In an interview with Patriarch al-Rahi in September 2022, he said: “If the Syrians do not return to Syria, they will impose upon themselves a second war.” Holy Scripture says: “My word shall not return to Me empty, but shall accomplish what I sent it for,” and the word which the Patriarch spoke unfortunately succeeded in what it set out to do, for at one time we see a group attacking Syrian students, and at another the burning of the tents sheltering them, or dogs being set loose to attack the Syrians, or Syrians being kidnapped, and even cancer was blamed on the Syrians[1].
And one question keeps me perplexed: can the consciences of many men of religion be at ease before the sight of Syrians being killed and kidnapped after incitement against them? And the larger question: does Jesus, the Master of the Church, accept the incitement against Syrians from the pulpits of His Church? Berdyaev says: “The Christian faith has been manipulated to serve the established kingdom of Caesar and to defend the ruling class, the rich, and the authority…. The Church has failed in its duty and its pledge.”
There is no doubt that the presence of Syrians in Lebanon, a country suffering from great economic and political distress, is exhausting, especially in such large numbers. But this presence is not the Syrian presence in Lebanon; this is the refuge of Syrians in Lebanon, fleeing all the tragedies the Syrians lived through in Syria after the events of the 2011 revolution. And the Syrian refuge is not economic displacement, nor is it for the luxury of dwelling in tents in the wilds of Lebanon. Is there any need to explain what is self-evident? Or do the images of many returning Syrians suffice, and of their condition and their fates?
And accusing the Syrian refugee of Lebanon’s tragedies, as though the Syrian were the one who holds the decision and the final say, is an accusation that betrays ignorance. Had these Syrians held the decision, you would not have seen them in Lebanon. And casting upon the Syrian the responsibility for all the failure in Lebanon – the political, economic, and security failure, and every crime committed – indicates one of two things: either the religious official is ignorant and does not understand, or he is a misleader. For there are no true and honest studies about the reality of the Syrians and their negative impact on Lebanon; on the contrary, there is an enormous benefit to Lebanon in what is called the refugee economy. The international grants that come in the name of the Syrians to the Lebanese state suffice, as does the importance of the Syrian labor force.
I completely understand the games of the politicians, “the game of obtaining funding,” but I will never understand how Christians and religious leaders could turn into a spear against the wronged Syrian. The areas where the Syrian was harmed in Lebanon are for the most part Christian areas. Dr. Tarek Mitri says in a post on the platform X: “The campaign against the Syrians is not spontaneous except to a small degree. Its architects are many, and they invest in the politics of manufacturing hatred. They have failed and shirked deliberate, legal, and ethical treatments of the issue of refuge, among them the distinction between the one who faces danger if forcibly returned and the one who passes through the crossings back and forth without harm.”
And the question is: are these the morals of the Gospel? And the morals of Jesus? Do we forget the morals of God who said: “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers.” (Leviticus 19:33), especially the Maronites, who in history were wronged and persecuted, seeking freedom[2], and fled to the mountains and the caves, hiding from persecution, and how the Lebanese were refugees in the days of the civil war. And Christo al-Murr said: “The Lebanese have forgotten that they were once refugees” in Cyprus in the days of the civil war, and the Cypriots grumbled against them[3].
“And beyond the detailed discussion of each issue, the apprehension of the other Syrian, the one who is different and resides temporarily in Lebanon, has reached a dangerous extent. And the apprehension, which is at the heart of the politics of identity, was not created from nothing. It is the twin of sectarianism, however much its features have changed since it was ‘loathsome’ and its politicians were ashamed of it. And it feeds upon the idea of Lebanese exception, indeed of superiority.”[4] So says Dr. Tarek Mitri. And what provokes ridicule in that very sermon is that you hear the importance of the incarnation of Christ for the salvation of man, and that Christ came to raise the dignity of man, and then in its second part the preacher continues his attack upon the Syrians, as though Christ came for a category of people, or for a nationality, or for a race.
In the face of loading the Syrian refugee in Lebanon with the responsibility for everything that happens, and turning a blind eye to the principal culprit, the Maronite Church, and with it the rest of the churches, must realize “that the mystery of the Eucharist is nothing if it does not extend to the mystery of the oppressed and the lifting of injustice,” for Christ Himself is crucified with everyone who is persecuted in the roads and the camps, and kidnapped and tortured.
For the saying of the former Patriarch al-Rahi, and the dozens of sermons that followed it inciting against the Syrians, is a directing of the behavior of individual Christians in this direction at every event. For the violence concealed under religion comforts the conscience and nourishes it, and where right is established upon religious authority, the severest injustice and evil can be justified. And unfortunately, instead of the Christians being the salt of the earth and advocates of law, order, and justice, pouring truth into politics, they have come to call for violence and injustice. And Saint Constantine the King spoke truly once when he feared that the victorious Christians would persecute those who had formerly persecuted them[5], and what he feared came to pass. For unfortunately the wronged, when they come to power, turn into wrongdoers, and forget the saying of the Most High: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger.” (Jeremiah 22:3).
History is truthful in every case, and from it we learn. Every time the Christians took part in injustice, history returned us as wronged, tasting from the same cup with greater bitterness. I believe the coming time will be very hard on the Christians, especially the Maronites and their leaders, not because they are believers in Jesus and will be persecuted, but because we failed to be the voice of truth and the defense of the wronged as Christ willed. We shall cry out in vain and none will rescue us; we shall search for a cave in the mountain and shall not find it. Injustice prepares for the Christians the ships of emigration and diaspora.
[1] Petra Muhammad, the article “I am Syrian and I am not the cause of all Lebanon’s problems.” Daraj website
[2] Asad Rustum, The Church of Antioch, the Great City of God, Part Two, 634–1345 AD, The Works of Dr. Asad Rustum 21, al-Maktaba al-Bulisiyya, p. 54
[3] As Lebanese Battles Worsen, War Refugees Swamp Cyprus, By Youssef M. Ibrahim, Special To the New York Times, Sept. 18, 1989
[4] Tarek Mitri, Syrian Refuge in the Face of the Politics of Identity and the Moral Question, al-Hudhud al-Arabi website.
[5] Asad Rustum, The Church of Antioch, the Great City of God, Part One, 34–634 AD, The Works of Dr. Asad Rustum 21, al-Maktaba al-Bulisiyya, p. 187