From La Haye in the Netherlands, a friend sent me this advertisement of a new trendy ice-cream named Dubaï.
Dubaï looks more and more as some New-Beirut, cosmopolitan and creative.
Beirut emerged in the 19th century from nothing. It was a small tiny city of more or less 5.000 to 10.000 inhabitants in 1800.
And then, due to the Egyptian Ibrahim Pacha and to the Ottoman Sultans, as well as European and American educational missionary congregations, it became the Dubaï of the 19th century when the whole world rushed to this new city so modern, so beautiful, so well managed, so prosperous, so highly educated, at the crossroads of continents.
This emerging Beirut of the 19th century miraculously knew how to build a transversal “Lebaneseness” crossing all confessional categories.
This Beirut of yesterday was the showcase of the Arab World and a beacon of modernity.
In Beirut, the West found a bright and modern East.
In Beirut, the East found an Arab West.
Without the city of Beirut, “Great-Lebanon” and its “message” could not have been possible.
Today, the Lebanon message has been destroyed in its birthplace by ideologies and sectarianism, but it survives elsewhere: the Lebanese have sent the “message” to other recipients.
Dubai on the shores of the Gulf has received it.
The people of Syria, and all Arabs in the Levant, have received it. You only have to listen to these new Syrian figures who have emerged on our TV screens since several days. The speech of these “terrorists” sound amazingly more or less “Lebanese”.
Nobody can predict what the future holds for all the Levant, but one thing is certain: the Levant of Sykes-Picot and protective mandates has ceased to exist.
When a new power shall be installed in Damascus, a tsunami of profound changes will take place in the Levant.
– Religious fundamentalisms will faint probably
– Minority Identitarianism will become a folklore of the past
– Zionism itself is doomed to disappear within its own Israeli ghetto
I know I will not see such a happy end but I remain optimistic and I am sure it will happen. Our children will build it and enjoy it.
Civilisation, Universal religions and Culture emerged in the Levant. The Levant is not dead, we have more than 6.000 years of civilisation behind us and in our blood.
December 7th 2024
acourban@gmail.com
*Antoine Courban is a professor in medicine and philosophy at the Jesuit University of Beirut