Seminar: “For the sake of Lebanon’s future: a person, a citizen and a state”

The One Voice Foundation, in cooperation with the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), organized an intellectual and dialogue seminar titled “For the Sake of Lebanon’s Future: Humanity, Citizenship, and State.”

The event was attended by MP Neemat Frem, Bishop Antoine Abou Najem, Fawaz Kabbara representing the Minister of Culture in the caretaker government, Mohammad Wissam Al-Mortada, Dr. Abdel Raouf Sinno (former president of Maqasid University), former minister Youssef Salame, and Imad Khayyat, director of Al Mayadeen’s Beirut office, representing Ghassan Ben Jeddou. Also present were the Secretary-General of Catholic Schools, Father Youssef Nasr, as well as a committee of poets, writers, politicians, religious leaders, and intellectuals from various fields including doctors, lawyers, engineers, and businesspeople.

The seminar also included participation from the Kamal Youssef El-Hage Chair for Lebanese Philosophy, Adyan Foundation, ORA Union, Lebanese Foundation for Citizenship, Lebanese Green Party, Lebanon Dialogue Initiative, Friends of the Lebanese University, Rahbe Tajmaa Association, Sada Al-Salam Association, Elias Mokheiber Foundation, Baldati, and Rethinking Lebanon.

Kalaydjian
The Lebanese national anthem was followed by a welcome address from Mrs. Mireille Khan Amirian on behalf of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.

The meeting then opened with a speech by the President of the One Voice Foundation, Antoine Kalaydjian, who welcomed the audience, considering the gathering “a unifying national tradition and the culmination of a series of sessions and seminars dedicated to various aspects of national life. We believe that citizenship, if not built by its people, remains a burden on them for generations to come.”

He added: “We have strived to transform the phrase ‘Lebanon is a message, greater than a homeland’ which politics had emptied of meaning into a reality of living together with rationality, wisdom, and openness. We promise to be one voice calling for a dignified life for every person in this homeland, and to struggle for the homeland of the message, in Lebanon and throughout this beloved Levant, where we are all children of God in love and equality. We will be One Voice for Building the Nation of Humanity, by which we mean the voice of every suffering person, every rebel against tyrants who exploit the pain of the Lebanese, in defense of the oppressed against all injustice.”

Presentations
The seminar, moderated by lawyer and media figure Roula Elia, began with a lecture by Dr.  Huda Nehme, who said: “This lecture lays the foundation for Lebanon’s second centennial, born from the trials of the first century of Greater Lebanon many of them painful. The research will highlight three main points:

  • * The urgent need for a new philosophy of life.
  • * Establishing principles for a national pact based on lived experiences.
  • * Achieving complete, unabridged citizenship.”

Al-Haj
Dr. Youssef Al-Haj then spoke on ‘Historical Lebanon’ as viewed by Kamal Al-Haj, who envisioned a Lebanon rising above its past yet carrying within it the essence of a resilient nation, preserved in the philosophical Lebanese self since ancient times. In Al-Haj’s vision, Lebanon’s history is reflected in seven processions, each placing Lebanon on par with the entire world: the procession of Revelation with Canaanite Lebanon, the procession of the Alphabet with Phoenician Lebanon, the procession of Justice with Roman Lebanon, the procession of Love with Christian Lebanon, the procession of Dialogue with Arab Lebanon, the procession of Independence with Ottoman Lebanon, and the procession of ‘Nislamiyyah’ with Lebanese Lebanon the current era. Therefore, Lebanon today must faithfully continue its mission of uniting Islam and Christianity in a harmonious “Nislamic” embrace rooted in love.

Other Interventions

In the second session, writer Walid Rafea said:

“Politics is the capacity of ethics to lead people, the art of guiding them toward a better, ever-developing reality that seeks the sovereignty of awareness, responsible freedom, happiness, and the dignity of existence. When it governed people, politics was among the noblest of professions, akin to the work of prophets and great philosophers, leading humanity to goodness and renewal moving from the narrow ‘I’ toward the expansive ‘We,’ where the other becomes a constant concern for both mind and soul, and where separate egos vanish in favor of the singular, creative, human political conscience.”

Also in this session, Dr. Hakima Alawi from Tunisia spoke via Zoom, stating: “Coexistence is a human necessity before being a practical one, and the need for it grows with the presence of religious, intellectual, and cultural diversity in a single society. In support of this perspective, we present Tunisia’s experience in protecting religious diversity to ensure a sound concept of citizenship beginning with the ‘Pact of Security’ (Ahd Al-Aman), the first constitution in Tunisian, Arab, and Islamic history, followed by the post-independence constitution, and finally the post-revolution constitution.”

Third Session

Dr. Wafa Shaarani Afyouni said:

“Humanity is not merely composed of nation-states, social classes, and ideological currents. Before all else, it is a mosaic of nations, cultures, and religions, the product of accumulated civilizations that shape both our conscious and unconscious selves. Observing reality requires examining the essential components of societies. With the resurgence of religion and ethnic identity in global politics, particularly in the complex geopolitics of the Middle East we must reconsider the role of culture in public life to prevent the erosion of sub-identities and their forced assimilation into ideological molds that ignore culture’s role in shaping history. Today’s Arab region is rife with conflicts, each fueled by latent seeds of difference. We must reject the concept of ‘minorities’ as it signals a crisis in socio-cultural security. We are communities in one of the oldest and richest cultural regions of the world, and we must halt our decline by renewing the relationship between society and culture through enlightenment and internal renewal.”

Dr. Roula Zoubiane spoke on the role of minorities in state-building, covering:

  • * Defining key terms: what is meant by minorities and the state, from academic theory to Lebanese reality.
  • * How minorities in Lebanon have transformed into sects engaged in power struggles, undermining the rule of law and institutions.
  • * Transitioning from a sectarian state to a democratic one that respects human rights, inspired by Arab secular and reformist thought that transcends majority–minority divisions, and its role in strategic planning for the concepts of homeland and citizenship.
  • * Eliminating fear of the ‘other’ in the shared homeland, along with the exclusion, marginalization, and conflict it brings, focusing on the need to promote a culture of peace in Lebanon so that its message becomes reality.

The event concluded with an open discussion and a cocktail reception.