THREAD (1/7) Greater #Lebanon was inaugurated by the French on September 1 1920 after incorporating mainly Muslim former Ottoman regions to Maronite Christian dominated Mount Lebanon.

(2/7) Today, Lebanon celebrates the 100th anniversary of the declaration of Greater #Lebanon with French president, @EmmanuelMacron visiting Lebanon to mark the occasion.

(3/7) Few comments: When WWI ended, #France declared itself as the savior of Lebanese by installing a sectarian power-sharing system where access to political office and political representation was defined along the lines of what religion you belong to.

(4/7) That sectarian system laid the seeds for the deep divisions within Lebanese politics that we all now know too well and facilitated a corrupt, incompetent and immoral political elite to dictate control of state institutions and revenues...

(5/7) ... through an intricate web of clientelist networks co-opting large segments of the Lebanese to safeguard that they remain unequal citizens, rather than citizens with absolute rights.

(6/7) The notion that religious diversity in the #Levant is inherently sectarian unless managed by Western power is one of the many legacies of French #orientalism and #colonialism.

(7/7) On the 100th anniversary, I remind #Arabs that the region had a long history of coexistence before Western colonialism.