Qabbani Calls for Election of President, Parliament after Deal on Fair Law
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani called on Monday for the election of a president and for holding parliamentary polls after agreeing on an electoral law that represents all sides.
“Lebanon's politicians have been seduced by arrogance and unilateralism in everything,” Qabbani said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon at Mohammed al-Amin mosque in downtown Beirut.
“People are getting poorer. The solution comes by ending our differences and steering clear of regional policies,” he said.
Another solution would be the election of a new head of state and a parliament after striking a deal on an electoral draft-law that not only represents the majority, the Mufti added.
The parliament has failed in several rounds to elect a president, leaving the country's top Christian post vacant after the end of Michel Suleiman's six-year term in May.
“The unity of the nation is one of the reasons of strength,” Qabbani said.
“The Lebanese, Arabs and Muslims know well what division has done to us. We have paid high prices,” he said.
“Palestine was lost because of our weakness and divisions,” Qabbani added.
More than 1,030 Palestinians have died in the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as 43 Israeli soldiers.
Israel has pounded Gaza with aerial, naval and artillery bombardments and Hamas has responded with rocket fire.
“The Jewish-Western occupation was frustrated by the Palestinian reconciliation and launched war on Palestinians,” said Qabbani in reference to a deal struck in May to end seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Addressing Arabs and Muslims, Qabbani asked: “What have you done to resist the Zionist enemy?”
Qabbani called for “Jihad for the purpose of liberating occupied land.”
Jihad “is the duty of each and everyone of you no matter how much sacrifices are made,” he said.
He also described the peace process as “void.”
Turning to the situation in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, Qabbani said the persecution of Christians there is not linked to Islam.
The al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State group captured large swaths of land in western and northern Iraq, including Mosul, which was captured in June. The group has imposed a self-styled caliphate in territory they control in Iraq and Syria, imposing their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
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