LEBANON
Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
In Lebanon, Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims are roughly equal in number totalling just over 63 percent, with small percentages of Alawites and Ismailis. At just over 30 percent, the country has the highest percentage of Christians in the Arab world. These percentages refer only to Lebanese resident citizens, excluding the predominantly Sunni Palestinian and Syrian populations.
There are 18 officially registered religious communities: five Muslim groups (Shi‘a, Sunni, Druze, Alawite and Ismaili), 12 Christian groups (Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Assyrian, Chaldean, Copt, Evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic), and Jews.[1] The Jewish community, though, is very small. In 2023 there were only 30 Jews still in the country.[2] Bahá’ís, Buddhists, Hindus, several Protestant groups, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not officially recognised.
Religious demographics are at the heart of the country’s political life, and demographic shifts have major political implications. This is one of the reasons why no official census has been conducted since 1932 with confessional groups, most notably Christians that are demographically declining, fearing what might happen to their political representation if the actual numbers were known.
Lebanon is a parliamentary republic with no official religion, but it is not formally a secular State. The political system is denominational and reserves the highest political offices and high positions in the civil service to the various communities according to well-defined criteria: the Office of the Presidency of the Republic falls to a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister’s Office (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) belongs to a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the National Assembly is a Shi‘a Muslim. Religious communities are also represented in Parliament according to fixed quotas.
Lebanon’s constitution provides for freedom of religion.[3] According to Article 7, “all Lebanese are equal before the law”. Article 9 states that “freedom of conscience is absolute”. It further stipulates: “In assuming the obligations of glorifying God, the Most High, the State respects all religions and creeds and safeguards the freedom of exercising the religious rites under its protection, without disturbing the public order. It also guarantees the respect of the system of personal status and religious interests of the people, regardless of their different creeds.”
Article 10 says: “Education is free so long as it does not disturb the public order, does not violate the morals, and does not touch the dignity of any religion or creed. The rights of communities to establish their own private schools cannot be violated, provided they comply with the general requirements laid down by the State with respect to public education.”
On 9 March 2020, President Michel Aoun supported the idea of a unified personal status law that would replace current personal status laws based on religious affiliation. But no further steps were taken.[4]
The Lebanese Penal Code criminalises blasphemy and insults against the name of God and the practices of any religion[5] with a maximum term of one-year imprisonment, but these concepts are not clearly defined. Defamation and contempt for religion can be penalised by a maximum prison term of three years.[6]
Conversion from one religion to another is legal. A senior official of the religion the person would like to convert to has to authorise the change. The person will then be able to register the new religion with the Ministry of Interior’s (MOI’s) Personal Status Directorate.[7] Converts can face strong social resistance and even in some cases threats.
Matters of personal status (such as marriage, parentage and inheritance) are dealt with under the separate jurisdictions of each of the 18 religious communities recognised by the State (12 Christian, five Muslim and one Jewish).[8]
Each community possesses its own rules and manages its own welfare organisations and educational institutions. Certain religious communities (Yazidis, Bahá’ís, Buddhists and Jehovah’s Witnesses), however, are not legally recognised and therefore have no rights as institutional groups. Instead, they are obliged to declare themselves as members of recognised religious groups in government records in order to ensure their marriage and other personal status documents remain legally valid. They are nonetheless permitted to perform their religious rites freely.
Members of non-recognised religious communities who would like to get married, or those who may want to have a civil marriage, have to do so abroad. The law relating to civil marriage and its effects are those of the country where their marriage was celebrated.
Lebanon has the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita in the world with an estimated 1.5 million.[9] As of per February 2025 it also hosts just under 500,000 Palestinian refugees under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA).[10] The high number of refugees causes tension and concerns among Christian communities who fear their proportion will continue to decrease compared to Muslims.
Incidents and developments
In February 2023, the body of Sunni Sheikh Ahmad Rifai was found in Akkar in northern Lebanon. The cleric had been abducted earlier. The Sunni sheikh, a fierce critic of Hezbollah and its allies, was allegedly killed because of a family dispute.[11]
In May 2023, in a gesture of solidarity, the Minister of Information, Ziad Makary, contacted the Shi‘a scholar Mohammed Shamseddine by phone. Shamseddine had been attacked earlier on the beach of Sidon after a dispute with a cleric about personal freedom. The clash started when the cleric and some of his companions objected to a Christian woman wearing ordinary beachwear. "Freedom of expression and belief is guaranteed by the constitution,” Makary said. “It is unfortunate that the whole world is heading towards openness and promoting freedom of belief, while we find ourselves in Lebanon lurking in some corners of isolation and extremism.”[12]
In May 2023, a Christian cemetery in the town of Deir al-Ahmar in the Bekaa Valley was vandalised, with several crosses being torn from the graves. The mayor filed a complaint with the Internal Security Forces, which opened an investigation, and stated that Lebanon's army intelligence was also looking into the incident.[13] In March a Maronite Christian cemetery in Saida was vandalised. Several tombs were damaged.[14] Formularbeginn
In August 2023, the Lebanese comedian Nour Hajjar was briefly arrested by Lebanese security forces. According to reports, the arrest and the investigation followed a complaint launched by the Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni Muslim authority of the country. The claim was that a joke performed by the comedian in 2018 was an insult to Islam. According to Amnesty International, Article 10 of the Lebanese Code of Criminal Procedures, the statute of limitation for prosecuting such acts, is three years and had therefore expired at the time of Hajjar’s arrest.[15]
In July 2023, violent clashes broke out in the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp between activists from Fatah and members of two Islamist groups, Jund al-Sham and Shebab al-Muslim (affiliated with al-Qaeda). During the clashes more than 30 people were killed. The unrest lasted until December.[16]
In August 2023, Lebanon’s Minister of Culture, Mohammad Mortada, banned the film “Barbie” from cinemas. He claimed that the American movie contradicts the “moral and religious values as well as the principles of Lebanon”. The minister added that the movie promotes “sexual deviance”.[17]
In August 2023, a truck belonging to the militant Hezbollah group overturned in the Christian village of Kahaleh. The incident was followed by a shooting that left two people dead. The lorry was suspected of containing weapons. When residents were prevented from inspecting, gunshots were exchanged resulting in the death of a Hezbollah member and a resident.[18]
In August 2023, members of the Christian militant group Jnoud El-Rab, the so-called Soldiers of God, attacked individuals outside of a LGBT bar in Beirut. In videos the attackers can be heard shouting, “We warned you. This is only the beginning” and “We will not allow the promotion of homosexuality in the land of God.” The incident left several persons injured.[19] In September 2023, the same group attacked the so-called Freedom March that promotes LGBT rights. At least three people were injured, according to reports.[20]
In September 2023, the Lebanese Sunni religious leader Hassan Moraib, Deputy Inspector-General of Dar Al-Fatwa in Lebanon, issued a fatwa against the channel MTV. He said that MTV has sold its soul to Satan, that Islamic law prohibits watching the channel, and that the channel is a worse “plague” than COVID-19. He referred to a video aired by MTV that called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.[21]
In September 2023, the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, warned that the high influx of Syrian refugees might create demographic problems. He said that over a thousand Syrians were fleeing to Lebanon weekly and that this could create serious imbalances. According to the AP, “the demographic in question may be religious affiliation, as the vast majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims.”[22]
By December 2023, up to 90 percent of the population of southern Lebanon’s Christian villages had left their homes seeking safety from the daily rocket fire exchanged on the Israel-Lebanon border. In Alma Al-Shaab, the worst-affected village, 15 homes were destroyed by missiles. Since the beginning of the military operation in Gaza, tensions had been rising between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah affecting especially southern Lebanon.[23]
In April 2024, the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai condemned the murder of Pascal Sleiman, coordinator in Byblos of the “Christian Lebanese Forces Party”. According to Lebanese military intelligence, Sleiman was the victim of a kidnapping by an unspecified “Syrian criminal gang”.[24]
In September 2024, Israel struck several villages, including Qartaba, Mayrouba, and Ehmej, which boast a Christian majority population but who have been on good terms with their Shi‘a Muslim neighbours. Dozens died or were injured. The Israeli forces claimed that its attacks were focused on the Shi‘a militia Hezbollah.[25] In October 2024 a Melkite Catholic church sheltering displaced people was hit in a missile attack, killing at least eight people in Derdghaya, southern Lebanon.[26] In November 2024, Israeli forces blew up the historic Shrine of Shimon in Shama in southern Lebanon. The site is revered by both the Shi‘a and Christian populations. There are claims that the site was directly targeted.[27] A year following the onset of hostilities in October 2023, Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 900 women and children.[28]
The Israeli bombardment in many cases brought Christians and Muslims closer together. In February 2024, the Maronite Archbishop of Tripoli, Mgr Youssef Soueif, said that “the Muslims want to have us here… We transmit a message of peace.”[29] In October 2024, Bishop Hanna Rahmé of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar went on television to announce that Christian homes in his diocese were open to Muslims fleeing the bombing. “Each of the Christian families in the villages around Deir El-Ahmar has welcomed three or four displaced families, that is, between 30 and 60 people,” he later announced.[30] The Greek Melkite Sisters of Good Service welcomed more than 800 refugees in 12 days at their convent in northern Beqaa. One Sister reported: “You even often hear the displaced Muslim people say, ‘It’s your cross which will protect us.’”[31]
In January 2025, General Joseph Aoun, commander of the Lebanese army since 2017, was elected President of Lebanon, a position that had been vacant for more than two years. By law the Lebanese Head of State must be a Maronite.[32]
Prospects for freedom of religion
Even before October 2023, Lebanon was in a deep economic and political crisis. The situation worsened further with the attack on Israel by the Shi‘a militia Hezbollah and the massive Israeli response. The war primarily affected southern Lebanon with its Shi‘a and Christian population, but other parts of the small country were also affected. Hundreds of thousands of people had to flee, many were killed, and large parts of the infrastructure were destroyed. With the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, the situation has eased. The military weakening of Hezbollah and the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah also strengthens the Lebanese State. The State had previously been massively restricted by Hezbollah in its ability to act.
In an important positive note, finally after years of vacancy, in January 2025, a new President was elected. This brings with it the hope of a political restart and is a prerequisite for the economic reconstruction of the country.
Despite the majority of the population being Muslim, the country is the only one in the region besides Israel where Islam is not the state religion. Despite occasional problems, Lebanon has remained a place of religious freedom for Christians, Druze and other non-Muslim communities during the reporting period. What is crucial for the future and interreligious coexistence is that the political and economic conditions improve.
Sources
Lebanon