It was like a shot heard around the world. On August 4, 2020, at Beirut, Lebanon, a massive explosion ripped through the port and leaving a 200 metre crater. At this writing, the death total stands at 135, injuries at 5,000, and homeless at 300,000. Foreign Policy magazine likened it to Beirut’s ‘Chernobyl,’ the infamous 1986 nuclear accident that had far reaction results for years to come.
The cause of the explosion was 2,750 tons of combustible ammonium nitrate. It is used for fertiliser but can, under certain conditions, be used as an explosive. The current batch was stored from an impounded ship in 2013. Why did authorities continue to store this dangerous material in the heart of Lebanon’s capital, where buildings, business and people were located? Apparently, the authorities had been warned that these chemicals were dangerous to the population but they did nothing.
Long-suffering
Lebanon has been hit again
The Arab world’s most secular and freest nation, where Christian and Muslim lived on an equal footing, Lebanon was called the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ and Beirut ‘Paris’ on the Mediterranean. Once ancient Phoenicia, modern Lebanon was carved out Syria as a mountainous refuge for its Christian community.
Lebanon has a turbulent
modern history: It was the scene of a senseless and fruitless civil war from
1975-1990, where a minimum of 100,000 were killed. Its territory was used in
war to fight Israel in 1982 and 2006. Terrorism has poked its ugly head from
time-to-time, including a powerful blast that killed former prime minister
Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Then there are the refugees. Palestinians have lived in camps in Lebanon since1948. Then in 2011, Syrians have fled to Lebanon as a refuge. Life has not been easy.
In recent times, Lebanon has been the scene of numerous street protests against corruption and economic troubles. The Lebanese lira lost at least 85% of its value and this traditionally mercantile nation is on the brink of insolvency. Lebanon needs $93 billion to bail it out of its troubles; now add another $15 billion just for rebuilding the port.
The role of Hizballah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, is under the spotlight. Hizballah, founded in 1982, as an Iranian proxy militia to resist Israel during the 1982 war. One of its major goals is the destruction of the Jewish state as a Shiite and Muslim imperative. After years of harassment of Israel troops stationed in southern Lebanon, 2,000 Hizballah guerrillas managed to accomplish what no Arab Sunni government even could: Compel Israel to retreat under fire. They withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000, but that was not the end of the confrontation.
Emboldened by this victory, Hizballah kidnapped Israeli soldiers, which led to the 2006 Second Lebanon War. For 34 days, Hizballah fired 1000s of rockets into northern Israel. Though the fighting ended in a cease fire, and no territory was gained, Hizballah declared victory over Israel.
Hizballah has rearmed since 2006 and has 150,000 rockets and missiles, which are hidden in towns and villages across southern Lebanon. This time, these rockets can effectively target all of Israel, not just the North. Its military strength effectively gives it a ‘veto’ over Lebanese government decisions.
Hizballah has de facto control of Beirut’s port and airport, thus they know what’s going on. Why were they allowing highly dangerous chemicals to be stored at a port in a busy urban area? Perhaps the 2017 comments of their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, give a clue. He expressed a willingness to bomb ammonium nitrate depots near Haifa port in Israel, which would be like a nuclear bomb explosion. Were they holding onto the Beirut port supply of ammonium nitrate for future use against Israel?
Its economic crisis was well underway before the arrival of Covid-19, but add to that the Beirut blast and Lebanon is in serious danger of becoming a failed nation-state.
Let’s pray against this
prospect. Not only for the sake of all Lebanese, but especially for Christians
of every stripe (Orthodox, Maronite, and Protestant).
HAGIA SOPHIA: From Museum to Mosque
It is perhaps Turkey’s most popular museum - while it was still a museum. On 10 July 2020, the Hagia Sophia Museum was handed over to Turkey’s Religious Affairs Department and declared as a mosque by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The magnificent Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was built nearly 1,500 years ago by Byzantine Emperor Justinian; this was Christendom’s largest basilica and seat of the Orthodox patriarch. It is the eastern equivalent to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. So grand was it that could be forgiven for thinking it was the epicentre of the Messianic kingdom. When the choir sang, the acoustics made it sound like you were listening to the angels in heaven. It was legendary.
Things changed radically in the year 1453 AD. That’s when 21 year old Sultan Mehmet II succeeded in doing where other invaders failed: he conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, thus ending the empire. Mehmet did two major things. Constantinople became capital of the sprawling Ottoman Empire, which encompassed 3 continents. Second, he converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque. He had two reasons: 1. Until 1453, Constantinople had no mosques. This grand building would be the first. 2. He wanted to preserve it from destruction, being a Christian site. Mosaics of Jesus, Mary, and others, so grand in their day, were plastered over.
Under the leadership of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, founding father of the Turkish Republic, Hagia Sophia was converted from a mosque into a museum. Ataturk was making a statement: Turkey was no longer a religious state with a sultan and caliphate: Turkey was now secular, modern, and western orientation republic.
The Hagia Sophia Museum Christian mosaics were painstakingly restored. As of 2019, over 3.4 million visitors flocked to the museum.
With the announcement of Hagia Sophia’s reconversion back into a mosque, it attracted criticism from the European Union, UNESCO (it is a world heritage site), Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, the European Union and the World Council of Churches. Turkey’s leadership said that tourist visits will continue and the mosaics preserved, though they would be covered during Muslim prayer.
Turkey said it was an
internal matter, though it also looked outward: Hagia Sophia’s conversion from
museum to mosque is a harbinger of the liberation of al Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem.
Like Ataturk, the current Turkish government was also making a statement: We are not secular anymore. Nearly 100 years of western, secular, orientation has been nullified by the stroke of a pen. As this author has stated for years to watch Hagia Sophia: if it became a mosque, this would be the symbolic end of Turkish Kemalist secularism.
Turkey is one of the world’s key countries and holds the balance of power … If Turkey goes from secular to religious, the world will feel the tremors - even more than Beirut.
Watch this space.
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