Pope Benedict XVI has winded up a successful three-day visit to Lebanon, where he has delivered a vital message of tolerance, particularly relevant in view of the current violence ravaging the region . The visit was not without incidents, though. In the northern city of Tripoli, where one demonstrator was killed, angry mobs, following the example of their neighbours protesting against the film "Innocence of Muslims" (the Pontiff has made no reference to it but the Vatican did condemn it) chanted "we don't want the Pope" and "no more insults". Lebanon, also called in the past the "Switzerland of the Middle East" can easily be described as one complicated religious mosaic: more than 30 percent of the population are Christians, divided into more than a dozen churches (only six of them linked to the Vatican). The Muslim majority, for its part, includes both Sunnis and Shi'ites in a similar proportion, as well as Alawites. Indeed, g...
A blog on Middle Eastern affairs... and everything related to it.