Religious and political leaders urge unity in face of takfiri threat

BEIRUT: The different religious groups of the Middle East must remain united in the face of “takfiri” attempts to divide them, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday, during a conference that brought together top religious and political officials.

“The longtime coexistence between the followers of different religions in this region of the world ... has been subjected to two attacks, one old and one recent,” Salam said.

The first attack, Salam said, was with the rise of the Zionist project and the creation of a “religious and racist” state on Palestinian land, undermining the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

“The new model, that is not less wicked than the Zionist one, is this evil and dark takfiri wave that is holding the banner of Islam, while Islam disowns it,” Salam said, adding that this rise of takfiri groups could only be fought through unity.

Salam called on the Muslims of Lebanon and the Arab world to reject extremism and defend “moderate and open-minded Islam” in order to protect Christians’ right to remain in the region.

“I also call upon the Christian Lebanese and Arabs to fully engage in shaping the destiny of their societies and nations in this historical, difficult phase that these nations are experiencing,” Salam said.

Salam’s comments came during a conference titled “The Family and the Challenges of the Era in the Middle East,” which was hosted at the International Center for Civilization Dialogue and sponsored by Gregory III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The event took place at the center’s headquarters in Rabweh, Metn.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, Druze Spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hasan, Culture Minister Raymond Areiji, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and former minister Nicolas Sehnaoui also delivered speeches at the conference.

Former President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun were present.

The officials’ speeches stressed Christian-Muslim unity, as well as denouncing fundamentalism.

“Christians are not foreign expatriates in this east. They are its people and an essential part of the light shining from its front,” Salam said. “They should not be treated as if their presence is an event, and they should not act as if their presence is temporary.”

Salam’s call was echoed by Derian, who urged Christians to hold onto their land and said an attack on Christians was an attack on all.

“We are facing a destructive phenomenon that is not targeting the Christians alone, but the Muslims and Christians together,” Derian said, referring to attacks by Islamist groups against the Christians of Iraq and Syria. “The culture of Muslim-Christian coexistence is a fundamental pillar of our religious doctrine.”

The mufti added that extremists were carrying out crimes against humanity in the name of Islam.