country with scenic beauty.
Lebanon had a Christian and Muslim mixed population living amicably. The Lebanese Christians are some of the oldest Christians in the world, preceded only by the oriental Orthodox of Armenia and Copts of Egypt. It had a progressive, tolerant and multi-cultural society, just like India is today.
Lebanon had some of the best universities in Middle East, where children with good background from all over Arabia used to come to study. And then they used to stay there & work. Lebanese banking was one of the best banking systems in the world.
Despite not having oil, Lebanon had a great economy. An idea of the then Lebanese society’s peacrful life, natural beauty and its citizens’ progressive outlook can be gauged from the fact that in 1960s Hindi film “An Evening in Paris” was also shot in Lebanon! That all was a matter for the Lebanon people to be proud of. Now it has turned into a hell. How did it come to this dreadful state? How did it happen? India of 2020 has a lesson to learn from this transformation of Lebanon from a ‘Paradise’ to the ‘Hell’, which it is today.
Let us recapituate the history of this transformation.
In Lebanon the Muslims were producing many more kids than the Christians and the Islamic population was steadily growing. These Muslim kids were slowly being turned into radicalised youth due to their lack of education!!
In the 1970’s there was unrest in Jordan and liberal Lebanon was made to open its doors to “Palestinian refugees” by their Muslim leaders to show brotherly “true compassion”!! And, then, by 1980, Lebanon was in exactly the same condition as Syria is in today!!
Jihadists, who entered Lebanon as “refugees”, started ethnic cleansing of the native Christians resulting in untold number of deaths! No one from anywhere came to save those victims. Those who were able to save themselves but could not adjust to this daily violence, left Lebanon in droves of emigration.
As a result of the deaths and emigrations, the Lebanese Christian population, which was 60% in 1970, whittled down to a mere 37% in 30 years! Today, there are more Lebanese people living outside of Lebanon than within it. And above it, now their right to return back to Lebanon – their motherland – has been blocked by the Muslim majority government through laws. For them the doors are now sealed shut forever!
This sad story of Lebanon is only 30 years old!
India needs to learn from Lebanese history. Like in Lebanon, in India too there is steadily growing population of Crusaders; also there is an influx into India of radicalised Rohingyas, Bangladesh intruders. In a show of brotherly compassion for them, equally there are welcoming hands of those who are opposing CAA on the sole ground that this law should not be limited to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians alone persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but should include Muslims as well from these countries. This show of brotherly love is not confined to those only who may in future enter India through the legal doors of CAA. There is this show of brotherly love from those who are opposing NRC towards the ones who have already illegally entered India in the past. There are also many enemies within!!
Though it is needed on the part of Indian people to unite against and boycott parties, institutions, people, actors, presstitutes and media who are associated with the crusaders against CAA and NRC but it is not enough to save this peaceful India. India urgently needs to put in place adequate measures to freeze the growth of its population beyond the number what is necessary to replace its present 1.3 billion strength.