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This timely portrait of Lebanon exposes the fault lines that
underlie the current crisis in the Middle East, and charts the
country's attempts to rebuild a fragile peace after its long civil
war and recent conflict with Israel. Part reportage, part travel
narrative, "Paradise Divided" chronicles the delicate web of
relationships that make up contemporary Lebanese society. Drawing
on interviews with community leaders and relationships with
ordinary people, it reveals a richly-textured social and religious
fabric in which Sunni and Shia Muslims, Druze and Christians of all
kinds, from Maronite Catholics to evangelical Protestants, strive
to maintain a delicate balance. It offers an insight into how
Lebanon's religious communities, their identities formed by
history, landscape and their relationships with one another, came
to be what they are today - and how their different perspectives
can lead to potentially destructive tensions. What emerges is a
quintessentially Middle Eastern form of coexistence, poised between
tolerance and sectarianism - a theme powerfully developed through
the author's privileged access to the normally secretive Druze. The
reader follows the country's changing fortunes after the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the subsequent
pro-democracy movement and withdrawal of Syrian forces from
Lebanese soil. The final chapters examine the aftermath of Israel's
military campaign and the emergence of the new battle dividing
Lebanese society as opposing camps struggle to have their vision
for Lebanon made reality. "Paradise Divided" opens a window onto a
country little-visited by Westerners for decades, and one very
different from the war-torn images of the Middle East that dominate
our television screens. Offering a unique view of the struggle
between sectarianism and tolerance, and the relationship between
the Arab world and the West, it is a book which sheds light on some
of the central issues of our time.
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