Le Pen refuses headscarf in Beirut

beirut - A Sunni leader in Lebanon, Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian, on Tuesday refused to meet the French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen because they did not wear a headscarf. Le Pen is visiting Lebanon to strengthen its international status as a presidential candidate and because her National Front (FN) according to French media has long ties with members of the Christian community in Lebanon.

Members of the National Front, including Le Pen's father, FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, supported in the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) Christian leaders.

The right-wing populist Le Pen is fiercely anti-Islam and anti-EU. The tiny Lebanon is historically a French invention. The country, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire by French directors in life groups as a state in the Middle East with a Christian majority. Christians are now more than 40 percent of population.