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57-575: The LCP's military wing was not only well-organized, but also one of the largest secular and non- sectarian militias in Lebanon. It was first founded unofficially during the 1958 civil war , fighting alongside the anti-government forces against the Lebanese Army and the allied Christian militias. Disbanded upon the conclusion of the war, in early 1969 the Party's Politburo decided to quietly raise

114-775: A prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, performing corporal and spiritual works of mercy , and attending a religious seminary school or monastery are examples of religious (non-secular) activities. In many cultures, there is little dichotomy between "natural" and "supernatural", "religious" and "not-religious", especially since people have beliefs in other supernatural or spiritual things irrespective of belief in God or gods. Other cultures stress practice of ritual rather than belief. Conceptions of both "secular" and "religious", while sometimes having some parallels in local cultures, were generally imported along with Western worldviews, often in

171-500: A mix of both. Civilian or surplus military Parkas , OG US M-1965 field jackets and Iraqi copies of the Pakistani Army olive-brown woollen pullover were worn in cold weather. Usual headgear consisted of ex-Lebanese Army OG Baseball caps , Soviet M-38 Field Hats in mustard khaki cotton ( Russian : Panamanka ), and black or red berets worn French-style, pulled to the left; a black-and-white or red-and-white kaffiyeh

228-623: A mix of different Lebanese religious confessions. Rachaiya al Wadi , east of the Western Beqaa district, is home to Lebanon's share of Mount Hermon and borders Syria also. The district's capital, also Rachaiya al Wadi, not to be confused with Rachaiya al Foukhar in South Lebanon, is famous for its old renovated souk and what is known as the castle of independence in which Lebanon's pre-independence leaders were held by French troops before being released in 1943. The southern section of

285-543: A new militia force ostensibly to help defend the border villages located in South Lebanon . The reality, however, was more complex. Like other political groups in Lebanon, the LCP realized in the early 1970s that without an armed militia it would lose its political relevance. Thus the "Popular Guard" was officially established on January 6, 1970, ostensibly in response to the occupation of Kfar Kila and Houla villages in

342-403: A parallel language to religion, and intensifies Protestant features such as iconoclasm, skepticism towards rituals, and emphasizes beliefs. In doing so, secularism perpetuates Christian traits under a different name. Most cultures around the world do not have tension or dichotomous views of religion and secularity. Since religion and secular are both Western concepts that were formed under

399-414: A process by which anything becomes secular is named secularization , though the term is mainly reserved for the secularization of society ; and any concept or ideology promoting the secular may be termed secularism , a term generally applied to the ideology dictating no religious influence on the public sphere . Scholars recognize that secularity is structured by Protestant models of Christianity, shares

456-790: A profitable fuel smuggling ring that stretched to the Beqaa Valley . After the return of George Hawi , the Popular Guard joined the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) – PLO Joint Forces. The LCP militia was soon involved in many street battles against the Christian right-wing militias of the Lebanese Front . On October 24, 1975, the Popular Guards fought alongside other LNM militias such as

513-611: A year. Beqaa Valley wineries include: Drugs have a long tradition in the Beqaa Valley, from the days of the Roman Empire to the present. Cultivators and tribal drug lords have worked with militias to build up a thriving cannabis trade. The region has been compared to Peru 's cocaine producing Upper Huallaga Valley . During the Lebanese Civil War , cannabis cultivation was a major source of income in

570-581: Is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region . Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to the Coele-Syria of classical antiquity . The Beqaa is located about 30 km (19 mi) east of Beirut . The valley is situated between Mount Lebanon to the west and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to

627-485: Is best understood not as being "anti-religious", but as being "religiously neutral" since many activities in religious bodies are secular themselves, and most versions of secularity do not lead to irreligiosity. The idea of a dichotomy between religion and the secular originated in the European Enlightenment . Furthermore, since religion and secular are both Western concepts that were formed under

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684-420: Is estimated that that action eliminates no more than 30% of overall crops. Although important during the civil war, opium cultivation has become marginal, dropping from an estimated 30 metric tonnes per year in 1983 to negligible amounts in 2004. Due to increasing political unrest that weakened the central Lebanese government during the 2006 Lebanon War and 2007 Opposition boycott of the government, and due to

741-457: Is home to Lebanon's famous vineyards and wineries . Wine making is a tradition that goes back 6000 years in Lebanon . With an average altitude of 1000 m above sea level , the valley's climate is very suitable to vineyards. Abundant winter rain and much sunshine in the summer helps the grapes ripen easily. There are more than a dozen wineries in the Beqaa Valley, producing over six million bottles

798-1234: The Al-Mourabitoun and the Nasserite Correctionist Mouvement (NCM), the Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) and the PLO at the Battle of the Hotels in Downtown Beirut , where they engaged the Lebanese Front militias and the Army of Free Lebanon (AFL). Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon of June 1982, the LCP/PG went underground, participating actively in the formation of the Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) guerrilla alliance in September that year and later joining

855-868: The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL), and the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L). In December 1986, the Popular Guards joined the Arab Democratic Party (ADP), SSNP and Ba'ath Party militias in another military coalition backed by the Syrian Army , which contributed to the decisive defeat of the Sunni Muslim Islamic Unification Movement at the Battle of Tripoli. On September 16, 1982,

912-738: The Jabal Amel region of southern Lebanon and the kidnapping of local villagers by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Prior to the war, the Popular Guards initially received covert support from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the USSR , Syria , Iraq , Libya and from well-connected left-wing sympathizers in Jordan , and some Eastern Bloc Countries , such as East Germany . Furthermore,

969-487: The Latin word saeculum which meant ' of a generation, belonging to an age ' or denoted a period of about one hundred years. The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones. Secular does not necessarily imply hostility or rejection of God or religion, though some use

1026-594: The Lebanese Forces (LF) or the South Lebanon Army (SLA) were also widely used. Anti-tank teams issued with the RPG-7 rocket launcher received the correspondent Soviet rocket bag models in khaki canvas, the gunner backpack 6SH12, the assistant gunner backpack and the munitions bag 6SH11; Polish and East German versions in rubberized canvas were employed as well. Secular Secularity , also

1083-867: The Mediterranean Sea . From the 1st century BC, when the region was part of the Roman Empire , the Beqaa Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant . Today the valley makes up 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land . The northern end of the valley, with its scarce rainfall and less fertile soils, is used primarily as grazing land by pastoral nomads . Farther south, more fertile soils support crops of wheat, maize , cotton , and vegetables, with vineyards and orchards centered on Zahlé . The valley also produces hashish and cultivates opium poppies , which are exported as part of

1140-595: The New Testament in the Vulgate translation ( c.  410 ) of the original Koine Greek phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων ( eis toùs aionas ton aiṓnōn ), e.g. at Galatians 1:5 , was used in the early Christian church (and is still used today), in the doxologies , to denote the coming and going of the ages, the grant of eternal life, and the long duration of created things from their beginning to forever and ever . Secular and secularity derive from

1197-760: The War of the Camps broke out on April–May 1985 at West Beirut, it saw the LCP/PG participating – albeit reluctantly – in a military coalition that gathered the Druze PSP/PLA, and the Shia Muslim Amal Movement , backed by Syria , the Lebanese Army , and anti- Arafat dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions against an alliance of PLO refugee camp militias, the Nasserite Al-Mourabitoun and Sixth of February Movement militias,

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1254-478: The illegal drug trade . In Baalbek , that is part of a valley to the east of the northern Beqaa Valley, there are evidence of continual habitation dating back almost 8000–9000 years. Ard Tlaili is a small tell mound with an archaeological site, located on a plain at the foot of the Lebanon Mountain, just 11 km (7 mi) northwest of Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley. It dates to around 5780-5710 BC and has

1311-722: The 8th and 7th century BC, Sobah, now under Imperial Assyrian rule , served as the residence for an Assyrian governor, Bel-liqbi . By the time of Alexander the Great , the valley was reportedly inhabited by the Itureans , possibly an Arabic or Aramaean people. According to the Histories of Alexander the Great , the Itureans were Arab peasants living in the hills above Tyre who slaughtered about 30 Macedonians , which prompted Alexander to conduct an expedition against them. Later on,

1368-751: The AK-47 assault rifle and the SKS semi-automatic rifle, plus several variants of locally-made, multi-pocket chest rigs and assault vests in camouflage cloth, khaki and OG canvas or Nylon. In addition, the US Army M-1956 load-carrying equipment (LCE) in khaki cotton canvas and the all-purpose lightweight individual carrying equipment (ALICE) in OG Nylon captured from the Lebanese Army, and IDF olive green Nylon Ephod Combat Vests seized either from

1425-531: The Beqaa Valley, where most of the country's hashish and opium was produced. The war led various groups to turn to drug trafficking for income. Syria, which controlled most of the Valley, profited significantly from the trade. Palestinian terrorist groups, including the PLO , also participated in the hashish trade, making millions of dollars. The trade collapsed during the worldwide crackdown on narcotics led by

1482-589: The Itureans broke away from the weakened Seleucid Empire to form the Kingdom of Chalcis . From their base in the Bekaa, the Itureans expanded their territory to include the Phoenician cities of the coast and came close to Damascus . Their territory was eventually absorbed into the rest of Roman Syria . The valley was of considerable importance to the Roman Empire as one of the important agricultural regions in

1539-668: The LCP militia was first headed by the Greek Orthodox George Hawi (whose nom de guerre was Abu Anis), but in 1979 PG command was passed on to Elias Atallah , a Maronite . Although it was active mostly in West Beirut and Tripoli , the LCP/PG also kept underground cells at the Koura District , and the Sidon , Tyre and Nabatieh Districts of the Jabal Amel region of southern Lebanon. The LCP/PG

1596-997: The LCP started sending its militiamen to training camps in Jordan under the control of the Palestinian Fatah , the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Jordanian Communist Party (JCP). Moreover, the LCP's links with the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) led them to forge close ties with the Ba'athist Iraqi and Syrian Governments to help train militants and purchase high-tech soviet arms. Initially made up of just 600–700 poorly armed militiamen, by mid-1976

1653-913: The LNSF in July 1983. They fought at the 1983–84 Mountain War allied with the Druze People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Al-Mourabitoun and Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) militias in the Chouf District and at West Beirut against the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia, the Lebanese Army and the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF). When

1710-481: The Popular Guard's ranks had swelled to some 5,000 men and women (though other sources list a smaller number, about 3,000), this total comprising 2,000–2,500 full-time fighters and 2,500–3,000 irregulars, mostly drawn from its youth branch organization, the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth (ULDY), which had been established in early 1970. Organized into infantry, signals, artillery, medical and Military Police 'branches',

1767-680: The Secretary-General of the LCP George Hawi and the Secretary-General of the OCAL Muhsin Ibrahim announced the creation of the LNRF, which rallied several Lebanese leftist and Pan-Arabist parties and armed factions to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon . Popular Guard underground guerrilla cells continued to operate in the Jabal Amel after the end of the civil war, fighting until 2000 alongside

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1824-486: The Shia Hezbollah and other Lebanese armed groups against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and their South Lebanese Army (SLA) proxies in the Israeli-controlled "security zone." The collapse of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) in January 1976 allowed the LCP/PG to seize some weapons and vehicles from their barracks and police stations, though most of its weaponry, heavy vehicles and other, non-lethal military equipments were procured in

1881-446: The United States in the early 1990s. Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the occupying Syrian Army plowed up the Beqaa's cannabis fields and sprayed them with poison. Prior to 1991 it was estimated that income generated from illicit crops grown in the Beqaa was around $ 500 million. According to the UNDP the annual per capita income at that time in the Baalbek and Hermel district did not exceed $ 500. The same agency estimated

1938-751: The conditions, not the prevalence, of belief, and these conditions are understood to be shared across a given society, irrespective of belief or lack thereof. Taylor's thorough account of secularity as a socio-historical condition, rather than the absence or diminished importance of religion, has been highly influential in subsequent philosophy of religion and sociology of religion , particularly as older sociological narratives about secularisation , desecularisation , and disenchantment have come under increased criticism. Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( Arabic : وادي البقاع , romanized :  Wādī l-Biqā‘ , Lebanese Arabic : [bʔaːʕ] ; also romanized as Bekaa , Biqâ , and Becaa )

1995-472: The context of colonialism . Attempts to define either the "secular" or the "religious" in non-Western societies, accompanying local modernization and Westernization processes, were often and still are fraught with tension. Due to all these factors, secular as a general term of reference was much deprecated in social sciences, and is used carefully and with qualifications. Philosopher Charles Taylor in his 2007 book A Secular Age understands and discusses

2052-488: The district is inhabited with Druze and Christian Lebanese, while the other northern section is mainly inhabited by Sunni Lebanese. Due to wars and the unstable economic and political conditions Lebanon faced in the past, with difficulties some farmers still face today, many previous inhabitants of the valley left for coastal cities in Lebanon or emigrated from the country altogether, with the majority residing in North America , South America or Australia . The Beqaa Valley

2109-408: The early Iron Age , the Beqaa Valley came to be dominated by Phoenician -and Aramaic -speaking populations. In the 11th and 10th centuries BC, the Aramaeans founded the kingdom of Aram-Zobah (also Sobah), mentioned in the Bible . Many scholars suggest it was located in the Beqa'a valley. The precise whereabouts of Zobah , a prominent city at the time, remains a subject of scholarly debate. In

2166-399: The east. It is the northern continuation of the Jordan Rift Valley , and thus part of the Great Rift Valley , which stretches from Syria to the Red Sea . Beqaa Valley is 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) wide on average. It has a Mediterranean climate of wet, often snowy winters and dry, warm summers. The region receives limited rainfall, particularly in

2223-442: The eastern provinces, and it was known for its many temples . The region also gained the attention of Palmyrene Queen Zenobia , who built the Canalizations of Zenobia , linking the valley with Palmyra. Zahle is the largest city and the administrative capital of the Beqaa Governorate . It lies just north of the main Beirut – Damascus highway, which bisects the valley. The majority of Zahle's residents are Lebanese Christian ,

2280-418: The exception of the town of Deir el Ahmar , whose inhabitants are Christians . The Baalbek and Hermel districts have a Christian and Sunni minority, mainly situated further north along the border with Syria. The western and southern districts of the valley also have a mixed population of Muslims , Christians , and Druze . The town of Joub Janine with a population of about 12,000, is situated midway in

2337-521: The fact that their values , morality , or sense of life's meaning are no longer underpinned by communally-accepted religious facts. All religious beliefs or irreligious philosophical positions are, in a secular society, held with an awareness that there are a wide range of other contradictory positions available to any individual; belief in general becomes a different type of experience when all particular beliefs are optional. A plethora of competing religious and irreligious worldviews open up, each rendering

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2394-415: The figure for the rest of Lebanon was $ 2,074. Since the mid-1990s, the culture and production of drugs in the Beqaa Valley has been in steady decline. By 2002, an estimated 2,500 hectares of cannabis were limited to the extreme north of the Valley, where government presence remains minimal. Every year since 2001 the Lebanese Army plows cannabis fields in an effort to destroy the crops before harvest. It

2451-408: The influence of Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them. Historically, the word secular was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin that would relate to any mundane endeavour. However, the term, saecula saeculorum ( saeculōrum being the genitive plural of saeculum ) as found in

2508-436: The influence of Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them. One can regard eating and bathing as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them. Nevertheless, some religious traditions see both eating and bathing as sacraments , therefore making them religious activities within those world views . Saying

2565-670: The international black market or supplied by the PLO, Syria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and the USSR. Many of these vehicles were employed as Technicals and Gun trucks , armed with DShkM , NSV , KPV , ZPU , ZU-23-2 , and M40 . Popular Guard militiamen wore in the field ex- Lebanese Army olive green fatigues (a special domestic variant of the US Army OG-107 cotton sateen utilities ), locally-produced PLO copies of Iraqi Army olive green and light khaki fatigues and camouflage uniforms (the latter being PLO Lizard and Czechoslovakian Vz 60 "Salamander" ( Mlok ) patterns or U.S. Woodland BDUs ), civilian clothes, or

2622-458: The majority being Melkite Greek Catholic , Maronite Catholic , and Greek Orthodox Christians . The town of Anjar , situated in the eastern part of the valley, has a predominantly Armenian Lebanese population and is famous for its 8th-century Arab ruins. Further east, the town of Majdal Anjar has a Sunni Muslim majority. The majority of the inhabitants of the northern districts of Beqaa, Baalbek and Hermel , are Lebanese Shiites , with

2679-535: The medieval period, but coexisted and interacted naturally. The word secular has a meaning very similar to profane as used in a religious context. Today, anything that is not directly connected with religion may be considered secular, in other words, neutral to religion. Secularity does not mean ' anti-religious ' , but ' unrelated to religion ' . Many activities in religious bodies are secular, and though there are multiple types of secularity or secularization, most do not lead to irreligiosity. Linguistically,

2736-421: The north, because Mount Lebanon creates a rain shadow that blocks precipitation coming from the sea. The northern section has an average annual rainfall of 230 millimetres (9.1 in), compared to 610 millimetres (24 in) in the central valley. Nevertheless, two rivers originate in the valley: the Orontes (Asi), which flows north into Syria and Turkey , and the Litani , which flows south and then west to

2793-425: The other more "fragile". This condition in turn entails for Taylor that even clearly religious beliefs and practices are experienced in a qualitatively different way when they occur in a secular social context. In Taylor's sense of the term, a society could in theory be highly "secular" even if nearly all of its members believed in a deity or even subscribed to a particular religious creed; secularity here has to do with

2850-438: The secular or secularness (from Latin saeculum , ' worldly ' or ' of a generation ' ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion . The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian history into the modern era . In the Middle Ages , there were even secular clergy. Furthermore, secular and religious entities were not separated in

2907-457: The secularity of Western societies less in terms of how much of a role religion plays in public life ( secularity 1 ), or how religious a society's individual members are ( secularity 2 ), than as a "backdrop" or social context in which religious belief is no longer taken as a given ( secularity 3 ). For Taylor, this third sense of secularity is the unique historical condition in which virtually all individuals – religious or not – have to contend with

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2964-406: The south. The Beqaa valley was known as Amqu during the Bronze Age . The identity of the inhabitants is not known for certain, but the region was part of the Amorite Kingdoms of Amurru and Qatna . To the southwest of Baalbek was Enišasi , a city or city-state mentioned in the 1350 - 1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence , written by two rulers of the city Šatiya and Abdi-Riša . By

3021-402: The southernmost pottery belonging to the Halaf Culture . Labweh is a village at an elevation of 950 metres (3,120 ft) on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon, settled since the Neolithic period . In the Middle Bronze IIA , the Beqa Valley was a highway between the regional power of Qatna in the north and its vassal Hazor in

3078-586: The term this way (see " secularism ", below); Martin Luther used to speak of "secular work" as a vocation from God for most Christians. Secular has been a part of the Christian church's history, which even developed in the medieval period secular clergy , priests who were defined as the Church's geographically-delimited diocesan clergy and not a part of the diasporal monastic orders. This arrangement continues today. The Waldensians advocated for secularity by separation of church and state. According to cultural anthropologists such as Jack David Eller, secularity

3135-438: The valley, and its population is Sunni . Joub Janine is the governmental center of the region known as Western Beqaa, with municipal services like the serail , which is the main government building in the area, emergency medical services ( Red Cross ), a fire department , and a courthouse . Other towns in the Western Beqaa district are Machghara , Sabghine, Kamed al Lawz , Qab Elias , Sohmor , Yohmor . The towns are all

3192-565: Was also worn around the neck as a foulard . Fleece caps and Ushanka -style black or brown fur hats were worn in the winter. Black leather combat boots initially came from Lebanese Army stocks or were provided by the PLO and the Syrians, complemented by high-top Pataugas olive canvas-and-rubber patrol boots. Several models of civilian sneakers or "trainers" were also used by Popular Guard fighters. Web gear consisted of Soviet three-cell AK-47 magazine pouches in khaki or olive green canvas, ChiCom chest rigs in khaki or OG cotton fabric for

3249-630: Was mainly financed by the USSR and Syria, though it also received revenues from other 'unofficial' sources within Lebanon. In the mid-1980s, allied with the Red Knights militia of the Alawite Arab Democratic Party (ADP), they helped the latter to control Tripoli 's commercial harbour and oil refinery – the second large deep-waters port of Lebanon – in collusion with the director of the city’s harbour Ahmad Karami and corrupt Syrian Army officers. The National Fuel Company (NFC) headed jointly by businessmen Maan Karami (brother of late prime-minister Rachid Karami ) and Haj Muhammad Awadah, run in their behalf

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