From Universal Human Rights to Christian Nationalism: Lebanon’s Turn toward Sectarianism

The aftermath of World War I left the Antiochian Greek Orthodox community in a state of uncertainty and disarray. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, France partitioned their homeland into several states and statelets along sectarian logics that undercut the influence of Orthodox Christians, many of whom the French viewed with suspicion. Even after independence following the Second World War, Orthodox political activists advocated for a more inclusive basis of citizenship in the newly-independent Syria and Lebanon, proffering competing conceptions of nationalism.

This paper focuses on the heavily-Christianized nationalism of Charles Malik (1906-1987), a prominent Greek Orthodox academic and diplomat born in Bterram, Lebanon and educated in Germany and the United States. Malik’s foray into politics began in 1945 when he led the Lebanese delegation to the San Francisco Conference that resulted in the creation of the United Nations. Influenced by Heideggerian Existentialism and Christian personalism, Malik played a leading role in drafting the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Drawing on Malik’s personal papers and public statements, UN records, and Arabic newspapers, I argue that his commitment to individual human rights was an effort to transcend the marginalization of his community within Lebanese political structures.

Shortly after the UDHR’s ratification, however, Malik became disillusioned over the reluctance of Great Powers – especially the US – to commit to a binding human rights covenant. Believing that human rights were useless without enforcement mechanisms, Malik turned to Christian ecumenism, insisting that Orthodox and Catholic Christians set aside their theological differences, and he recast Lebanon as an explicitly Christian nation. Malik then partnered with Maronite Christian nationalists who positioned themselves as opponents of Islam, Communism, Arab nationalism, and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Analyzing these discourses, I connect Malik’s Christian nationalism to foreign intervention and sectarian violence in the 1950s.