AboutDavid Expertise I am an expert in Middle Eastern history, and Israeli history in particular. My main focus is Biblical analysis, the origins of Islam, and medieval and modern historical events in Israel. Everything you see happening in the world today, has a history.
Experience I am a free-lance writer who has previously lived in, and studied the history of, Israel.
Organizations I contribute to the One Israel Fund and will be joining CAMERA shortly.
I am American business man originally born and raised in middle east. I will take 3 weeks tourism vacation, and I am confused about where to spend most of my time Amman or Beirut.
I want to socialize with people who can help me accomplish my goal while I am over there. Probably I will spend my time visiting churches. I know that 50% of Lebanon population are Christians, and in Lebanon they have a lot more churches than Amman. Many Christians from Iraq and Syria choose to go to Lebanon because it is a free Christian country, so if Amman is not useful for me, and if it will not help me accomplish my goal, I will bypass Amman and fly directly from USA to Beirut and I will spend the whole 3 weeks in Lebanon.
I am looking for some poor single women who are college graduates, and are interested to go to USA to live and work. Where are the simple, single, educated women located the most in Amman or in Beirut? Where I will more likely find them?
Should I spend one week in Amman/Jordan, and 2 weeks in Beirut? Or I should spend the whole 3 weeks in Beirut instead?
I do not have any friends or relatives in both countries, and I do not know anyone yet in neither Amman nor Beirut, so what do you think or what do you suggest, what is your opinion? How I can make my trip successful?
I am waiting for your reply
Sincerely;
Answer Hi Karam,
To be quite honest with you, both Beirut and Amman have the capabilities to help you reach your goals. But here's a fact to perhaps help you decide which would be better for you. Beirut's Christian population is about 50%. Amman's is about 7%. This means that the rest of the populations of both cities are Muslims, and they don't like Christians very much. However in Beirut, that hate is very limited because of the strong Christian presence there.
The entirety of eastern Beirut is predominantly Christian, especially the Achrafieh and the largely Armenian Bourj Hammoud neighborhoods. I would guess that the majority of Syrian Christians who emigrate to Lebanon tend to settle in east Beirut, not necessarily because Lebanon is free or not free (although freer than Jordan) but because of simple geography. Beirut is closer to them than Amman.
Eastern Amman's Ashrafiyah neighborhood, is also predominantly Christian. Probably the majority of Iraqi Christians settle here because the area is closer to them than Beirut.
If I were you, I'd place ads in the local papers of both cities' Christian areas explaining your business and then you can see what the response will be. Assuming that there will be high responses in both cities, two of the places I recommend for you to conduct business, with the permission of the owners of course, would be the local offices of the Armenian Relief Society in Bourj Hammoud run by its American head offices in Watertown MA, and the Community Developement Centre in Amman run by a partnership between McGill University of Montreal and the Jordanian Red Cross.
