I first went to Beirut in 1997 in our second year of the Reconciliation Walk and from the beginning I fell in love with this diverse country and its people. I left in April 2003 on the eve of the Iraqi War and I hoped that I would be returning quickly. 

  This didn’t happen. So as the plane was dipping down over Beirut, my heart was full of anticipation of exploring Lebanon once more with three friends who were new to Lebanon.

 Having completed the course on peacemaking, our aim was to put into practice some of the skills learned during the training. We met with a wide variety of friends who shared their lives with us and their stories while we also go to see a bit of the country and learned about its history. Hopefully this report gives you a flavour of our time and an idea of some of the questions that this trip was meant to explore.

We attended a women’s symposium sponsored by Abbas and Randa Halabi who I have been friends with since meeting them in 1997. Mr. Halabi’s work with the Arab Working Group has created a rich assortment of friends and colleagues both Muslim and Christian who have a passion for reconciliation. The participants in the meeting were from many different European countries as well as the ME, and represented both Muslims and Christians. Beirut with its ongoing discussions of how to build a modern state with 18 different religious communities made a rich backdrop for this meeting.

Mr. Halabi introduced the symposium with the words ‘I am a Man of Dialogue’ and his opening remarks highlighted some of the reasons why he invited us all to learn to be people of dialogue. Islamophobia continues to be a problem in Western nations and that fear of the other is counterproductive to a healthy society. Establishing healthy bridges of communication especially between Muslim and Christian neighbours will help, in particular during these difficult economic times. However, according to Abbas Halabi, in moving into understanding the point of view of the other, the lack of understanding in the West concerning the political realities of the Middle East creates a disconnect. . So our countries need to understand one another, and for Christians and Muslims attending this meeting, this was an opportunity to explore how we can live together in a way that enriches everyone.

Judge Abbas Halabi, Reconciliation Walk Partner

One of the groups attending was a group of Bosnian Muslim women thought the Mufti’s wife who reminded us that they are not immigrants in Europe but that they are European Muslims. In this delegation was the wife of the Mufti of Bosnia, and she shared a bit about the Bosnian war. ‘For 50 years, under the communists, people lived as if there was no god, and then the Iron Curtain fell and religion re-appeared. As religion reappeared, politicians began to use this to build national-ism.’  Where formerly Muslims and Christians had lived side by side, the politicizing of religious nationalism would lead to the senseless killing in the Balkan war. She ended her words with: `If we look for goodness in the other, you find it. But if you look for badness, you will find it.’
 
During our stay in Beirut we also visited the women’s group at my former church, and they were so welcoming. These have been difficult years for the Lebanese, and these women’s insights were rich with how they had sought God to deal with the challenges. The Israeli bombing in 2006 had been extremely devastating. The women told us about receiving the Lebanese of Southern Lebanon, who are mainly Shia Muslims into their homes and churches to give them shelter as their villages were destroyed. These women all nodded as one woman said that she had lost her fear of the Southern Muslims at this time and found instead fellow countrymen.
 
As had been feared when I was leaving in 2003, the Iraqi War has destabilized the region. Not only is there a large Iraqi refugee population in the surrounding nations, the war also damaged the Christian population of Iraq. We talked with Dr. Jarjour, a Presbyterian who works with Mr. Halabi and the Arab Working Group, and he described their work to help rebuild the communities in Iraq and to help the Iraqi refugees who wanted to return home.
 
At St. Joseph’s University, we spoke with Dr. Rita Ayoub who works in the Islamic-Christian Dialogue Center. Rita is a Maronite Catholic, and she works in the field of peacemaking and dialogue. She told us of her work in helping to resettle the mountain villages where Druze Muslims and Maronite Catholics had lived in peace before the civil war. Resettling people into their old way of life needs courage. People who had been caught up in conflict decide to meet one another again and start to rebuild their trust in one another. It will take time for them to learn how to re-integrate but they share a common history of having lived together in their mountains. And if they are to reclaim what they lost, then they will have to move past their fears.

Now you might be wondering about the strength of this word ‘dialogue’ and what it can accomplish. In our western world, dialogue often carries with it a connotation of compromise. As if I must be less than my true self to talk to someone who is different from me. But in Lebanon, I again saw the reality of God’s dialogue with us as his children. He created every person unique, and our diversity is a challenge of learning how to know one another. Within a healthy family we can learn how to have healthy ‘dialogues’ or ‘conversations’. And as we discover the other, we learn so much more about ourselves and perhaps some of our fears and prejudices that keep us from understanding someone else.
 
I grew up in a family that wasn’t very good at ‘dialogue’. We often had conflict and although no one died, we were wounded. It has taken us some time to rebuild our family. Looking at the healing of our family I see that it has meant that we learned to discover one another again and to appreciate our different gifts. It is this simple but also challenging work what is needed in communities that have walked through conflict.
 
It takes courage to bring people together to understand one another and I feel my Lebanese friends - both Muslim and Christian - have often shown me how great a force love is in breaking down fears. It is easy to exclude someone but it takes courage to embrace a former enemy.
 
So I am grateful for the joy of being able to take my friends to Lebanon and to re-explore this region, and for my friends that have been such good teachers in my life. It was a journey that will have another chapter, so stay tuned.
 
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Our website will be back on we hope this week, and you can read more articles about Lebanon on the site.
 
Many blessings,
 
Cathy Nobles