Mount Lebanon: The Clash of Civilizations and the Crossroad of Interaction

I am not from Mount Lebanon, nor do I belong to its two main components, who coexist and fight, without one being able to separate from the other, that is to say, a divorce between them is the sort that will almost certainly be reversed. This is due to historical reasons in the collective memory of both. But far from analyzing this phenomenon, Mount Lebanon has a great impact on the enrichment of Lebanese life, and starting from it was the beginning, the beginning of the formation of this Lebanon, and with it the other districts joined to form the State of Greater Lebanon. The culture of Mount Lebanon prevailed over the rest of the regions, which, while having a cultural heritage, it was undeclared and limited to closed groups. And since those cultures were confined to the place, the culture which was more open to the West prevailed, and was the one which set the basis for an open, educated and cultured Lebanon. However, as the armed manifestations grew during the war, divisive and liberal tendencies also grew. After the left-wing parties that existed, religious movements were born out of nowhere, and worked to break the prevailing pattern by introducing new ideas and lifestyles different from those that prevailed. And Lebanon plunged into a clash of identities, which only produced conflicts on the sidelines of the events that exposed all Lebanese groups, and engaged them in confrontations that revealed their vulnerability and their inability to live together. Mount Lebanon remains the foundation, although other regions are no less important, but the future of Lebanon is governed by the ability of this Mountain to restore coexistence and the return of human interaction between the Lebanese themselves, before they reconcile with the refugee, whatever his identity. Mount Lebanon has a historic role in Lebanon's centenary, and an awaited pivotal role for the second centenary.