From: bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Basil Hamdan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Re: Pleasure Marriages
Date: 10 Apr 92 18:09:55 GMT
Reply-To: bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Basil Hamdan)
Organization: Engineering College, Colorado State University

In article <1992Apr10.061914.20462@colorado.edu>, saouma@bechtel (SAOUMA
VICTOR E) writes:
> At the risk of antagonizing many readers, and possible one whom I
> respect dearly (from the great state of Colorado), i do'nt understand
> why is everyone so excited about this story.

Colorado? Hmmm, I respect all readers from that state  :)

> 1. Few have unequivocally said that this practice does not occur, yet most
> seem to agree that it is very rare and nothing to be proud of.

Agreed, nothing to write home about.
 
> 2. Most look at it as a "cheap shot" at one of the three great religions, and
> as a mean to antagonize our muslim brothers. Yet many (but not all) of these
> very same brother either do not fail to accuse us the Christians in Lebanon
> of all the possible evils, and secondly tend to justify their return to
> fundamentalism by the decadence of the so called western civilization
> to which they associate the Christians. Since our is a two way street,
> let us have a two way discussion, free of taboos.

I don't think we can prevent Mr. Karam from posting whatever he wishes to.
We are only trying to indicate that the article he posted is not aimed
at innocently informing the public of some Lebanese customs as he pretends.
I don't know who funds Middle East Times, but it is obvious  that the 
article was written to degrade the Shi'as and portray them as "animals",
and to exagerate and over-emphasize the split between Sunnis and Shi'as.
Thus, I think the author of the article had a definite bias and point of
view he was trying to sneak in as fact to attain his political or religious
motives.
This is why it is imperative on those of us that have different views from
those portrayed in that article to make it known that the opinions and 
facts, presented in the article are not balanced and to put forth what
we feel is a more accurate desciption of the Shi'as as we know them,
and of the relationship between Shi'as and Sunnis. 
 
> 5. Finally, whether we like it or not, indeed this article relate to
> the so called "culture" of our country. We all know that the
> sanctity (oups) of the marriage in many CHristian quarters has
> been challenged by numerous extramarital affairs during the war.
> Again, just as it should be ok to talk about "pleasure marriage",
> I have no problem in talking about the collapse of "moeurs" in
> Achrafieh.

I would have problems in making blanket statements, about a particular
Lebanese sect, if I am not familiar with thir customs, and use a 
single and questionable source to support my arguments.  Or, as
in the case of Mr. Karam, posting an article that is loaded with
obvious bias, and insults a whole Lebanese community by portraying 
them as "animals" or less than "civilized" and attempts to drive
a wedge between Shia's and Sunnis as well as other Lebanese religious
communities whose reaction is going to be we do not share the same
ethical values so we should not share the same country.
Basically, I am questioning the accuracy of the facts presented, how 
representative these facts are, and the benefit we would get from
attacking each other's sect on s.c.l.  I believe that the post was an
attack not a simple information service, in fact Mr. Karam's previous
contributions to s.c.l. were two articles about how Christians are
treated poorly in the Sudan and in Egypt.  I remember answering him then
that while these events in the Sudan and Egypt are regrettable, it serves
no purpose to post them on s.c.l. other than exacerbate relationships
among Lebanese.  There should be some sort of self-censorship on the
net where we all refrain from posting inflammatory material if we deem
that that material is not warranted, does not advance the cause of 
understanding and cooperation among Lebanese, and when we are not even 
sure if the article we are posting is politically motivated (on the part
of Middle East Times) and whether it is fair and accurate.


> Victor  

Basil
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon