Lady of the Mountain Gathering Rejects 'Bids to Link Christians Fate to Oppressive Regimes'
A document discussed Sunday by the Christian “Lady of the Mountain Gathering” rejected “any attempt to link the fate of the Christians to the fate of the oppressive and tyrannical regimes” in the region.
March 14 General-Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said the eighth retreat of the Gathering was aimed at determining the role of the Lebanese in the Arab Spring.
The gathering was held at the Regency Palace Hotel in Adma at 9:30 am Sunday. Around 500 politicians, intellectuals and civil society activists took part in the conference.
The document is divided into three main chapters. The first summarizes the church principles, the second focuses on the rejection to put the Christians in the position of defense of dictatorships and the third stresses the future steps to consolidate the role of Christians in Lebanon and the Arab Spring.
Before the meeting, the March 14 General-Secretariat coordinator told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that the Lebanese are the basis of the Arab Spring.
The first tremor that targeted the Assad regime in Syria was in Lebanon in 2005 and not Daraa, Soaid said about the mass demonstrations that drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon in the aftermath of the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.
The recommendations will ensure launching a dynamic dialogue between Christians and all other sects, Soaid said. “There will be a continuous cooperation with all centers of democratic decision-making in the Arab Spring.”
The March 14 official, stressed, however that the recommendations of the retreat will not be linked to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s controversial remarks on the situation in Syria.
Below is the full text of the document discussed by the conferees:
“First: what we want to remind of:
1- We want to remind of the church's role in launching the Lebanese Spring which represented the first sign of the Arab Spring. "The Maronite Bishops' appeal on September 20, 2000" had put the foundations to end the Syrian tutelage and restore sovereignty, independence, and free will (...) Lebanon, which had been an arena for foreign domination, has now become an arena of its citizens' testimony of freedom, and it became a momentum for the biggest popular uprising in the modern age. The church, with the participation of most of the Lebanese people, was able to carve the history of Lebanon with the tools of righteousness and faith after the long nights of injustice. It managed to save the nation and restore the state.
After the assassination of (ex-)Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, the Independence Uprising was a historical moment which opened the door of national salvation through an unprecedented unity of the Lebanese people. The Syrian army's withdrawal from Lebanon on April 26, 2005, after 30 years of tutelage, was the culmination of the unity of all Lebanese, residents and emigrants, and a dream come true.
2- We want to remind that the Church has been a pioneer in its call for a civil state which is modern and democratic, based on -- as it was stated in the Maronite Patriarchal Synod – the reconciliation between citizenship and pluralism, and on the "clear discrimination, to the extent of separation, between religion and state, instead of integrating religion with politics or basing politics on religious foundations that are of a sacred nature." This issue today is being strongly discussed in all the countries which have been liberated from tyrant regimes.
3- We want to stress the role of the Church in elaborating a concept of "living together" that goes beyond the mere coexistence among different groups or communities to a distinctive type of life which would give everyone an opportunity to communicate and to interact with others so that both parties can enrich their character through mutual learning, without eliminating the particularisms and the differences that would turn out to be a source of enrichment for all.
Second- What we reject:
1- We reject positions that put the Christians in confrontation with the Arab Spring which is based on the values of freedom and justice. These values lie at the basis of human dignity, away from the logic of ideologies which divide the world into two camps -- good and evil -- and on which the dictatorial regimes had based their legitimacy. This Arab Spring is "good news" for Lebanon which had remained for more than half a century the subject of vigorous attempts to make it similar to the regimes surrounding it, under the excuse of “Arabizing” its regime. But today, in its quest to get rid of last century's slaveries and the historical marginalization, the Arab region is drawing examples from the meaning of Lebanon in its values of freedom, democracy and pluralism, and its openness to the world.
2- We reject any attempt to link the fate of the Christians to the fate of the oppressive and tyrannical regimes which have turned the Arab world into a big prison and have historically marginalized their citizens, depriving them of their present and future. This is a moral stance imposed on us by our belief in the human being and his right to dignity and freedom. We will not accept to be with the executioners against the victims. This is also a national position. These oppressive regimes are responsible for a war which had cost us dearly: 144,240 dead, 17,415 missing, and 197,506 wounded, in addition to the destruction of our cities and villages, the migration of hundreds of thousands of our children, the fragmentation of our society, confiscation of our institutions, widespread corruption, and turning the judiciary into a tool to settle scores …
3- We reject all the schemes that are aimed at undermining the historic Christian presence in this Orient, and at turning the Christians into a mere minority seeking protection for itself. The dispute is not, as some have portrayed it, on whom we entrust with the task of protecting us -- the protection of foreign states like Syria, Iran, or the West, or an internal "Shiite" protection to face a "Sunni" threat, or an internal "Sunni" protection to face a "Shiite" threat. The dispute is over the principle of protection which turns the Christians into "dhimmis", and makes them lose their role and presence. This is unacceptable.
4- We condemn the deluge of violence directed against the Arab Spring. It is the violence of the authoritarian regimes in the face of the legitimate demands of their people. At the same time, it is the violence of extremist forces which are still clinging to crumbling ideologies, and trying hard to stop the wheel of history.
Third: What we want:
1- We want to launch a civil dynamism in the Christian society which is able to communicate with similar civil dynamisms from other communities and from the civil society in order to bring the life back to the Lebanese Spring. We also want to work with the democratic forces which have emerged from the Arab Spring in order to develop new foundations for a democratic and pluralistic Arab World that is capable of regaining its role and position in the world after half a century of enforced absence.
2- We want to recover the historical Christian role in the Middle East and contribute to the rebirth of a second Arab renaissance which would establish a new culture -- a culture of living together. Because living together, equal in rights and duties and different in our various affiliations – due to the enormous landmark changes introduced by globalization -- has become a serious challenge not only for the Arab world, but for all mankind.
3- We want to work on ending the decades of a still ongoing cycle of violence, and to build a peaceful Lebanon in cooperation with all the faithful people. Today we stand before a fateful moment: Either to bring back Lebanon to what it was in the past three decades – an arena for violence among regional and international forces, which responds to the illusions of some who believe that their future needs further bloodshed, plights and destruction -- or to restructure Lebanon and turn it into a country enjoying prosperous living conditions and a state that is capable of performing its duties.
First, Lebanon’s peace requires that lessons be drawn from the civil war, and to perceive, as stated in the Maronite Patriarchal Synod, that the fate of each and every one of us is interlinked, and that the salvation of Lebanon will either be for all of Lebanon or it will not be, as no certain group can find a solution without the other, or at the expense of the other.
Second, Lebanon’s peace requires that the state regain its sovereignty, which had been lost since 1969, and to ensure its exclusive right to possessing an armed force. The presence of two armies in one country is no longer acceptable or justifiable, where one army is under the command of the legitimate authority, while the other is under the command of a political party or a foreign state.
Third, Lebanon’s peace requires the liberation of the state from power struggles among the various communities, and to begin – according to the Taef Accord -- building a civil state, so that these communities’ concerns and fears will not remain the prime driving force of the Lebanese history.
Fourth, Lebanon’s peace requires an end to the dark era in the history of the Lebanese-Syrian relations, and support for the forces who are struggling for a democratic system in Syria. This is a prerequisite for establishing sound relations between the two countries, which will ensure the interests of the Lebanese and the Syrian people.
Fifth, Lebanon’s peace requires us to turn the page on the past concerning our relations with the Palestinians and to support the efforts exerted to establish an independent Palestinian state which is the condition for a lasting peace in the region.
Dear friends,
Determining the Christian role in the Arab Spring is not a private Christian matter, but it also concerns the Muslims, and it is their mutual concern, since "Christians in the Levant", as stated in the first letter of the Catholic Patriarchs of the East, are inseparable from the cultural identity of the Muslims. And the Muslims in the Levant are inseparable from the cultural identity of the Christians. In that sense, we are responsible for one another before God and history."
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