Suleiman Warns on Future of Christians in Orient, Sounds Upbeat Note on Kidnapped Bishops
President Michel Suleiman warned on Saturday that Christianity would be in limbo if Lebanon’s free Christians disappear due to the changes in the region but he voiced confidence on the fate of two bishops kidnapped in Syria.
“If Lebanon’s free Christians disappear, then the religion will crumble in the Middle East, Asia and Africa,” the president warned during a speech at the first Conference on the Christians of the Orient in the Metn town of Rabweh.
He said “coexistence means engaging in continuous dialogue with the other and preferring the nation's identity on the religious one.”
“Coexistence does not only mean Christians and Muslims living together ... it means a coexistence in politics, in the sense of vertical ties between the governor and the governed,” Suleiman told the conference.
It also means the participation in governance as part of mutual consent, he said.
Suleiman rejected the rule of the absolute majority and refused the minority's hegemony, which he said leads to dictatorship.
“If Christians at any moment suffer from the complex of minority,” then they consider themselves that they have disappeared, he said.
“The future of Christians does not come through isolation or Western military protection, which is a provocative project,” he said.
Suleiman stressed that their future comes through moderation and openness.
“The project of the Christians in the Orient is the plan of every citizen that longs for freedom, justice and growth to matter to which sect he belongs to,” he added.
The president lamented that the number of Christians in the Orient dropped from 25% to 6% due to wars and mainly the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“Dangers threatening the Christians in the Orient are known. Mainly they are changes in demography, emigration and backwardness in their participation in decision-making except for Lebanon,” he said.
Suleiman used the occasion to announce to the participants of the conference that he has received a message from Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani, informing him that Doha was exerting strong efforts to free Bishops Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yazigi.
The two bishops were kidnapped by rebels in the northern province of Aleppo at the end of April while on humanitarian work.
Qatar is a main backer of the rebels seeking to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad since the uprising that started in March 2011.
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