Expenses of Islamic Bodies

In the 2015 draft public budget, as was the case in the previous budgets, roughly LBP 27.7 billion were allocated to Islamic bodies compared to LBP 4.1 billion given to Christian religious courts. The share of Islamic bodies and courts rose from  LBP 11.3 billion in 2005, i.e. up by roughly LBP 16.4 billion or 145%, whereas total public budget expenditures rose by 134%.

 

Spending on Islamic religious entities was distributed as illustrated in Table 1, with the Shia’a obtaining the largest share:

    Shia’a: LBP 9.693 billion

    Sunni: LBP 7.206 billion

    Druze: LBP 4.586 billion 

    Alawite: LBP 966 million
 












 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An allocation worth LBP 4.1 billion has been assigned to Christian religious courts under the item ‘Contributions to Private Entities- Christian Religious Courts’ in the Ministry of Justice’s budget in 2015, up from LBP 4.04 billion in 2005, i.e. an increase of LBP 60 million or 1.5% only. This contribution though accounts for only 15% of the allocations designated to Islamic entities and courts. In fact, the interrelation of religious courts with the state raises several questions: Why are the Lebanese required to fund these courts to begin with? How are the shares distributed and why aren’t they proportional with the size of each religious community? Finally, why does the state finance religious entities yet insists on prohibiting civil marriage?