Michael Young On The Anti-Sectarianism Movement

This has always been his position:

It may be the politically correct position to oppose sectarianism, but it is too ingrained in the Lebanese psyche to be abolished at the stroke of a pen. The sectarian order is deeply debilitating, but it also offers the only mechanism Lebanon has to enforce equilibrium, therefore preserving political and social pluralism. If sectarianism is to be eliminated, it first needs to be slowly dismantled from within, and only then can it be transcended.

Young’s theory is that in the absence of strong institutions, sectarianism has offered Lebanon a hidden “checks and balances” system which, in a perverted way, helped pluralism and minority rights in a region where such rights are often missing.