Editing Druze (section)

=== In Lebanon ===
{{Main|Druze in Lebanon}}
[[File:Prophet Job Shrine.jpg|thumb|[[Job (Bible)|Prophet Job]] shrine in [[Niha, Chouf|Niha village]] in the [[Chouf]] region of Lebanon.<ref>{{cite book |title=Religious Diversity Today: Experiencing Religion in the Contemporary World [3 volumes]: Experiencing Religion in the Contemporary World |first=Anastasia |last=Panagakos |year=2015 |isbn=9781440833328 |page=99 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |quote=}}</ref>]]
[[File:Hasbaya 1967.webm|thumb|A market in a Lebanese Druze town called [[Hasbaya]], 1967]]
The Druzite community in Lebanon played an important role in the formation of the modern state of Lebanon,<ref name="Deeb 2013">{{cite book |title=Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah: The Unholy Alliance and Its War on Lebanon |first=Marius |last=Deeb |year=2013 |isbn=9780817916664 |publisher=Hoover Press |quote=the Maronites and the Druze, who founded Lebanon in the early eighteenth century.}}</ref> and even though they are a minority they play an important role in the Lebanese political scene. Before and during the [[Lebanese Civil War]] (1975–90), the Druze were in favor of [[Pan-Arabism]] and [[Palestinian political violence|Palestinian resistance]] represented by the [[PLO]]. Most of the community supported the [[Progressive Socialist Party]] formed by their leader [[Kamal Jumblatt]] and they fought alongside other leftist and Palestinian parties against the [[Lebanese Front]] that was mainly constituted of [[Christians]]. At the time, the Lebanese government and economy were running under the significant influence of [[elite]]s within the [[Lebanese Maronite Christians|Maronite Christian community]].<ref>[[Marcia C. Inhorn|Inhorn, Marcia C.]], and Soraya Tremayne. 2012. ''Islam and Assisted Reproductive Technologies''. p. 238.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6932786.stm |title=Who are the Maronites? |work=[[BBC News]] |date=6 August 2007}}</ref> After the assassination of [[Kamal Jumblatt]] on 16 March 1977, his son [[Walid Jumblatt]] took the leadership of the party and played an important role in preserving his father's legacy after winning the [[Mountain War]] and sustained the existence of the Druze community during the sectarian bloodshed that lasted until 1990.

In August 2001, [[Maronite Christians in Lebanon|Maronite Catholic]] [[Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir|Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir]] toured the predominantly Druze [[Chouf District|Chouf region]] of [[Mount Lebanon]] and visited [[Mukhtara]], the ancestral stronghold of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. The tumultuous reception that Sfeir received not only signified a historic reconciliation between [[Maronites]] and Druze, who had fought a bloody war in 1983–1984, but underscored the fact that the banner of Lebanese sovereignty had broad multi-confessional appeal<ref>{{Citation|publisher=Meib |url=http://www.meib.org/articles/0305_ld.htm |format=dossier |title=Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir |date=May 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030611090352/http://meib.org/articles/0305_ld.htm |archive-date=11 June 2003}}</ref> and was a cornerstone for the [[Cedar Revolution]] in 2005. Jumblatt's post-2005 position diverged sharply from the tradition of his family. He also accused [[Damascus]] of being behind the 1977 assassination of his father, Kamal Jumblatt, expressing for the first time what many knew he privately suspected. The [[BBC]] describes Jumblatt as "the leader of Lebanon's most powerful Druze clan and heir to a leftist political dynasty".<ref name=bbc>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4348129.stm|title=Who's who in Lebanon|work=BBC News|date=14 March 2005|access-date=13 August 2011}}</ref> The second largest political party supported by Druze is the [[Lebanese Democratic Party]] led by [[Talal Arslan|Prince Talal Arslan]], the son of Lebanese independence hero [[Emir Majid Arslan II|Emir Majid Arslan]].

The Druze community is primarily located in the rural and mountainous regions to the east and south of Beirut.<ref>[https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/256489.pdf Lebanon 2015 International Religious Freedom Report] U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2019-04-23.</ref> They represent approximately 5.2 percent of Lebanon's population and are spread across 136 villages in areas such as [[Hasbaya District|Hasbaya]], [[Rashaya District|Rashaya]], [[Chouf District|Chouf]], [[Chouf District|Aley]], [[Marjeyoun District|Marjeyoun]] and [[Beirut]]. The Druze make up the majority in [[Aley]], [[Baakleen]], [[Hasbaya]] and [[Rashaya]]. Specifically, they constitute over half of the population in the [[Aley District]], about a third in the [[Rashaya District]], and around a quarter in both the [[Chouf]] and [[Matn District]]s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Lebanon in Strife: Student Preludes to the Civil War |last=Barakat |first=Halim |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-292-73981-9|publisher=University of Texas Press}}</ref>