Posted on Sun, Aug. 22, 2004

THE MIDDLE EAST

Once torn apart by war, Lebanon has rebounded, proving that a clash of cultures in the Middle East need not be violent.

BY DONNA ABU-NASR

Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The man dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his dancing partner's skirt. Next to them, two women gyrated wildly to the beat, dancing on the gigantic loudspeaker. Couples swayed, smooched and sipped cocktails.

The scene at the nightclub was one face of Lebanon on a recent hot summer night. The flip side lay a few miles away, in the Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut, where the women went out swaddled in black, stores sold rugs with portraits of Iranian leaders, and there wasn't a nightclub in sight.

Somehow, against the odds, through foreign rulers, civil war and meddlesome, heavily armed neighbors, Lebanon has managed to survive as the most pluralist, tolerant society in the Middle East. Its democracy, however imperfect, could be a beacon for those dreaming of spreading it to the rest of the Arab world. Its freewheeling ways, however, also serve hard-line traditionalists who point to Lebanon as a sewer of Western decadence.

The contrasts are everywhere in this mountainous Mediterranean country half the size of New Jersey with its 3.5 million people and 17 religious denominations. Just turn on a television and channel-surf from beauty pageants to know-your-Koran contests, MTV-style pop to the Hezbollah channel preaching jihad.

''In Lebanon, you move between different worlds. It's the charm of the Lebanese way of life,'' said Joseph Samaha, editor in chief of As-Safir newspaper.

Many think it's a miracle to find the country throbbing with life instead of shaking under cannon fire. It experienced a civil war that began between Christians and Muslims and drew in Palestinians, Syrians, Israelis and Iranians, raging for 15 years until 1990. It's squeezed between the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Syria controls it with thousands of troops. Its economy is shackled with a $32 billion debt.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah sputters 65 miles south and largely out of mind in Beirut, except when Israeli jets fly over the capital, making sonic booms that send people running for cover. A few hours later, the restaurants, bars and malls are full again.

Today, even as Islamic conservatism strengthens its hold on other Arab countries, Lebanon somehow manages to keep its poise.

One reason is that it's the only Arab country with a large non-Muslim community, so every Lebanese knows -- or certainly learned in the civil war -- the price of head-on confrontation.

Under rules dating to the country's independence in 1943, the president has to be a Christian from the Maronite Catholic denomination, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. It may result in frequent deadlock, but it's also an effective system of checks and balances, says Chibli Mallat, a law professor. ``This is the paradox of Lebanese democracy.''

That democracy is the most advanced in the Arab world, and Lebanese media are the freest. The parliament, which chooses the president, is elected by universal suffrage; half the seats are allocated to Muslims, half to Christians. In Saudi Arabia, women can't even drive. In Lebanon, they have voted since the 1950s.

However, freedoms remain relative. Legislators' voting is influenced by Syria. Clashes between police and students opposed to Syria's presence have resulted in casualties and detentions without trial. Everyone complains about corruption, but little is done to stamp it out.

Before the civil war, when it was bursting with foreign banks and traders, Lebanon was known as the Switzerland of the Middle East. Those days are gone, but tourism has picked up some of the slack. It's up 30 percent this year. Lebanese émigrés on home visits are one market. Another is Gulf Arabs who come for the nightlife, the cool mountain air and the freewheeling, cosmopolitan atmosphere of liquor flowing, sexes mingling freely and bookstores selling almost everything, even illustrated sex manuals.

Beaches and nightclubs, said bar owner Fady Saba, ``is the national sport. People work on it a lot.''