Why Are Lessons in Anti-Sectarianism Facing Such Resistance in Lebanon?

Lebanese NGO Chaml teaches teenagers from different backgrounds classes on the history of the civil war and the dangers of sectarianism, but the scheme faces opposition from the Ministry of Education.

by Joseph Shawyer

From inside a hotel chapel in Dhour El Choueir, a small town that lunges into the mountains east of Beirut, lawyer Rafic Zakharia teaches a course on the history of the Lebanese civil war to a group of thirty teenagers from different religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“We are teaching them what is supposed to be taught in schools. …