Lebanese Americans Support Reforms in Former Homeland

By Judi Dalati
Capital News Service

RICHMOND — Mayda Topoushian was born in Lebanon, and in recent weeks, she has been closely following the news from her former homeland, where citizens are revolting against the corruption and sectarian political system she has always condemned.

“The only way out of this mess in the Middle East is to take religion out of the public sphere and leave it in the private sphere. Secularism for me is the only way out,” said Topoushian, an assistant professor in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Many people in Lebanon agree. Millions of them have taken to the streets in the largest demonstrations in almost 15 years to protest the political order that pits the country’s 18 officially recognized religious groups against one another. The protests prompted the country’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, to resign on Monday.

It’s no surprise that many people in the U.S. have been riveted by the developments: A half-million Americans have Lebanese ancestry. They make up the largest Arab ethnic group in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lebanese Americans have been vocal in their support of the revolt in their home country, where demonstrators are not only calling for the abolishment of the sectarian system but also protesting rising taxes and deteriorating living standards.

“I hope that this revolution brings hope and change to Lebanon. We want to see that!” said Maya Khoury, a Lebanese American who graduated last year from VCU. “It’s going to be a tough road ahead. But if the Lebanese stick together as they have been under one flag the past two weeks, then it can be accomplished. I have faith in them.”

Khoury was one of the founders of the Lebanese Student Association at VCU. The group promotes Lebanese culture and heritage on campus.

“I’m proud to be American. This country is the land of opportunity, and I’m grateful to be able to live here,” Khoury said. “My heart is definitely in Lebanon. I have a lot of family and friends there, and my heart breaks for them. I love my roots, my culture, and we embrace it as much as possible in the U.S.”

Khoury and Topoushian are among about 14,000 Virginians with Lebanese heritage.

Topoushian was part of a wave of immigrants who fled Lebanon due to a brutal civil war that took place from the 1970s until the 1990s. It was the biggest diaspora in the country’s history.

“I saw the ugly face of humanity. I didn’t see an end to the war, and I knew it was important for me to leave. And more importantly, I was aware of the fact that leaving by myself was much easier than having to wait there and marry someone and have a family,” Topoushian said.

“I remember very vividly the long line in front of the U.S Embassy in Damascus. I would see tons of Lebanese people coming out crying that they were denied.”

Lebanese Americans sometimes struggle with their national identity.

“I think what happens to people like me is that you live in a somehow identity crisis. You are always nostalgic and longing,” Topoushian said. “In other words, you don’t necessarily fit completely in the U.S., but also when you go back to Lebanon, you don’t say ‘I’m home’ because all the things that prompted me to leave are still there.”

Those things include harrowing memories of the civil war.

“There were beheadings happening — all the parties that participated in the war did it. Let’s say I’m a Christian and somehow, I found myself in an area controlled by the Shi’a: You will be kidnapped just because you’re a Christian and you will be beheaded, and your body will be discarded,” Topoushian said.

“Back at that time, sects and religions were written on IDs. I thought that was horrendous and barbaric that people are being kidnapped, dismembered and beheaded just because of their religion.”

Topoushian received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Lebanese University in Beirut in 1982. Later, she left the country and earned her master’s degree in international affairs from Ohio University in 1988 and a Ph.D. in communication studies from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, in 2002.

At VCU, Topoushian teaches courses on topics ranging from globalization and media coverage of the Middle East to cross-cultural communication and hip-hop in North Africa.

She left Lebanon not just for her own safety but also to fulfill her mother’s wishes.

“My mother was diagnosed with cancer and died when I was 23 years old. Her dying wish to my father was to let me leave,” Topoushian said.

Lebanese Americans: By the numbers

About 497,000 Americans are of Lebanese origin, according to data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. The states with the most people with Lebanese ancestry are Michigan (about 57,000) and California (56,000).

About 24% of all Arab Americans have Lebanese heritage. That proportion varies by state. For instance, there are only about 1,200 Arab Americans in Vermont, but 87% of them are Lebanese. Lebanese Americans make up about 43% of the 79,000 Arab Americans in Massachusetts.

Approximately 78,000 people with Arab heritage live in Virginia, and around 18% of them trace their roots to Lebanon.

Nearly 12,000 Lebanese Americans live in the Washington, D.C., metro area. About 4,300 reside in the Richmond area and 1,500 in Hampton Roads.

Many Americans of Lebanese descent have achieved distinction and fame in a range of fields, including:

• Entertainment, such as the radio personality Casey Kasem and the actor Tony Shalhoub.
• Public policy, including Donna Shalala, former U.S. secretary of health and human services and now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida, and Candy Lightner, founder of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.
• And sports, like former NBA star Rony Seikaly and Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors.

We have posted online data from the Census Bureau about how many people in each state and metro area trace their roots to Lebanon.