10 تشرين الثاني 2001
All eight recommendations issued Friday at the sixth annual Conference of Common Terms were dedicated to one issue: calling on all concerned states and parties to exert pressure to “release the imam and his two companions” who disappeared in Libya in 1978.
Any creation of a committee aiming to reconsider the facts surrounding Imam Musa Sadr’s disappearance “which have already been examined by the Italians and Lebanese judiciaries… and which Amnesty International has also deemed to be true” would be opposed, one recommendation firmly stated.
Sadr was last seen on Aug. 31,1978 in Tripoli, Libya, where he was to meet Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He was accompanied by Sheikh Mohammad Yaqoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine, who both disappeared with the imam. Libyan authorities claimed that Sadr left for Italy on Aug.31, but investigations by Italian authorities which were confirmed by an Italian court affirmed that Sadr had never entered Italian territory.
Another recommendation called on Lebanon and Iran to coordinate their efforts and exert pressure on Libyan authorities to release the imam. Iran has been engaged in quiet diplomacy to determine his whereabouts since President Mohammad Khatami’s rise to power four years ago.
Other recommendations demanded that Lebanese and Iranian officials “and all those concerned in Africa, Europe and America about Sadr’s release, exert pressure on their governments to follow up the issue with international bodies, such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Organizations, and to support the internationalization” of this cause.
It also called on religious authorities in the Islamic world to consider any procedure taken to free the imam and his friends to be a religious duty.
Samir Franjeih, a member of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, stressed that a Christian Islamic dialogue would be a means for cutting away at fundamentalism, which he claimed was the main obstacle facing civilizations today.
"There is no Islamic, Christian, national or cultural fundamentalism," Franjieh said, rejecting the specification of the term. "Fundamentalism is one and (categorizing fundamentalism by religion simply) indicates that it is expressed differently," he explained.
“Fundamentalism is the rejection of the ‘other’ who is different (from us). It is an irrational expression of fear in which responsibility is thrown instinctively on the shoulders of this ‘other’,” he said.
“A fundamentalist considers dialogue, interaction and mixing with the ‘other’ to be a threat to his internal coherence. He therefore sees no safe exit of such a situation except through accusing the ‘other’ of being an infidel,” Franjieh added.
Franjieh said the only way to face fundamentalism was “by returning to religion and its philosophy which calls for the understanding of ourselves and the ‘other’.” There was only one allencompassing civilization constructed by all nations and religions, according to Franjieh.
“If there were different civilizations, our discussions today would have focused on how to organize coexistence between them. But the difficulties that we face today are that the nations, people, religions and personal interests are intertwined in this world,” he said.
He said: “The northern world holds a strong presence in the southern world through its interests, companies and the globalized elitists which control Third World states. And the southern world is also strongly present in the northern world through emigrants and the customs which they bring with them.”
“What fundamentalism is trying to do is to eliminate the intertwining (of the world), which is a doomed goal since only crime and destruction could result from (refusing to allow separate cultures from integrating),” he said.
He said Lebanon gave visitors a special experience before the 16-year civil war. “(Lebanon) was a special place for a person to test his ability of interacting with the ‘other’ and grasping the existing variety and shaping it,” he said about the country’s part in enriching civilization.
