Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Lebanese Shiite clerics back Syrian revolution | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat – Two prominent Lebanese Shiite clerics, Mohammad Hassan al-Amin and Hani Fahs, issued a joint-statement on Thursday endorsing the Syrian revolution and calling on Lebanon’s Shiite community to support the popular uprising against the al-Assad regime.

The statement called on Lebanon’s Shiite community to “support the Arab uprisings…particularly the Syrian [revolution], which will triumph God willing.”

The statement read “we reveal our unwavering stance in support of the Syrian uprising in an unambiguous and non-aggressive way; the same way we backed the Palestinian, Iranian, Egyptian, Yemeni and Libya revolutions and sympathized with the reform movements and popular [protests] in Iran, Bahrain, Mauritania and Sudan.”

The two Lebanese Shiite clerics added “we are prepared to support any popular movement that opposes any regime that refuses to move towards deep reform in order to avoid revolution and collapse.”

The joint statement also asserted that “among the [factors] that guarantee a [good] future for us in Lebanon is for Syria to be stable, free and ruled by a democratic, pluralistic and modern state.”

The Lebanese Shiite clerics stressed that “the falsehoods have been revealed, as for achieving the truth, this will require a long and difficult path, which is full of pitfalls. This requires patience, wisdom, vigilance and guarding the blood of the martyrs. This requires transparency, dialogue, cordiality and criticism…and we will not withhold genuine cordiality and sincere criticism…which leads to truth, struggle and martyrdom in our blessed Islamic history.”

Sheikh Sayyed Hani Fahs is a member of the Supreme Shiite Islamic Council in Lebanon. Whilst Muhammad Hassan Al-Amin has been described as a Shiite scholar and theologian, he is from South Lebanon.