Lebanese Can Omit Confessional Category from IDs

An interesting little item worth noting: the Lebanese Interior Ministry has ruled that Lebanese have the right to omit their confessional affililiation from their ID cards. While the ruling asserts it is only enforcing a constitutional provision, the fact that most state posts in Lebanon are carefully allocated according to confessional identity (the President a Maronite, Prime Minister a Sunni, Speaker a Shi'i, and so on right down to the seats in Parliament and senior security posts, etc.) make this something of an innovation. On the other hand, anyone choosing to leave their confessional affiliation off their ID might find it hard to rise in politics, which is so confessionally-based.

I think many Westerners are often surprised when they travel to the Middle East to sometimes be asked their religious affiliation before they are asked what country they are from, but it is a deeply-rooted characteristic of the region, though nowhere more profoundly than in Lebanon.