EDITORIAL: Syria has much more safe areas for its refugees

If you read this article today, you will know after almost 10 years, that we were the first to raise the story of the great fear that displaced Syrians will perhaps eliminate the Christian faith in Lebanon.

If the Lebanese state and Christian factions are oblivious so far of this planned disaster for the Christian presence in the country, we boldly scream loudly to those concerned: “Forewarned is forearmed”.

What we proclaim today is a great fear of the Syrian civil war’s results, not the war itself.

What prompts us now to call out does not apply to common speech on absolute “conspiracy”, or sedition passed down half a century ago.

The issue for us is the disastrous data regarding Lebanon today.

Lebanon, which has a population of four million indigenous people, also has almost one million Palestinian refugees (registered and non-registered) in addition to almost one million Syrian workers who were working there before the outbreak of war in Syria. In addition to these, there are over one million Syrians displaced by the war., a number which may swell to four million during the next few years, according to reports.

From this data, we see that Lebanon bears the bulk of displaced Syrians from among the more than 20 Arab countries. We go back to ask the same question we posed when the Palestinians were displaced to Lebanon.

We now realize that we cannot refuse to receive one displaced Syrian based on humanitarian and brotherly ties between the peoples, but we also recognise the size of the disasters that have befallen us from those displaced during the war of 1975 which almost give us the choice between death and exodus.

They must build camps inside Syria, which is much more larger than Lebanon and has much more safe areas for its refugees.

Anyway, today as Lebanese -- and Christians, more specifically -- we hope all Arab states which are conscious of the size of the problem and who are committed to the common good, share the burden that is largely Lebanon’s – of housing this large number of displaced until they can return to their country.

Otherwise the burden on Lebanon may exceeds its capacity ten-fold and may end with the end of Christian presence there.                                                                                                  

                                                                                    Editor in Chief