Sunday, February 13, 2005

Not Over It Yet

Last week, I was at my friend's Internet cafe when we decided to order some food. I decided to chat on the good old mIRC program while waiting for the delivery guy. I usually use mIRC to meet Spanish girls in order to practice the language. This time however, I was automatically logged in to channel Lebanon, so I decided to have fun by trying to find an interesting Lebanese girl to chat with... and I did. Her name was Maya.

After the regular questions, she told me she lives in Beirut. Unconsciously, I wanted to know her religion, so I started asking her tricky questions, and she was replying in even trickier answers. I admit it is wrong to think this way, but I am sure that most Lebanese people of my generation do the same. After failing to discourage me, she finally started criticizing me for being sectarian, and she said it was a shame that some people still feel the way I do.

After realizing I was talking to a mature person, I apologized and changed the topic. Surprisingly, she brought back the conversation to this topic again and again, and when I told her so, she explained her philosophy to me. She believes that there should be no barriers between people from different religions except for marriage. I was surprised to hear it from her. This made me realize that no matter how much people brag about not being sectarian, there is still a long way to go to abolish this feeling. I believe admitting a problem and trying to resolve it is better than acting as if it didn't exist.

I decided to write about this experience in order to get some feedback from you. I would love to hear and share other people's experiences on this topic. I would also like to know whether you want me to keep on discussing this subject.

Notes:
  1. The title refers to the sectarian feelings Lebanese people (including me) still have 15 years after the end of the 15 years long civil war.
  2. mIRC is an Internet program used for chatting.

3 comments:

Connor said...

I would very much like to hear more on this subject. :)

And take care of yourself over there. Okay?

~ Connor

Stephanie Mally said...

In my opinion, you probably cant help your feelings about sectarians. It all depends on your opinion of religion in general. If anything, religions tend to divide society rather than unite, would you agree? Do you honestly think that religion can unite mankind?

liminal said...

Halla ya halla ya Ziad, please help me promote Lebanese blogs by linking and joining me at Lebanese Blog Count. My other blog is Iraq-centric, called Shlonkom Bakazay. LBC is meant to be a neutral ground for us to talk about how much we love Lebanon. (not for politics really)...so help me out. I'd really appreciate it.

Or if you don't have time, just link it. That would be cool too.

Okay, thank you !

Ma'ah salaaam,
liminal

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