Eid al-Fitr Sermons Focus on Solidarity and Rejection of Strife

Vice President of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan said Sunday that Lebanon is in need for the solidarity of all its factions.

“Lebanon is in need for solidarity, love, affection and sincerity in dealing” amongst each other, Qabalan said in his Eid al-Fitr sermon during prayers at the Council’s headquarters.

The Lebanese should distance themselves from strife, he said.

Lebanon's Grand Jaafarite Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan expressed a similar view by urging all politicians and religious leaders to form a “patriotic cell” that would mobilize all its efforts to preserve the country and steer it clear of “the ghosts of confessional explosions.”

“Lebanon is sitting at the tip of a volcano,” he said in his sermon during prayers at Imam al-Hussein mosque in the Bourj al-Barajneh district of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Qabalan urged the Lebanese not to blow at the “burning coal of strife,” warning that the fire would be “comprehensive” and would reach everyone.

He also said President Michel Suleiman and the government should exert efforts to remove the “political trenches” erected among politicians.

“We should end the siege … and abolish the logic of differentiation between a Christian, a Sunni, a Druze and a Shiite,” he said.

“Our loyalty is for Lebanon,” Qabalan said, adding “We should base ourselves on that so that we become able to build a strong state that would succeed in meeting the people’s hopes in consolidating stability and civil peace.”