Many Muslims criticize the scattered positions of Christian clergymen on various Arab issues, especially regarding Palestine today. This is not said to evaluate these positions or whether their criticism is sound or not; but have Muslims — especially the various leaderships of Islamic parties, or even official Muslim officials — asked why Christians take these positions, and who confiscated the Christian voice in our countries? How is the Christian treated in Iraq, and who fought his voice? And in Syria? And the bombing of churches in Egypt? And how is the abolition of the Christian role in Lebanon being attempted? Is not the removal of Christmas trees and New Year’s decorations in Iraq an example? What is the source of the fear that has been born within us Christians? And the constant fear of a repetition of the events of 1860 and others? What is the role of the Islamic political parties, in their various schools, in weakening the Christian position on the one hand, or, on the other, in making it take a completely different position? Have Arab Christians been invited to participate in making real decisions on the various issues? And what happened in the recent Arab revolutions?
Muslims must realize that they cannot solve the issues of the national causes on their own. The monopoly of Muslims over the Arab causes, as if they were Islamic causes, has made them losing causes even when they are just, and the reason is known. The attempt to abolish the Christian role in building the homeland and the state has brought us to a state of statelessness and fragmentation. In all the public causes that Muslims take upon themselves alone, this places them in a difficult and, unfortunately, losing position — indeed, it bears bad consequences. The extraordinary Arab Islamic summit of 2023 is an example. Is Palestine for Muslims alone? I do not claim that Christians are the essential axis — God forbid — for everyone is essential, and no part can carry the whole. Christians alone cannot build a state, and Lebanon is a present example.
Muslims (Sunni and Shia), with their various political parties and affiliations, must conduct a genuine critical review of all the positions and their causes, and of why our situation has reached this point, and review history objectively with all that it contains of religious persecutions and periods of peace and genuine coexistence; and we must not deny reality or embellish it. The hand of citizenship must be extended to us as Christians, as partners and participants in decision-making and as active agents, while realizing that the problems of minorities are the very problems of the majority. We must discuss them with genuine scientific tools, far from sectarian and confessional tools, and Christians must be viewed as a partner in this homeland and an essential agent in defending all the Arab causes. The national salvation of Arab Muslims is bound up with the national salvation of Arab Christians; the Arab geography is not for Muslims alone, and their monopoly over it means its desertification.