Since the beginning of the Arab action, and especially after it spread throughout Syria, voices from the Arab religious minorities started warning against the threat of the Islamists' rise to power, after their role emerged in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, then in Syria, and Iraq before that. This warning carried an underlying relief over the fact that the governments that were deterring the protests were protecting the minorities, even if these governments are tyrannical and dictatorial and are violating all forms of human and citizens' rights. It is as though this warning only perceives two options: a tyrannical government that oppresses the Islamists or Islamists in power threatening the minorities. Some did not hesitate to take the first option, considering it features the protection of the minorities, namely the Christian one. This predicament clearly emerged in Lebanon where minority sensitivities are the ones governing both the behavior and politics, thus revealing the archetypal position of the Arab minorities in the face of the changes unfolding in the Arab region, where the overwhelming Sunni majority is embracing the Islamic movements that are the source of fear and the extremist groups targeting the minorities. On one hand, some considered that the Sunni ocean was afflicted with a historical stalemate that could not be revived, which is why it would be better for the minorities to coalesce in the face of that ocean. This was expressed in Lebanon via the Aounist movement's alliance with Hezbollah, while supported by the Syrian regime which is now also considered part of the Arab minorities. On the other hand, some considered there was no room for these minorities in the confrontation with this Sunni ocean. Hence, the Druze historically acted as though part of the causes of the region and the friendship of the late leader Kamal Jumblatt with the Saudi command equaled that which he enjoyed with the Egyptian command, despite the major disputes that affected the relations between Riyadh and Cairo at the time. By doing so, he summoned the course adopted by another Druze, i.e. Shakib Arslan who became engaged in all the Arab causes, and that of a resistance fighter against French colonialism, i.e. Sultan al-Atrash. Today, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is bringing this course back to mind, via his positions toward the developments in Syria and his advice to the followers of his sect to join the majority and abstain from standing alongside the ruling minority. In Lebanon also, a Christian leader, i.e. Samir Geagea, and after a political reassessment and critique which affected his former course during the civil war, is calling for alignment alongside the majority in Syria, even though this was based on the principle of solidarity with humanitarian causes related to general freedoms and rights. He considered – as he announced during his visit to Iraq a few weeks back – that the Islamists' arrival to power was not a threat in itself and that the Christians' involvement in the concerns of the majority would qualify them to enjoy citizenship rights, at a time when the tyrannical regimes are exercising their tyranny on everyone, including the Christians. However, this predicament will continue as long as the majority in the countries of the Arab spring has not yet overcome the stage of reassuring the minorities with general terms which were never stipulated in the constitutional principles. Indeed, it is no longer enough to talk about the respect of the minorities' rights and the selection of a sample among them to place it in the forefront, as it previously happened in Iraq and is currently happening in Egypt. The respect of the minorities cannot be instated without the respect of human rights, total equality at the level of the rights and obligations and the constitutional confirmation of those rights. In other words, there must be a move toward an actual civil state on all levels. So far, with the exception of general announcements here and there, the prevailing tendency is that the time has come to recover the historical persecution which affected the Islamists at the hands of the dictatorial regimes. Also in this context, the opposition in Syria – where the fears of the minorities are at their peak – did not offer any alternative enjoying credibility to lead the people away from their sectarian belonging and toward true citizenship. This renders the predicament a double one, i.e. the predicament of a minority that is unable to find its position and that of a majority that has not yet established – once and for all – a civil state.
