Fighting Absurdity with Absurdity, Lebanese protesters descended to the streets today for the fourth week in a row demanding an end to the sectarian regime which has been in place in Lebanon since 1943.
While protesters throughout the Arab World have in recent months taken to the streets to demand an end to dictatorial regimes, Lebanon is unique because it’s system is, in fact, a type of democracy wherein power is allotted along religious lines so as to give certain religious groups a higher representation than they otherwise have. This all sounds okay in theory, but unfortunately the system was set up (by the French colonizers) to give Maronite Christians a monopoly over power in Lebanon, and the result has been decades of recurring civil strife as Lebanon’s 17 other groups have sought to gain power in accordance with their population.
In recent months, a secularist movement demanding an end to the entire system of classification and giving power along religious lines has sprung up, and so far many tens of thousands of Lebanese have taken part. And many have decided that in order to fight the system of clowns and militia bosses that rules the country, it is necessary to dress as a in a circus!
