You, prejudice, extremism and whose army?

By Zahra Hankir

February 2004

BEIRUT -- There is a powerful dimension of prejudice amongst the youth of Lebanon that is often so hard to detect an is almost impossible to put a finger on.

Stark reality, though, is that it is ever present, and our unjust hesitancy to confront this reality is probably what will one day be the end of a short lived and fabricated coexistence.

This intolerance stems (and understandably so) from the post civil war complex that created the harshest fragmentation, both on physical and mental terms, this nation will ever see.

Our problem as a youth is not so much that we have been socialized into this fragmentation. It is that the level of penetration is so immense that our being even slightly derivative of this mentality is something we staunchly deny.

This fragmentation-by-default is so inescapable that it is constantly a part of our train of thought, and even our sometimes overly passionate reasoning fails to prompt us into realizing this.

What results is our walking on eggshells, for fear of instigating potential, yet hastily predicted, hatred. This method of disregard is not going to get us anywhere. What it will do (and is doing), is generate an underlying strain of hatred. For even the pessimist, genuine and respectable open dialogue, amongst the fostering (rather than the shunning) of diversity, should at least be considered a viable start. 

To be a true Lebanese is to possess the ability to peg a person as one or the other, or this or that group: Individual reasoning is almost labeled defunct.

To exhibit one or two characteristics that belong to a greater, faulty pattern (and one that might not necessarily be your own), is to be either undermined or rendered void by simple virtue of that fact. If it is possible to typecast a person, then their beliefs become more understandable to the average, and consequently, easier to attack or praise.

Hence, we are faced with extremism, and not on the level of classifying a belief system or a political organization. This extremism comes hand in hand with the inability to listen clearly to another’s judgment without assuming clouded connotations.

Expression of opinion for the sake of sharing knowledge is something that is not only taken for granted as an idea, but that is nonexistent.

Expression, in one way or another, is a perverse form of telling the other that they are grossly wrong. It is here that we face our biggest problem. We are not only incapable of taking other perspectives into account; we also don’t want to be exposed to them.

This is denial of diversity in its most disguisable form. To form a well rounded and well informed opinion is to be open to, and welcoming of criticism.

We can scream and shout at each other until we’re blue in the face, but screaming and shouting for the sake of pure argumentation won’t change a thing.

To truly respect the other is to take what they say into consideration, and to absorb their perspectives, not only for the sake of the potential reformation of your own beliefs, but for the sake of mutual respect, understanding, and true development.

Repression of the full expression of the indicators of any belief system, in whatever shape, color, or form, is simply not going to work for the benefit of anyone in the long run.

Zahra Hankir is a Student at the American University of Beirut and winner of the AUB Founders’ Day Essay Contest 2003. She wrote this article for Alternative