catholicherald.co.uk

The Church in Syria faces a “suicidal choice” of either exile or “living under the shadow of Islam”, one of Syria’s leading clerics has said.

In his pre-Christmas letter Maronite Archbishop Samir Nassar of Damascus spoke of the exodus of Christians from the country, much of which is under the control of Islamist groups like ISIS and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. He also spoke about the sense of hopelessness that pervades the country as it approaches its fifth Christmas at war.

In a letter the archbishop wrote that: “Since 2003 (the Iraq war) and especially since 2011 (Arab spring) the exodus of Christians from the east increases. Some reports give only ten years for the page to turn concerning Christianity in the Middle East. This seems to be a pessimistic view, but observed experience shows an alarming and growing emigration.

There is a consensus that Lebanon is a great location to pilot an idea, test it and then transition to an international market for growth.

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For a country that has defined and redefined itself through politics, religion, immigrations, emigrations and decades of war, you may wonder what it’s like starting a company in Lebanon.

“Surprisingly peaceful, given all that you hear in the media,” says David El Achkar, co-founder of Beirut-based Yellow, a tech startup aiming to make bitcoin payments more accessible across the Middle East.

If you set aside the sociopolitical factors beyond your control, you’re left with daily inconveniences of fragmented infrastructure like electricity cuts of up to six hours, regular water shortages in the summer and fall, and an average Internet speed of 3.11 Mbps; to put things slightly in perspective, estimates abound that doubling Lebanon’s Internet bandwidth could improve GDP by 0.6%.

The Lebanese army commander says camps that are home to refugees from neighboring Syria represent a growing security risk as potential hideouts for militants who have been prevented from using other areas to launch attacks and rig car bombs.