BEIRUT: The Lebanese people should exert all efforts to abort attempts to undermine the nation by hanging on tenaciously to state institutions and reinstating the Sunni role in the state administration, Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian said Friday.
“As [true] Lebanese, our program should be a united nation, a unified state, a united Army and a united living. I call on all the Lebanese to stick to the nation and the state regardless of how much energy and effort it takes,” Derian said in an address marking the Islamic New Year, which starts Saturday.
The mufti deplored the marginalization of Sunni leadership following the Feb. 14, 2005, assassination of Future Movement founder and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which he said wreaked destruction and chaos in Lebanon.
“The Taif accord ended the Civil War, after which the Lebanese were engaged in rebuilding the state, but since 2005, we are witnessing persisting attempts to undermine the state, which had cost the Lebanese a lot of sweat and blood,” Derian said.
He warned that Lebanon, which “could not be partitioned” during 15 years of Civil War, “is currently being destroyed and dissolved through the dissemination of extremism and chaos and the marginalization of Muslims [Sunnis] from public affairs.”
“On the occasion of the holy Islamic New Year, I urge all Muslim and true believers to learn from the [teachings] of the prophet how to confront extremism that seeks to exterminate people and displace them from their home, land and nation,” Derian added.
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