Nour Farra-Haddad | Lebanese University (original) (raw)

Papers by Nour Farra-Haddad

CABI eBooks, Apr 4, 2024

Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christi... more Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christian and Muslim markers in the landscape. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, the development of gigantic Christian projects of huge saint statues and crosses was observed. This trend is related to the development of Religious Tourism, but it is also related to many other considerations as the feeling of some Lebanese Christian being threatened by a growing Muslim population and a growing fanaticism. This paper will address the phenomena of developing Christian gigantic pilgrimages projects all over the country, its touristic, social identity dimensions, and the involvement and impact on local host communities. The selected cases illustrate that the negotiations of spatial and social identities in a context of interreligious coexistence are ongoing projects in the post War. They are also significantly contributing to the development of Religious Tourism supporting local communities’ economies.

New Pilgrimage Routes and Trails (Peter Lang), 2023

Pilgrimage in the Twenty-First Century: A Kaleidoscopic Inquiry, 2024

One automatically associates the southern Lebanese border region with political and security issu... more One automatically associates the southern Lebanese border region with political and security issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Lebanon, only a few kilometers from the border, villages from different religious communities have suffered grievously since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. But they also want to keep hope alive for a better, more peaceful future. Even if this area is associated with the military resistance of the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party Hezbollah, here I
consider civil and religious resistance initiatives in search of peace. Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the invading forces
remained in partial control of what was called the South Lebanon Security
Belt. The localities described in my research study were a part of this belt until its liberation in 2000. In 2006, this area was once again caught in the renewed war between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Many houses in the
villages under scrutiny were destroyed and many of their inhabitants were forced to flee the area. After these war episodes, the villages were rebuilt,
and their inhabitants have slowly reinvested in their properties.
Following 2006, Hezbollah had to withdraw all its weapons from the
border zone, but they continued to claim resistance against Israel. There
soon followed the development of tourism projects along the border, such as the Iran Park in Maroun El Ras, which includes a big picnic area, recreational activities, and on the top of the hill, a mosque that is a replica of El Masjed El Aqsa in Jerusalem. A few kilometers away, in the Christian
village of Ain Ebel, an immense statue of the Virgin Mary elevated over a tower is an ambitious project currently underway: Saydet Em El Nour (Our Lady Mother of Light). Not far from the Christian village of Qawzah is the
hometown of an interreligious solidarity and dialogue initiative: The Ark of Peace, Ya Salam, a project including a zoo, bungalows, and a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of the Ark of Peace.
These three Christian and Muslim projects testify to the importance of peaceful resistance from the standpoint of local host communities. These sanctuaries and shrines aim to attract visitors, offering them not only a
pilgrimage experience but also different types of touristic activities. This chapter explores the objectives of developing such attractions and discusses the involvement of the host communities and the interest of pilgrims and tourists for such peace-building projects.

Religious Tourism and Globalization (CABI), 2024

Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christi... more Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christian and Muslim markers in the landscape. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, the development of gigantic Christian projects of huge saint statues and crosses was observed. This trend is related to the development of Religious Tourism, but it is also related to many other considerations as the feeling of some Lebanese Christian being threatened by a growing Muslim population and a growing fanaticism.
This paper will address the phenomena of developing Christian gigantic pilgrimages projects all over the country, its touristic, social identity dimensions, and the involvement and impact on local host communities.
The selected cases illustrate that the negotiations of spatial and social identities in a context of interreligious coexistence are ongoing projects in the post War. They are also significantly contributing to the development of Religious Tourism supporting local communities’ economies.

Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, 2005

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016

Religious tourism and pilgrimage management: an international perspective (CAIB), 2015

This chapter presents a case study of holy places being used to rebrand Lebanon as a part of the ... more This chapter presents a case study of holy places being used to rebrand Lebanon as a part of the Holy Land. The study focuses on South Lebanon where hundreds of churches, monasteries, mosques, maqâms and mazars are found in and around important cities and small villages. The chapter seeks to understand the desire of integrating the religious sites into the biblical and evangelical tradition, supported by a renewed interest in these shrines and above all the establishment of facilities and programmes to organize visits to such sanctuaries.

Les arts de la couleur en Grèce ancienne… et ailleurs. Approches interdisciplinaires, 2018

Le culte des saints véhicule encore aujourd’hui, au Liban, l’essentiel des dévotions chrétiennes ... more Le culte des saints véhicule encore aujourd’hui, au Liban, l’essentiel des dévotions chrétiennes et musulmanes.
La renommée des lieux de pèlerinages se fonde le plus souvent sur leurs vertus thérapeutiques, attirant des fidèles pour guérir leur âme et leur corps. Chaque sanctuaire propose aux fidèles une série de rites. Plusieurs actions peuvent s’enchaîner et s’agencer pour former une seule démarche votive comme allumer un cierge, brûler de l’encens, embrasser la statue du saint, etc. On s’intéresse ici au rituel du port de l’habit d’un saint et de ses couleurs durant un ou plusieurs mois, voire toute une vie. On évoquera
tous les choix qu’il implique (le saint concerné et ses habits, la durée du port, l’origine des vêtements, la démarche rituelle). Les couleurs des habits de saints seront évoquées en insistant sur ce qu’elles représentent aux yeux des « vouants ».

Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, 2005

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot... more It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and on the surface of a sphere.

Performing Religion: Actors, contexts, and texts, 2017

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1995

Druze Reincarnation Narratives, 2021

Traversées des mémoires en Méditerranée

Mount Hermon, also known as Jabal El Haramoun or Jabal El Sheikh, is the highest peak in the Anti... more Mount Hermon, also known as Jabal El Haramoun or Jabal El Sheikh, is the highest peak in the Anti-Lebanon eastern mountain chain, located between Lebanon, Syria, and the Israeli-Palestinian territories. Since antiquity, this mountain has been considered holy, a fact to which many archaeological remains bear testament. At present, one can count hundreds of religious sites from different religious communities including Christians-Maronite, Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical-as well as Sunnis and Druze. In the Bible we can find more than 70 references to Mount Hermon. It is said locally that Jesus Christ was transfigured at its top. The security issues related to this sensitive area notwithstanding, pilgrimages and rituals take place around Mount Hermon on the western Lebanese slopes, bearing witness to the importance of this sacred mountain in the beliefs of the faithful. This paper explores the inter-sectarian conviviality and natural dialogue that takes place through shared activities, pilgrimages, and rituals around Mount Hermon, contributing to the construction of local and national identities, and preserving the sacredness of the site.

Catherine, a Maronite resident of Nab'a (Beirut), married and the mother of three children, c... more Catherine, a Maronite resident of Nab'a (Beirut), married and the mother of three children, claims that for the past twenty years she has “seen” and been “kidnapped” by the Virgin Mary and the saints. Hundred of Christian and Muslim devotees meet regularly in her house, which has almost been turned into a sanctuary. At Catherine's house, the presence of the divine is built up through an interplay between the visionary, the faithful, the priests and the saints. Every Tuesday the divine manifests itself through the body of the visionary by means of ecstasies and on Good Friday each year stigmata appear on the body of Catherine, on her front, her feet, her hands and her side. The saints, as a spiritual force, overcome her and possess her body. Their interventions seem very precise and ritualized. The miracle expected - "descent of the saints", "divine messages", appearance of the stigmata - is within a spectrum of actions. Our discussion will present the rit...

Les reseaux sociaux vehiculent beaucoup de violence et de guerres interreligieuses, tout comme de... more Les reseaux sociaux vehiculent beaucoup de violence et de guerres interreligieuses, tout comme des courants qui pronent le dialogue et la paix. Des courants principalement menes activement par des jeunes. Les nouvelles technologies et les reseaux sociaux ont un impact important dans le cadre de la culture de la tolerance, de l’amour, de la paix et du dialogue. Facebook compte environ 1, 32 milliards de membres et se caracterise par une diversite au niveau des appartenances religieuses, societales, geographiques, linguistiques. Notre objectif vise a analyser la culture numerique des utilisateurs de Facebook et les modes de creation qu'ils mettent en œuvre dans la diffusion de messages de paix et de tolerance au Liban. Notre analyse portera sur un ensemble de documents (Photos, graphismes, slogans, temoignages…) postes sur Facebook et le role de cette communication mediatique spontanee dans le cadre du maintien du dialogue et de la paix dans un contexte d’insecurite moyen oriental...

The purpose of this chapter is to further explore interfaith pilgrimages in Lebanon through an ex... more The purpose of this chapter is to further explore interfaith pilgrimages in Lebanon through an examination of how elements in the natural landscape, such as trees, water, and stones are utilized by pilgrims. Many religious traditions around the world through human history have utilized these natural elements in religious rituals and religious community-building exercises. The chapter furthermore demonstrates that through interfaith devotions using these natural elements, an inter-sectarian conviviality is experienced by pilgrims that leads to a natural dialogue between them, leading in turn to the development of a culture of peace. This natural dialogue of life is especially vital for promoting a sustainable peace in the region.

CABI eBooks, Apr 4, 2024

Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christi... more Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christian and Muslim markers in the landscape. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, the development of gigantic Christian projects of huge saint statues and crosses was observed. This trend is related to the development of Religious Tourism, but it is also related to many other considerations as the feeling of some Lebanese Christian being threatened by a growing Muslim population and a growing fanaticism. This paper will address the phenomena of developing Christian gigantic pilgrimages projects all over the country, its touristic, social identity dimensions, and the involvement and impact on local host communities. The selected cases illustrate that the negotiations of spatial and social identities in a context of interreligious coexistence are ongoing projects in the post War. They are also significantly contributing to the development of Religious Tourism supporting local communities’ economies.

New Pilgrimage Routes and Trails (Peter Lang), 2023

Pilgrimage in the Twenty-First Century: A Kaleidoscopic Inquiry, 2024

One automatically associates the southern Lebanese border region with political and security issu... more One automatically associates the southern Lebanese border region with political and security issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Lebanon, only a few kilometers from the border, villages from different religious communities have suffered grievously since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. But they also want to keep hope alive for a better, more peaceful future. Even if this area is associated with the military resistance of the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party Hezbollah, here I
consider civil and religious resistance initiatives in search of peace. Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the invading forces
remained in partial control of what was called the South Lebanon Security
Belt. The localities described in my research study were a part of this belt until its liberation in 2000. In 2006, this area was once again caught in the renewed war between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Many houses in the
villages under scrutiny were destroyed and many of their inhabitants were forced to flee the area. After these war episodes, the villages were rebuilt,
and their inhabitants have slowly reinvested in their properties.
Following 2006, Hezbollah had to withdraw all its weapons from the
border zone, but they continued to claim resistance against Israel. There
soon followed the development of tourism projects along the border, such as the Iran Park in Maroun El Ras, which includes a big picnic area, recreational activities, and on the top of the hill, a mosque that is a replica of El Masjed El Aqsa in Jerusalem. A few kilometers away, in the Christian
village of Ain Ebel, an immense statue of the Virgin Mary elevated over a tower is an ambitious project currently underway: Saydet Em El Nour (Our Lady Mother of Light). Not far from the Christian village of Qawzah is the
hometown of an interreligious solidarity and dialogue initiative: The Ark of Peace, Ya Salam, a project including a zoo, bungalows, and a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of the Ark of Peace.
These three Christian and Muslim projects testify to the importance of peaceful resistance from the standpoint of local host communities. These sanctuaries and shrines aim to attract visitors, offering them not only a
pilgrimage experience but also different types of touristic activities. This chapter explores the objectives of developing such attractions and discusses the involvement of the host communities and the interest of pilgrims and tourists for such peace-building projects.

Religious Tourism and Globalization (CABI), 2024

Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christi... more Constantly evolving, sacred geographies in Lebanon testify to the importance of religious Christian and Muslim markers in the landscape. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, the development of gigantic Christian projects of huge saint statues and crosses was observed. This trend is related to the development of Religious Tourism, but it is also related to many other considerations as the feeling of some Lebanese Christian being threatened by a growing Muslim population and a growing fanaticism.
This paper will address the phenomena of developing Christian gigantic pilgrimages projects all over the country, its touristic, social identity dimensions, and the involvement and impact on local host communities.
The selected cases illustrate that the negotiations of spatial and social identities in a context of interreligious coexistence are ongoing projects in the post War. They are also significantly contributing to the development of Religious Tourism supporting local communities’ economies.

Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, 2005

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016

Religious tourism and pilgrimage management: an international perspective (CAIB), 2015

This chapter presents a case study of holy places being used to rebrand Lebanon as a part of the ... more This chapter presents a case study of holy places being used to rebrand Lebanon as a part of the Holy Land. The study focuses on South Lebanon where hundreds of churches, monasteries, mosques, maqâms and mazars are found in and around important cities and small villages. The chapter seeks to understand the desire of integrating the religious sites into the biblical and evangelical tradition, supported by a renewed interest in these shrines and above all the establishment of facilities and programmes to organize visits to such sanctuaries.

Les arts de la couleur en Grèce ancienne… et ailleurs. Approches interdisciplinaires, 2018

Le culte des saints véhicule encore aujourd’hui, au Liban, l’essentiel des dévotions chrétiennes ... more Le culte des saints véhicule encore aujourd’hui, au Liban, l’essentiel des dévotions chrétiennes et musulmanes.
La renommée des lieux de pèlerinages se fonde le plus souvent sur leurs vertus thérapeutiques, attirant des fidèles pour guérir leur âme et leur corps. Chaque sanctuaire propose aux fidèles une série de rites. Plusieurs actions peuvent s’enchaîner et s’agencer pour former une seule démarche votive comme allumer un cierge, brûler de l’encens, embrasser la statue du saint, etc. On s’intéresse ici au rituel du port de l’habit d’un saint et de ses couleurs durant un ou plusieurs mois, voire toute une vie. On évoquera
tous les choix qu’il implique (le saint concerné et ses habits, la durée du port, l’origine des vêtements, la démarche rituelle). Les couleurs des habits de saints seront évoquées en insistant sur ce qu’elles représentent aux yeux des « vouants ».

Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient, 2005

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot... more It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and on the surface of a sphere.

Performing Religion: Actors, contexts, and texts, 2017

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1995

Druze Reincarnation Narratives, 2021

Traversées des mémoires en Méditerranée

Mount Hermon, also known as Jabal El Haramoun or Jabal El Sheikh, is the highest peak in the Anti... more Mount Hermon, also known as Jabal El Haramoun or Jabal El Sheikh, is the highest peak in the Anti-Lebanon eastern mountain chain, located between Lebanon, Syria, and the Israeli-Palestinian territories. Since antiquity, this mountain has been considered holy, a fact to which many archaeological remains bear testament. At present, one can count hundreds of religious sites from different religious communities including Christians-Maronite, Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical-as well as Sunnis and Druze. In the Bible we can find more than 70 references to Mount Hermon. It is said locally that Jesus Christ was transfigured at its top. The security issues related to this sensitive area notwithstanding, pilgrimages and rituals take place around Mount Hermon on the western Lebanese slopes, bearing witness to the importance of this sacred mountain in the beliefs of the faithful. This paper explores the inter-sectarian conviviality and natural dialogue that takes place through shared activities, pilgrimages, and rituals around Mount Hermon, contributing to the construction of local and national identities, and preserving the sacredness of the site.

Catherine, a Maronite resident of Nab'a (Beirut), married and the mother of three children, c... more Catherine, a Maronite resident of Nab'a (Beirut), married and the mother of three children, claims that for the past twenty years she has “seen” and been “kidnapped” by the Virgin Mary and the saints. Hundred of Christian and Muslim devotees meet regularly in her house, which has almost been turned into a sanctuary. At Catherine's house, the presence of the divine is built up through an interplay between the visionary, the faithful, the priests and the saints. Every Tuesday the divine manifests itself through the body of the visionary by means of ecstasies and on Good Friday each year stigmata appear on the body of Catherine, on her front, her feet, her hands and her side. The saints, as a spiritual force, overcome her and possess her body. Their interventions seem very precise and ritualized. The miracle expected - "descent of the saints", "divine messages", appearance of the stigmata - is within a spectrum of actions. Our discussion will present the rit...

Les reseaux sociaux vehiculent beaucoup de violence et de guerres interreligieuses, tout comme de... more Les reseaux sociaux vehiculent beaucoup de violence et de guerres interreligieuses, tout comme des courants qui pronent le dialogue et la paix. Des courants principalement menes activement par des jeunes. Les nouvelles technologies et les reseaux sociaux ont un impact important dans le cadre de la culture de la tolerance, de l’amour, de la paix et du dialogue. Facebook compte environ 1, 32 milliards de membres et se caracterise par une diversite au niveau des appartenances religieuses, societales, geographiques, linguistiques. Notre objectif vise a analyser la culture numerique des utilisateurs de Facebook et les modes de creation qu'ils mettent en œuvre dans la diffusion de messages de paix et de tolerance au Liban. Notre analyse portera sur un ensemble de documents (Photos, graphismes, slogans, temoignages…) postes sur Facebook et le role de cette communication mediatique spontanee dans le cadre du maintien du dialogue et de la paix dans un contexte d’insecurite moyen oriental...

The purpose of this chapter is to further explore interfaith pilgrimages in Lebanon through an ex... more The purpose of this chapter is to further explore interfaith pilgrimages in Lebanon through an examination of how elements in the natural landscape, such as trees, water, and stones are utilized by pilgrims. Many religious traditions around the world through human history have utilized these natural elements in religious rituals and religious community-building exercises. The chapter furthermore demonstrates that through interfaith devotions using these natural elements, an inter-sectarian conviviality is experienced by pilgrims that leads to a natural dialogue between them, leading in turn to the development of a culture of peace. This natural dialogue of life is especially vital for promoting a sustainable peace in the region.