Dr Zalloua says in Lebanon the Phoenician signature is
distributed equally among different groups and that the overall
genetic make-up of the Lebanese is proving to be similar across
various backgrounds. "Whether you take a Christian village in
the north of Lebanon or a Muslim village in the south, the DNA
make-up of its residents is likely to be identical," says Dr
Zalloua. But, from another older BBC story referring to the
actual study: The team analysed the Y chromosomes of 926
Lebanese males and found that patterns of male genetic variation
in Lebanon fell more along religious lines than along
geographical lines. and from the study itself: In the present
study, 926 Lebanese men were typed with Y-chromosomal SNP and
STR markers, and unusually, male genetic variation within
Lebanon was found to be more strongly structured by religious
affiliation than by geography.We therefore tested the hypothesis
that migrations within historical times could have contributed
to this situation. Y-haplogroup J*(xJ2) was mor