فرنجية: لا يمكن ان نرى لبنان تسيطر عليه طائفة دون اخرى

With all respect to Mr Frangieh who is a political ally ! It is aberrant to be Chriatian and Arab at the same time TODAY !!

Christianity is incompatible with Arabism , because they have mixed Arabism with Islam , and Islam with Arabism !!! They consider that an Arab is obligatorily and automatically a Muslim , and will never accept a non Muslim to be called an Arab ..

So we are Phoenicians and very proud of it .

"not with an axis against another"? yeah right, and what are you doing in a government of coup d'etat, who lost the elections and alienated 60% of the population???

also, how have you not caused losses to the country? you and your allies destroyed the country and its economy since 2006, with wars, sit-ins, strikes, political vacuum, to name just these.

don't lose credibility saying non-sense

aounphobia: funny sin't it with you m14, you chant about democracy and then when you are beaten in your own game you chant about a "coup".

Le phenicien, you (maronites) are syrian-yemenites, that is from where you came to settle lebanon. You dont even speak phoenician, you dont have any phoenician songs, nor phoenician roots, only 17 % of lebanese have such roots and that is only partly, not 100 % pure phoenician roots as no such thing exist today, and more than half of them who such roots partly are Muslim, not to mention neighbouring muslims who have the same amount of phoenician genes. Maronites in particular are arabs with roots from yemen mixed with syriac roots. All major maronite families are yemenite in origin. You guys mostly dont even live in the areas where the ancient now dead phoenicians lived. There is nothing phoenician even in those few who have some phoenician roots in them. Stop living in a fantasy world and stop being ashamed of your roots. Even if ur not arabist, you will still be arab FROM YOUR ARAB ROOTS. CULTURE, FOOD AND LANGUAGE.

guys guys please take it east on bro and fellow shiite finicien everyone by now knows that's he's been only masquerading as a christians he's a christian like his eminence the ayatollah is the pope.

@ Beirut FEVER ,
Go learn history and stop your anti-Maronitism .. We are your lords and masters , read the history of Lebanon , you imported from Arabia .

@ Bigdig,
Read well my comments before you write stupid things . If you dont know who are THEY ... , no need to make you a design to make you understand who THEY are .... seems that you are so far from jerusalem ....If you understand what I mean . Let us leave it there if you dont mind .

Looks like Mr. Franjieh has decided to join the new emerging forces that will be distancing itself from M8 and M14 ........

fellow shiite bro finicien don't forget what sayyed hassin said about the history of the christians in lebanon they are imported by the byzantines to be a thorn in the side of us muslims. sayyed hassin knows all about the history of lebanon that's why the ayatollah gave him a big elegant turban

@ Beirut Fever
Your claims are very wrong and ignorant.
However, I also do not believe Lebanese to be Phonecian either.
Politically, yes, we are Arabs. But our identity is not Arab. This was imposed on us.

We are Meditteranean.

Our culture has nothing to do with that of the Arabs, who originally were primitive bedouins.
Our culture is more similar to that of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, & Western Syria. We have nothing in common with the Arab populations of the GCC apart from language.
However, do you believe that speaking Arabic automatically makes you an Arab?
Are South Africans (who speak English) considered British?

You mention food...our food is not Arab at all, it is purely Meditteranean. From the Fetta to the Fattouch to 90% of our mezza.
The Arabs eat Kabsa and Kleeja.

Also, our music differs. Listen to the likes of Fairouz and Majida el Roumieh and compare their music to the the old styles of some GCC countries.

The basis on which you made your arguments is very weak.

Like Jumblatt, Frangieh seems to be experiencing "buyer's remorse" with his statement that Lebanon cannot accept government by one sect only. Yet, this is exactly what Frangieh has bargained for and gotten. Rule by Shiites. The Christian element provided by FPM is a mirage since the FPM does not exist by independent resources, but from the same financial resource that funds Hezbollah, thus financially, Hezbollah and FPM are one in the same both servants to neither a Christian nor an Arab cause, but to a Persian and a Shia cause. This Suliman Frangieh is the bargain you have made, and now you and the rest of us must live by it.

Does anyone know if this loser ever graduated from High School?

I think Franjieh is very misguided. An Arab is a muslim, and Lebanon has a Christian population, and they are not considered Arab, nor they should be considered as such. So, stop being naive about this fact. Just look at any Arab country, and you'd realize that they all consider Arabs to be muslim. Lebanon belongs to the Lebanese and is not an Arab country. Being naive is no excuse for stupidity!

First and foremost, let's not be ignorant of the status quo. Everyone drop your knowledge on history. Forgot about the past and accept the present. Arab is synonymous with Muslim. Technically it's wrong. But globally (especially in Arab countries) it is. This assumption is based on the fact that all GCC citizens are both arabs and muslims.

I couldn't care less if we are of pheonician roots. And I personally wouldn't want to be associated with Arabs (Egyptians. That's all I have to say). We are Lebanese! Why can't we all accept that we are Lebanese! That Lebanon is our country and that it is a SOVEREIGN state.

Instead of fighting for arabism or different sects. We should be fighting for our identity as Lebanese! We are Lebanese, a people that happens to speak arabic, and has french background, and is globally inclined with the rest of the DEMOCRATIC world. We are nation of different sects that makes up our unique personality as Lebanese!

lebanononly you can not be Lebanese if you think Lebanese have a "french Background". The reason many Lebanese speak french is because we were colonized by them. Al P there were Arabic speaking Christians in the middle east before Islam.

Look at the Europeans. They are French, German, and many other ethnic groups. They are also of different religions. If an aggressor settlers who come from other continent attacks them and occupies them, they will all unite to resist that aggressor. Whether we are Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Christians or Muslims we must do the same. If you deny your nationality then you do not belong in the middle east.

Why only some of us Lebanese have an inferior complex problem with their background?

Latin Americans are from many different backgrounds (African, Native Indian Americans, Europeans) they all call themselves Latinos. President Sarkozy of France is from a Hungarian background. That does not make him less French or European. Singer Cat Stevens parents are both Greek. He changed his religion to Islam. He is still British. In America they are Americans and they speak English even though Americans from British background represent a minority in the fifty states.

Stop going back to over a 1000 years to see whether we are really Arab, Aramaic, or whatever we are mainly Semitic. We are Sharqiye middle easterners. Arabic is the main language. Try to compare your selves like the Europeans compare themselves. People of different languages and religions, but united and not isolated. Isolation only creates enemies with in.

Arz 1964 Franjieh is more educated than Saad Hariri and he was never the PRIME minister.

Why do our close neighbors Syrian and palestinian Christians do not have any problems calling themselves Arabs? Even though it is a minority among Lebanese Christians, why do I only hear Lebanese Christians refusing to call themselves Arabs? Lebanese, palestinians and Syrians are basically from the same background. We are all Semitic.

Many great points posted here! I love the posts by Le Phenicien, aounophobia, Marwan, beiruti, Al p, and lebanononly! Its good to see that there are still sane people in Lebanon!

It's time the Christian party solve the conflicts in between them! The others are more than welcome to join! and the ones who don't will eventually be left behind!

Hezo will not last too long! they have crossed the line and have gone too far this time! Hopefully once they are gone, we can push for Lebanon to move forward!

Politically, socially and traditionally most Christians in the Middle-East and especially Lebanon do not identify themselves as Arabs and have been usually cast into a different mold by Arab Muslim of countries that do not have a large native Christian population. The divide has gotten wider with the modern Islamist movements that exist in Egypt and possibly rising in Syria..

The earliest form or concept of Arabisim must have started with Islam with the ideas of uniting many nations and forming one nation under Islam using the language of the Quran which is Arabic. The original language of the Maronites is Aramaic which is in the same family as Arabic and Hebrew. Saying that we are all Arabs serves a political agenda for most and a religious one for many. Accepting that we are all Arabs is a major step to the unification of all countries in the Middle-East under one flag (possibly one religion) , one nation and one President/Ruler/King appointed based on lineage. This means that there will no longer be an independent country of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and so on... Not only Christians but even Shiite may be disfranchised. I am proud to be Lebanese and I vote for an independent and sovereign Lebanon that is focused on solving its own problems.

1)there is 900.000.000 muslims around the world who are not arabs ,
so the equation arabs=muslim is fondamently wrong.
2)in lebanon u can be muslim or christians...don't make big fuss of it,just be lebanese first , that is the essential fundamental rule for bilad el arz.
3) i have a lot of what u call "christian" frds who are fanatically anti sionist and strongly lebanese to the bone,and a lot of what u call "muslims"who are lebanese first and really don't give a s... about the second.
as for mr farangieh,i really don't care about HIS i.q.

I am Lebanese. I am not muslim i am not christian. I AM LEBANESE. Yes i speak arabic but my country is Lebanon not arabia there fore i am lebanese. Arabs are from Arabia thats the desert. Christianity is 2000 years old about 600 or so years older than islam therefore christians were in Lebanon way 600 years before islam even existed.Yes maronites are from Syria.
its the 21st century . Its time for all lebanese to shed religions aside and ban it from interfering in the gov. Life is too fricking short people want to live. come on live your life and enjoy it while it lasts. religions are nothing but deat sentence.

Totally agree with Ghalyini, shove your religion and keep it privately. Lebanon first

the day people will have the same reaction as neutral, saying "i m lebanese" no matter the religion, the country will be on the right track and able to enter the 21st century!

but as long as people define themselves as sunnis chiites christian or whate ver this country will remain a third world country....

I'm not denying that we are arabs. What we need is to be able to say first that we are LEBANESE! Be patriotic first about Lebanon! It appears that some us prefer to be ARABS rather than Lebanese, if you know what I mean.

Mar Maroon came from Syria to Lebanon to preach.
The Maronites never came to Lebanon; the Maronites are Lebanon.
If Maronites are not native to Lebanon, how then one can explain the Maronites exceeding 75% of the population of Lebanon in the good old days? Christians on average have small families.