Beirut, MINA – Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Lebanon Hajriyanto Y Thohari said like in Indonesia, Lebanon, which is a country with sectarian diversity, has a fairly high level of tolerance.
“In the life of the Lebanese community, tolerance is quite high, in Beirut there are six large mosques that were built around 2006. The large mosque is adjacent to a church which is also the same size and this has become an icon of Beirut,” Hajriyanto said in an interview with MINA on Friday night.
The mosque itself is named Mohammad Al-Amin which has dominated Beirut’s skyline for more than 10 years and St George’s Cathedral which has four bell towers as high as 72 meters, the same height as the mosque’s four minarets.
“There is no religious conflict in Lebanon. People respect each other’s choices. The high sense of respect and freedom makes Lebanon safe from crime, ”he said.
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Due to its diversity of sects, Lebanon adheres to a special political system, known as conventionalism which is intended to divide power as evenly as possible between different religious schools.
Lebanon has several different main religions. The country has the most religiously diverse society of any country in the Middle East, which includes 18 legalized religious sects. The two main religions are Christianity (Greja Maoronit, Greek Orthodox Church, Melikit Greek Orthodox Church, Protestant Greja, Armenian Apostolic Church) and Islam (Shia and Sunni).
There is also the Druze religious minority, which id under the Lebanese political division (Allocation of Lebanese Parliament seats) the Druze community is made up of one of the five Lebanese Muslim communities (Sunni, Shia, Druze, Alawi, and Ismaili). (T/RE1)
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