Christians are 'moderating force' in Lebanon, says leading politician

Published: 2006-03-31

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Christians in Lebanon are a "moderating force" because their beliefs promote tolerance, said a Lebanese general often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. Gen. Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, the largest Christian bloc in the Lebanese Parliament, said Christians were "like a transitional culture between the West and the East ... like a human bridge between both sides." Aoun, a Maronite Catholic, said he thought it was "very symbolic for relations" that a memorandum of understanding between his movement and Hezbollah, which represents the Shiite Muslim community, was formally presented in February at St. Michael Maronite Catholic Church in Beirut. A day earlier, a Catholic church in Beirut was attacked by Islamic extremists protesting caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Aoun also noted that St. Michael's is on the border of the Green Line, the area that witnessed intense Christian-Muslim fighting during Lebanon's 1975-90 war.

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