BEIRUT: "I have the right to be governed by the state, not Bkirki or the mufti or something like that," Angelo Beaini said from the library of Lebanon's first Maison Laique (house of laicite).
Beaini is the executive manager of the maison - which opened on February 1. The house itself stands for a nascent movement in Lebanon and the Arab world, one that encourages the removal of religious expression and influence from the public sphere - what the French call laicite.
Laicite has no English equivalent, though it is derived from the same root as the word "laity." The concept is akin to secularism, but it encompasses far more. A secular society stipulates the separation of religion and state, thereby protecting each from the other. As religion has no influence on matters of state, so too the state (for the most part) cannot interfere in matters of faith.
A societe laique, championed in fin de siecle France and adopted in modern Turkey, incorporates the principle of secularism but expands it. Not only does religion play no role in matters of government, it has no role in the public sphere. This is why in France, for example, a young woman cannot wear a Muslim headscarf to school and why her teacher cannot display a cross.
Some observers, both Lebanese and foreign, of the political deadlock in Lebanon believe that this strict division is the only long-term solution to the country's confessional animosities.
The maison laique, on Khalidi Street in Hamra, is a testament to this belief. The house is a brave but modest endeavor - there are several rooms, a library, and a garden. The walls of the salon are decorated with the works of well known Lebanese painters (Mohammad Awali and Adel Kodayah to name a couple). There is also a piano and a series of sculptures.
The library has a rich collection of books, some from the "Arab Renaissance" some from the French avant-garde, others on science and mathematics.
The house, Beaini said, is a gathering place for councils, concerts, exhibitions, and discussions. All are welcome, he added, students, intellectuals, journalists, "everyone so long as they don't practice division by religion and race."
The house was founded by Lebanese journalist and intellectual Nasri al-Sayegh and originally funded by a Lebanese businessman in Belgium, Faouzi Abikhalil. After Abikhalil's death, the Association for Laicite in Lebanon (APLL), which is based in Belgium, provided the support necessary to create the center.
Sayegh defined the laicite campaign in Lebanon "as a project to revise confessionalism ... to move toward a civil society, in which citizens are citizens not confessionalists."
"The maison laique," he added, "is a place where people who believe in laicite can work together on projects that promote the cause ... students and professors alike."
The APLL grant ends in 2008, but Beaini was confident that the center would find its resources elsewhere. Visitors have already donated money and books, he said, and the house has only been open for a week.
Beaini was equally confident that the movement will take root in Lebanon. But he was also practical: He acknowledged that it would take time to divorce religion from politics and public life in Lebanon, where confessional considerations are deeply ingrained.
"[In Europe] the Renaissance was followed by scientific and intellectual revolutions, which were followed by the French Revolution," he said, suggesting that the movement of laicite begins in art and the humanities and spreads to the political arena (This may be the reason for the piano and the paintings.)
"We must start at the human level and move to politics," Beaini suggested.
Asked whether the laicite movement aims at overthrowing the Taif Accord and banishing crosses and hijabs from classrooms, Beaini responds diplomatically: "We are being practical, we don't have a system of laicite yet - so we can't know."
The French and Turkish republics both rest heavily on traditions of laicite. But the two have been attacked of late, both domestically and abroad, for their civil restrictions. Indeed, Turkey is on the verge of easing its ban on the headscarf.
Beaini seemed unfazed. "We think this system [in Lebanon] is finished," he said referring to the political deadlock and presidential vacuum that have been plaguing the country. "[With laicite] we can live together based on social, political and economic associations, without religious interference."
Salegh said the project offered hope: "We have hope, confidence that laicite will over time show success."
A manifesto - available on the APPL Web site - entitled "For a Lebanon Laique," by the Franco-Lebanese writer Robert Malek may best summarize the aims of the campaign: "Why not dare to re-examine the Constitution? Why fear a laicite which preserves in whole historic traditions and individual liberties?"
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