Beirut Likely to Become Permanent Base for Inter-Religious Dialogue
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed on Wednesday a report that he is exerting efforts to make Beirut a permanent base for dialogue among religions and different confessions.
In remarks to the new administrative authority of Arab newspaper reporters, Berri said he began working on his idea through contacts with several officials in the past few months.
“We can’t stand idle to what’s going on in the region and we seek to come up with ideas that contribute to making Lebanon a true oasis,” he said.
His remarks came after An Nahar newspaper reported Monday that Berri is setting the stage for a conference set to bring together the religious leaders of different sects in Lebanon and the region to stress the importance of dialogue among all religions.
The speaker warned of a plot aimed at stirring crises in the Arab world.
“Arabism is in danger and Arabs are in desperate need for a law that would abolish sectarianism,” he said.
Berri also defended the government’s decision to steer itself clear of the developments in Syria, saying “the path that the Lebanese state took is sane and wise.”
“It falls in the interest of of Arabs and Syrians first and foremost of Lebanese,” he added.
29 February 2012, 12:16
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Lebanon isn't an example to follow... basically Berry is preaching the 'do as I say, don’t do as I do'.
01 March 2012, 13:47
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It's bewildering how Berri and others in the political class (not genuine leaders) are so obsolete in their world views that they come up with ideas like this. The idea that "Arabism is in danger" is a fact that Arabism has failed nearly everyone in the region except political and business elites like himself. And as we all know, the path that the Lebanese state took is anything but "sane and wise"! We need to figure out how to maintain some aspects of Arab culture while also adapting and evolving as other cultures have been able to do much more successfully while building genuine nation states that serve the civil society. I doubt Berri will come up with anything truly transformational as it would certainly effectuate his irrelevance in a new political, economic, non-sectarian, representative government region.
