<story><title>What Beirut was like before the war (2019)</title><url>https://www.the961.com/this-is-what-beirut-was-like-before-the-war/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Lots of places in the Middle East were more European like this before the colonial influences weakened and the Muslim majority populations got back more power over their own countries. Egypt and Iran are similar. The nostalgia is somewhat uncomfortable because in some respects things were better because they were better, but in others it’s the perception of things being better because they’re more relatable to Europeans.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>james-redwood</author><text>Lebanon became independent in 1945. Civil war began in 1975, largely as a result of radical Islamist Palestinians who had left Palestine and wanted an Islamic state in Lebanon.
 Lebanon beforehand, it is important to note, was not Muslim majority at all. It was Christian and Druze, and that was the very foundation of the country itself. It was never the country of Muslims in the first place.&lt;p&gt;Iran was also never colonised by European countries. Its decline began with both theocratic rule as well as sanctions, but even despite this it’s still remarkably functional and developed in comparison to a ton of countries that weren’t put in such a position.</text></comment>
<story><title>What Beirut was like before the war (2019)</title><url>https://www.the961.com/this-is-what-beirut-was-like-before-the-war/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>Lots of places in the Middle East were more European like this before the colonial influences weakened and the Muslim majority populations got back more power over their own countries. Egypt and Iran are similar. The nostalgia is somewhat uncomfortable because in some respects things were better because they were better, but in others it’s the perception of things being better because they’re more relatable to Europeans.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bnralt</author><text>France didn&amp;#x27;t control Lebanon for long, less than three decades and never as a colony. These pictures here were taken a couple of decades after Lebanese independence. I imagine the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the resulting turmoil has more to do with the upheaval we see in the region than the Europeans leaving after their relatively brief period of control.&lt;p&gt;And Iran was never colonized (Egypt&amp;#x27;s a bit more complex, though it wasn&amp;#x27;t simplistically colonized).</text></comment>