A Muslim Goes to Church and Another Storm Erupts in Lebanon
- Some were outraged as Sunni politician took priest’s blessing
- Incident highlights how entrenched sectarianism remains
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A Lebanese Sunni Muslim lawmaker attended a New Year’s mass at a Maronite Catholic church, a common courtesy among the country’s 18 religious sects. Then as the television cameras rolled, she approached the priest and received a blessing -- without communion.
Meant as a gesture of tolerance, the event quickly turned into a vicious social-media brawl fueled by the entrenched sectarianism that impedes Lebanon’s progress three decades after its civil war ended. Eight months on from an election, it remains without a government and with billions of dollars in aid untapped as tensions fester. The worsening economy and delay in forming an administration triggered strike action by some workers on Friday.