President Michel Aoun stressed that “we may disagree in politics, it also gets loud and the debates heat up, but any difference between us remains under the roof of political disagreement and never gets to the core; it does not touch the freedom of belief, the freedom of religion and the right to difference, and it does not touch the nation, because these are the untouchable fixtures that are respected by all.”
In a speech he delivered Monday at the conference organized by the Levantine Gathering, Aoun said that Lebanon, in its pluralistic society and diverse composition, represents a small image of the composition of the Levant, its role and vocation, adding that the country remains a land of convergence and dialogue, a symbol of diversity and an opposite of unilateralism, rejecting all forms of intellectual and religious extremism.
“A decade has gone by and our East is still at the epicenter of the storm, subject to all sorts of shocks: "springlike" internal wars that have torn and fragmented our communities; destructive terrorist wars that have left behind hundreds of thousands of victims and displaced, acute economic wars that slowed down all growth attempts and weakened production, thus causing a succession of crises,” he explained, stating that heated wars already receded to a certain extent but their repercussions remain.
In the same context, he said that Israel seeks to impose a new status quo starting with the Judaization of Jerusalem, all the way to the blatant violation of the sanctity of international recognized borders, and the support of the annexation of lands that were occupied by force such as the Golan Heights.
The president noted that according to the signs, the main intention behind all the actions is to fragment the Levant from confessional, sectarian, racial, and geographical point of views, to pave the way for the consecration of new alliances on racial, confessional and ethnical bases, in line with the scheme that is being set up for the region, also known as "the Deal of the Century".
“Spreading the notion of Islamophobia is a major part of this war, and the Takfir principle is the other part. Both cause a clash between two universal religions, an awakening of racism and an exaggeration of extremism, as they lead to a succession of scared, rejecting, fanatical and spiteful generations, thus turning the "clash of religions and civilizations" into a reality and a fact,” he continued.
Aoun stressed in this regard that “our role as Levantines is to develop a new culture that refutes all that is said or written about the clash of religions and civilizations because there is one multicultural human civilization; and the Levant which had exported religious thought to the world cannot allow being turned into a small isolated area.”