Lebanon The Rise and Fall of a Secular State under Siege

Why has secularism faced such challenges in the Middle East and in Lebanon in particular? In light of dominating headlines about the spread of sectarianism and the so-called death of Arab secularism, Mark Farha addresses the need for a thorough examination of the history of secular thought and practice in the region. By offering a comprehensive, systematic account of the underlying ideological, socio-economic, and political factors involved, Farha provides a new understanding of the historical roots of secularism as well as the potential causes for the continued resistance a fully deconfessionalized state faces both in Lebanon and in the region at large. Drawing on a vast corpus of primary and secondary sources to examine the varying political parties and ideologies involved, this book provides a fresh approach to the study of religion and politics in the Arab world and beyond.

Foreword: why Lebanon? Why secularism?; Introduction and conceptual framework; 1. Definitions and genealogies of secularism; 2. Prototypes of secularism in Lebanon; 3. Waystations of the Lebanese Republic; 4. Socio-economic globalization and secularism 1990–2005; Conclusion: secularism and Lebanon in the eye of the sectarian storm.

Mark Farha was Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies from 2015 to 2018 and Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar from 2008 to 2015. He has written numerous scholarly articles on the modern history and politics of secularism and sectarianism in Lebanon and the Middle East, and is the contributing editor of Overcoming Sectarian Faultlines after the Arab Uprisings (2016). He serves as a member of the Century Foundation's project on minorities, citizenship and inclusion in the Middle East.