By Adib Farha – the National.ae Israel conducted wide-scale military exercises earlier this month, its largest for two decades, simulating an attack by Hizbollah. Nikki Haley, the US permanent representative to the UN, recently wrote that “just as Hizbollah is stepping up its efforts, the United States, and now the United Nations, are stepping up our efforts […]

Druze star

This article represents author opinion

By Gulfnews – Beirut: Reem Kaedbey was never very religious. She’s not even sure there is a God. But when it came to marriage, she never had any doubt she would choose within her family’s sect, a tiny offshoot of Shiites known as the Druze faith. “It’s a requirement for my parents,” said 28-year-old Kaedbey, who lives near Beirut and works for the United Nations. “I didn’t want to get into problems.” Finding a life partner is hard enough for anybody. Members of the Druze faith face an added pressure: keeping the religion alive. The faith is thought to have about 1.5 million members, with most living in Lebanon, where they make up 5 per cent of the population, and Syria, where they make up 3 per cent. But an exodus of people fleeing wars in those countries has fuelled a small but growing diaspora. There are about 30,000 in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California.

While the internet has made it easier for Druze to connect with each other _ Kaedbey met her husband on social media _ growing contact with the outside world has increased the chances that members will marry outside the faith. That is a path to extinction, because the religion does not accept converts and in its more conservative strands rejects children of mixed marriages. “In the modern day, there’s a lot more tolerance and acceptance, but for the ones who truly follow the faith, once a person marries a non-Druze, they took the decision of leaving the faith,” said Daniel Halabi, a 22-year-old shaikh, or religious leader, who lives in Chicago. “The religious laws are clear.” And so the future of the Druze faith may depend not only on pairing up its youth _ a community effort _ but also on whether the religion itself can make accommodations to the modern world. As religions go, the Druze faith is not especially old, having been formed roughly 1,000 years ago. It accepted the prophets of Islam and Christianity and incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and Gnosticism. Unlike other forms of Islam, it embraced reincarnation, allowed women to become religious leaders, banned men from having multiple wives and did not mandate prayer at set times or places.

Its most important early promoter was Al Hakim Bi Amrillah, the sixth leader of the Fatimid Caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa and the Middle East and had its capital in Cairo. After his mysterious disappearance, his followers in Egypt were exterminated. But they survived in other areas of the Middle East, including in present-day Lebanon and Syria. In 1044, after a brief period of proselytisation, the faith was closed to converts. Early Druze communities were insular and isolated and left historians with few records. The religious texts have never been widely disseminated, leaving it to the shaikhs to educate adherents on the finer points of the faith.

Here’s what the Google homepage looked like on the day it launched:    

by Courtney Schiessl – In an industry beset by trends, Château Musar, an 87-year-old Lebanese wine producer, has garnered a cult following. It’s the only Middle Eastern wine offered by Thomas Keller’s legendary French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California, and it displays prominently at New York City’s Rouge Tomate. Manhattan’s Terroir Tribeca has a dedicated section titled, “All Hail the Almighty Château Musar.” When winemaker Serge Hochar died unexpectedly in December 2014, he was mourned in almost every major wine publication. How did Château Musar become the sole Middle Eastern producer to earn a spot on the international stage of wine icons?

The Beirut-based Château Musar, founded in 1930 by Gaston Hochar, initially burst onto the international scene in 1979, when it dazzled attendees of the Bristol Wine Fair under the helm of Gaston’s son, Serge. A British favorite thereafter, it didn’t gain acclaim in the U.S. until around 2000, when sommeliers and wine lovers alike began clamoring for the non-interventionist, natural bottles of red, white, and rosé Château Musar. While the key to Château Musar’s success is by no means singular, a simple reality set it up for success: It was available and actively marketed outside of Lebanon.

“The family’s foresight to sell the wines internationally and Serge’s very eloquent championing of them certainly has a lot to do with [the winery’s popularity],” says Christy Frank, wine buyer of Copake Wine Works in Copake, New York. For Musar’s first 40 years, the wine was largely consumed in its home country, but the 1972 onset of civil war almost eliminated that market. Serge, who continued to produce wine throughout the 20-year war, made a strong push for Château Musar in international markets.

But something caused wine professionals to fall head over heels for what was inside the Musar bottles and, counterintuitively, it was exactly what could have caused sommeliers to turn their heads in disgust: the unique, funky, savory, volatile, complex character of the wine.

“When you stuck your schnozz in a glass of Musar, there was no other wine on the planet Earth that tasted like it,” notes Paul Grieco, proprietor of Terroir Tribeca and Terroir on the Porch in New York. These were no ordinary wines. They were unusual and animalistic, dominated by non-fruit and earth, and until recent years, the “flawed” compounds of volatile acidity and brettanomyces. While many would call them pleasurable, few would call them approachable.

by Salah Takieddine BEIRUT,  (Xinhua) — Lebanese businessmen who have participated in the China-Arab States Expo in the northwestern Chinese city of Yinchuan expressed hopes that this event could produce positive results for the Lebanese economy. “The participation in the expo was very important for us and hope that we would have an important cooperation […]

by AP – Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri, who was detained briefly for previous visits to Israel, lashed back against critics who accused him of normalisation with the Jewish state. He said on Monday that his work is for the good of Lebanon and the Palestinian cause. It was not clear why the Paris-based Doueiri, director of the award-winning civil war film “West Beirut,” was detained Sunday night, as he has visited Lebanon several times since traveling to Israel. Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war and Beirut bans its citizens from visiting Israel or having business dealings with Israelis.

Doueiri told reporters after three hours of questioning at a military court in Beirut Monday that authorities found that he has “no criminal intentions against the Palestinian cause.” Doueiri’s latest film, “The Insult,” opens in Lebanon this week, after winning the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. Doueiri said that Kamel El Basha, the Palestinian awarded best actor at the Venice Film Festival, spent two years in Israeli jails. He said some journalists are trying to undermine him ahead of the film showing in Beirut, which begins on Thursday. Doueiri’s previous film, “The Attack,” was banned in Lebanon and most Arab countries. The movie is about a Palestinian surgeon living in Tel Aviv who discovers that a suicide attack in the city that killed 17 people was carried out by his wife. The movie was filmed in Israel and featured several Israeli actors.

Lebanese journalist Pierre Abi Saab, who is opposed to any dealings with Israel, wrote a column in the daily Al-Akhbar last week titled “Ziad Doeiri, apologize for your Israeli slip.” He said that Doueiri spent months in Israel to film “The Attack,” spending money there and speaking to Israeli media defending his movie amid criticism in Lebanon. “Today, Ziad Doueiri is coming on a white horse from Venice with a new movie expecting us to carry him on our shoulders and welcome him as a conqueror,” Abi Saab wrote. “We will not accept that the crime be covered,” he wrote, referring to Doueiri’s visits to Israel. Speaking to reporters outside the military court, Doueiri said he was well treated by Lebanese security agencies during his brief detention but blasted journalists he refused to name “that are fabricating things to block the new movie.” He said they used “dirty words against some people and accused them of being Zionists.” “My mother breastfed me Palestinian milk and the Palestinian cause. Members of my family were killed while fighting with the Palestinians,” Doueiri said.

By middleeastmonitor.com Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations against Israel for violating the country’s airspace and causing damage by breaking the sound barrier in the south of the country, its foreign minister said today. Israeli jets flew low over the southern city of Saida yesterday, causing sonic booms that broke windows and […]

By middleeastmonitor.com Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations against Israel for violating the country’s airspace and causing damage by breaking the sound barrier in the south of the country, its foreign minister said today. Israeli jets flew low over the southern city of Saida yesterday, causing sonic booms that broke windows and […]