“THE ROLE OF LEBANON IN PREVENTING AND COUNTERING VIOLENT

EXTREMISM THROUGH EDUCATION”

Lebanon, country located on the eastern shore of the Mediteranean Sea; it consists of
a narrow strip of territory and is one of the world’s smailer sovereign states. The capital is
Beirut. Lebanon became a republic in 1926 and achieved independence in 1943. Lebanon
shares many of the cultural characteristics of the Arab world, yet it has attributes that
differentiate it from many of its Arab neighbours. Its rugged, mountainous terrain has served
throughout history as an asylum for diverse religious and ethnic groups and for political
dissident. Lebanon is one of the most densely populated countries in the Mediterranean area
and has a high rate of literacy. Not with standing its meagre natural resources. Lebanon long
managed to serve as a busy commercial and cultural centre for the Middle East.

This outward image of vitality and growth nevertheless disguised serious problems.
Not only did Lebanon have to grapple with internal problems of social and economic
organization, but it also had to struggle to define its position in relation to Israel, to its Arab
neighbours, and to Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The delicate balance of Lebanese
confessionalism (the proportional sharing of power between the country’s religious
communities) was eroded under the pressures of this struggle; communal rivalries over
political power, exacerbated by the complex issues that arose from the question of Palestinian
presence and from a growing “state within a state,” led to the outbreak of an extremely
damaging civil war in 1975 and a breakdown of the governmental system. After the end of
the civil war in 1990, Lebanon gradually reclaimed a degree of relative socioeconomic and
political stability; because of the continued problems of external intervention and troubled
confessional relations, however, many of Lebanon’s challenges persisted into the early 21st
century.

The education system in Lebanon is centralized and managed through the regional
education bureau which is under the auspices of the ministry of education. Public schools are
supervised by regional education bureaus in each district or governorate. The regional
education bureau serves as a liaison between public schools and the directorate of education
at the Lebanese education ministry headquarters. While private schools have their own
organizations, although they are still subject to the authority of the ministry of education.
Public schools are funded by the Ministry of Education, while private schools are funded by
students (most parents of students from this school generally have a fairly well-established
economy). Part of the cost of education in Lebanon is taken from non-government funds such
as assistance from private companies to international bodies such as the World Bank and the
United Nation Development Program (UNDP).
The Lebanese community is one of the people with an adequate level of education in
the Middle East. The literacy rate of the population is around 86 percent. Five-year basic
education is an obligation and is free of charge. A good level of education in Lebanon has
placed Lebanon at number 80 in the ranking of the Human Development Index in 2004.
While in the environment of 20 Arab countries Lebanon is ranked 8th.
The image of Lebanon like other East-central countries that are so Islamic, with robes,
veils, many pious people, and Islamic culture, might be a big mistake and one of them might
even suffer from a heart attack when they see beautiful women with swaddles like walk on
the catwalk. Shocked!! It turns out that Lebanon's conditions are not the same as what we
imagined, very liberal compared to other Arab countries. This was also observed by John
Karta Sasmita seeing that Lebanon was the "Paris" of the Middle East. Likewise with
religious education in Lebanon, students only learn the basics of their religion. The majority
of the community directs their children to study general fields. To the extent that even in
special religious schools priority courses are prioritized, whether in public or private schools.
At present the incessant infiltration of radicalism ideology needs to be resisted by
strengthening character education in children. Especially on nationalist values which include
love for the country, respect for diversity, and respect for differences in beliefs. Radicalism
among students really needs to be a concern and needs to be prevented from spreading. There
are ways to suppress radicalism. Of course by creating a superior civilization. It should be
remembered that Islam should not be understood to be limited to spiritual activities only, but
must be through the world of Islamic education as a whole. Through proper Islamic education
it is expected to create a generation that has character education. Namely the character into
the spiritual, the majesty of morals, the breadth of knowledge and professional maturity. If
this is achieved, radicalism and extremism can really be suppressed.
Radicalism is the efforts of certain people to make changes to their roots. Radicalism
is also an attempt to make changes in the mind and order of the basic society in any way,
even with extreme actions and violence. The notion of radicalism is dangerous for efforts to
build togetherness, brotherhood, because it can cause other side effects, namely violence,
even often lead to violence with the occurrence of bomb blasts, killings and others because
they think the other is not in accordance with his ideology.
 Therefore character education in Lebanon needs to be invested especially in the
family environment because it is an effective effort to prevent radicalism and violence in the
younger generation. Family is the most important environment in the effort to shape the
character of children so that if character education has been built well, it will avoid acts of
violence and radicalism.

Bibliography
http://anitaagaluh.blogspot.com/2014/07/negara-libanon.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Lebanon