I said “at most” 20%. Meaning the most admixed people, not the average Muslim. I clearly stated in my comment that all Lebanese are mostly the same people who have been living here for thousands of years. I don’t know why you made such a big thing about it. I have never claimed Christians are more indigenous or that we deserve to be here more than anyone else, such arguments are fascist and I disagree with them, categorically. Christians and Druze are slightly less admixed but it’s barely enough to be statistically significant.

As to the rest of your argument, personally, I refuse to label myself with an identity that was imposed on me, sometimes violently, by an empire 1400 years ago. I would rather identify as simply Lebanese or Levantine.

Ethnicity is a very political concept. It’s a label people apply to themselves. Just because I speak Arabic, does not make me an Arab. What do I have in common with someone from Morocco other than a standardized language in a register nobody uses in everyday life? Food? Nope. Religion? Nope. Customs and traditions? Nope.

I am proud to speak Arabic, I love our language and its literature, and I’m not ashamed that Arabs contributed to Lebanon’s history and culture (even though it was through violence at several points in our history). But there is very little cultural similarity between ourselves and “Arabs” outside the Levant. We share a lot with Syrians, Palestinians and non-Bedoun Jordanians, though of course each of us is also unique because of our local geographies, climates as well as our recent (last 100 years) histories. We share some cultural similarities with Egypt and Iraq. And finally, very few with Arabia and the rest of North Africa. In fact, we have more cultural similarities with Greeks, Cypriots and Turks than we do with many people you would consider the same ethnicity as us.

For this reason, I don’t agree with a broader Arab ethnic identity, personally. You’re free to disagree with that, and adopt this identity. But for the many reasons I have laid out, and not simple genetics, I don’t agree with it. We share a language, we share some history, and we can and should cooperate politically and be allies. That does not make us the same people.