The Issam Fares Center for Lebanon is still engaged in undertaking research on the Lebanese Christians’ affairs and concerns. However, the Center’s scope of interest has expanded to include Christians of the Levant who are living in difficult circumstances.

The Center ensured the follow-up of the Conference on the “Revitalization of the Role of Christians of the Levant” by holding two working sessions in its headquarters located in Sin El Fil. The first session was held under the title “Orientations of Official Leaders” towards the revitalization of the role of Christians, while the second session was entitled: “Orientations of Islamic Religious Leaders”.

The first session was facilitated by Mr. Habib Efram who tackled the existing systems in the Levant and their relationship with the rights of minorities. Then, Former Minister Ibrahim

Shams al-Din started his intervention by reading excerpts from the “will” of his late father, Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, which reflect a clear Islamic position towards the necessity and effectiveness of the Christian presence in Lebanon and the Levant.

Mr. Shams al-Din emphasized that “the permanent and explicit role to be played by Christians is the one of citizenship and commitment towards their country Lebanon and its issues, along with the other Lebanese parties. Christians do not constitute a minority and cannot be treated as such. They should not consider themselves as a minority nor act as such.”
H.E.Mr. Fouad El Turk highlighted, in his speech, the “failure to accept the freedom of faith, the growth of fundamentalism and the Salafi movements that are imposing themselves on some systems.”

The Secretary General of the National Committee for Islamic-Christian Dialogue, Mr. Mohammad El Sammak, considered that “some of the Middle–East countries are experiencing a rise in fundamentalist and extremist movements and that, some official leaders are trying to contain and appease these movements, even if this somtimes requires overlooking some of the Christians citizens’ rights”. Mr. El Sammak called to “raise public awareness of Islamic communities, including fundamentalist movements, to the fact that the immigration of Christians from the Middle-East does not only constitute a loss for Christians and Eastern societies themselves, but also provides a negative, distorted and bad image of Islam.”

Mr. Samir Morcos, Egyptian researcher and member of the Arab Working Group on Muslim-Christian Dialogue, illustrated the situation of Copts in Egypt, their relationship with Muslims, and the development of this relationship in light of the existing political system.

The Second Session
The second session tackled the “Orientations of Islamic Religious Leaders” and was facilitated by Former Director General of the Ministry of Information, Mr. Mohammed Obeid.
H.E. Mr. Roger Deeb, Former Minister, considered that “Muslims are required to accept pluralism, preserve it and benefit from it and, to admit that unilateralism leads to dictatorship whether in the name of patriotism, religion or confession.”

Mr. Deeb highlighted the “need to preserve the Presidency of the Lebanese Republic as a symbol of the Christian presence in the Arab world” and “to provide Lebanese Christians with the psychological comfort through the final confirmation of the principle of equity.”

Judge Abbas El Halabi considered, in his speech, that “the Christians presence and their effective survival is the responsibility of Muslims” and called upon “Christian and Muslim religious authorities to adopt the principles of fraternal dialogue as a unique foundation to resolve their differences”. He also called upon “the Islamic religious leaders to identify the religious constants upon which the Christian-Muslim relations have been established since the Prophet’s Era and to make them accessible to all, because what is currently witnessed in some Arab States is inconsistent with these constants due to ignorance or carelessness.”

Mr. Ghaleb Abu Zainab, member of the Hezbollah Political Council, corroborated that the Christian presence in the Arab region is intrinsic. It is consequently irrelevant to talk about minorities and majorities and to ask any party about its position vis-à-vis the Christian presence and its role boundaries, since Christians are an integral part of the Arab society. Mr. Abu Zainab considered that “the Vatican’s silence in regard to what is happening in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and its mere condemnation and denunciation of these acts, alike those States that support the existence of Israel, deprive the Vatican of all its momentum and question the actual outcome of its role”.  Abu Zainab finally called for “the development of positions and visions and for the establishment of efficient approaches that would lead to change the prevailing pattern for the benefit of Eastern Christianity”.

In his speech concerning the position of Islamic religious leaders, namely in Egypt,  Mr. Nabil Abdel Fattah made a distinction between “the official Islamic clergy and the independent Islamic activists”. He hence noted that “the role of the official Islamic clergy, such as Al-Azhar, is mostly to defuse tension and does not go beyond social courtesies and trivial literature revolving around the traditional Sunni jurisprudence and around the fact that they have the same rights and obligations as us. Some literature established by independent clergy reproduced the doctrinal positions towards the People of the Book, while some others adopted the term of citizenship. It is worth mentioning here that this concept does not imply the new concept of citizenship, especially in light of the confusion existing between the concept of modern nation-state and the concept of civil state”.