Review: Bring down the Walls
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600318 |
| Author | Paul Kingston |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
elementary
facts
of
Rwandan history
is
cruelly
apparent.
Thus,
much
to
his surprise,
the
reader
is
told that
'over
several
centuries
prior
to
inde-
pendence,
Rwanda
and
Burundi
formed
one
country'
(p
3)
and
that
'the
French
were
one
of
the
colonial
powers
in
the
1940s
and
1950s
to
have
seen
the
inequity
of
the
minority
dominating
the
majority'
(p
4).
In
the
two
weeks
that
the
author
spent
in
New
York
being
briefed
for
the
job,
he admits to having
enjoyed 'Brahms,
the
finest restaurants
in
New
York,
the morning
jogs
around
Central
Park
and
the
best
Cuban
cigars'
(p
10).
There
was
evidently
no
time
in
this
busy
schedule
for
some
serious
read-
ing
about
the
history
and
politics
of
the
country
to which
he
was
about
to
be
appointed.
Could
this
also
help explain
the
less
than
successful
record
of
the
United
Nations
in
post-genocide Rwanda?
Rend
Lemarchand/University
of
Florida
BRING
DOWN
THE
WALLS
Lebanon's
post-war
challenge
Carole
H.
Dagher
New
York:
St
Martin's,
2000,
xv,
24
8pp, us$39.95,
ISBN
0-312-22920-8
This
is
a
book at
once
about
religious
conflict,
inter-religious
dia-
logue,
and
the
role
of
religious
actors
-
in
particular
the
Vatican
-
in
peace
and
reconciliation
processes.
The
setting
is
postwar
Lebanon,
and, although
the
focus
is
on
postwar dilemmas
of
its
Maronite
Christian
community,
Dagher
places
these
concerns
within
the
broad-
er
context
of
the
decline
of
the
Middle
East's
Christian
heritage.
Threatened
by
the
regional
rise
of
communalism,
sectarianism,
and
Islamism
since
1948,
disillusioned
by
their
own
church
leadership,
and
attracted
by
the
allure
of
opportunities
in
the
West,
Middle
East
Christians
have
been leaving
the
region
in
droves.
Once
18
per
cent
of
the
regional
population
in
1948,
the
Christian
community
in
the
Middle
East
has
declined
to
just
over
two per
cent
in
1999
(p
11).
How to
stop
the
trend?
The
question
is
crucial, especially
for
the
Christian
communities
of
Lebanon, now
in
the
minority and
beset
by
the
legacy
of
violent
intra-communal
conflict
during
the
war.
The
thrust
of
Dagher's
argument,
although
her
own
views are
never
really
made
explicit,
is
that
the
answer
does
not
lie
in
dlite
clerically
led
inter-
religious
dialogue,
which
has
'often been
ruptured
by
harsh polemics
and
loaded
with
suspicion'
(p
5).
Rather,
the
answer
lies
in
the
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer2001
S43
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