To The Man of the Cloth:
Men were not Created for Defeat, Despair, or Dhimmitude
By: Elias Bejjani
October 23/2004

The free among our people know the anesthetized state of mind of a handful of men of the cloth who have willfully cast aside their humanity and decided to ignore that salvation is in witnessing to the truth. These men of the cloth have indeed forgotten that nations are built and grown only with the labor of justice and rights and are cast in courage, integrity, and sacrifices. Nations are not built by subservient Dhimmis and egotistical liars.

Those who are after their own interests, money, position and opportunism have become blinded by their greed, when they should rise above all that because they have made vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty to the Lord. But instead, they have assaulted all that is pure and holy, and sold the temple and those in it for thirty silvers. These low-life hand-kissers have divorced themselves from the aspirations, wishes, and pains of their people. They strayed away from their people and from common sense the day they congratulated “His Excellency General Emile Lahoud” on his fraudulently extended presidency, defying the aspirations of the free and faithful alike.

Truly, the reverend father now stands without his cloth, now that he has spewed his venom of ancient hatred from the altar of God onto those who dared to criticize him, expose his heresy, witness to the truth and call things by their names.

Indeed, most reverend monk of the monastery! He who denies his problem shall die from it. And the elite of the Diaspora are the conscience of the nation and the voice of its silence, whether you like it or not. We shall expose the crimes of the Pharisees and the Scribes from among our people, and we won't be accomplices in the crime of covering up for your Dhimmitude, if only  to warn our people who believe in a free, sovereign and independent Lebanon not to be fooled and fall in your trap. Our people have faith as their weapon, and stand tall with the sword of freedom by their side, and with their heads crowned with laurels of dignity.

How is it possible for those who claim to be shepherds of their flock to be blind to the fact that our nation is going through very difficult times? How can they not see that we are living today more dangerous times than under the oppressive and dark times of the Ottomans or those of the Communists? These are times that could lead very soon to the disappearance of Lebanon as we know it, land, people, nation and all, were it not for an elite of wise and courageous folks with good will, while you, most reverend, are absent and not of the elite. “Neither will you enter the kingdom of heavens, nor will you let anyone do”. You have not carried the cross of the detained in Syria's prisons, and there are priests among them, and you do not let those who want to carry that cross do their work. You disburse accusations right and left, selling your political position to the highest bidder and cajoling the butchers while their knives, cast in evil, cut through the veins of your own people. Anyone who does not defend the detainees in Syria's jails has lost his humanity and the honor of his patriotism no matter how he justifies it. That is exactly what you have done, you who accuse us while two of your brothers are held in Syria's miserable prisons.

Le those who have ears listen, and those who have a conscience that fears God and his Laws know that Judgment Day is in the horizon They should stop bowing like Dhimmis to the dummies installed in power. Let them stop lying and slandering, for as Imam Ali said “The liar and the deceased are equals. The virtue of the living over the dead is trust. He who his words are not trusted, has ended his life.”

That minority we are talking to has forgotten that the Lebanese people never ever in their history accepted the will of an occupier or invader. Remember the inhabitants of Sidon in 350 BC. They confronted the Persian invader Artaxerxes and burned their city down on themselves, preferring to die in dignity than surrender in humiliation. Tyre resisted Alexander of Macedonia for seven years in 332 BC and did not surrender or kneel. When Alexander finally took the city he crucified many of its people and sold thousands as slaves. Or Maronite Patriarch Gabriel Hajula the hero who preferred death by burning in 1367 AD in Tripoli in front of the Omari Mosque, refusing to allow his people be humiliated and tortured by the Mameluks. Or Patriarch Daniel Hadchiti who chose the same fate for the same reasons.

Those who chose enslavement and who fear to bear witness to the truth know that they feel defeated in their hearts and have strayed from the right path. Let them heed the Lord's word “ ...If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32).

We feel gratified that only a handful of men of the cloth have strayed from the true path. The vast majority remain committed to their conscience and are witnesses to the truth. To those we owe our deepest respect. But he who is silent on the truth is a mute devil, much as “He who tolerates misdeeds against people is an accomplice to the misdeeds. He who engages in evildoing is twice a sinner: the sin of participating in the misdeed, and the sin of tolerating it.”(Imam Ali).
Let those who have ears listen and learn.

Almighty God Bless Lebanon and Its People

*Elias Bejjani
Human Rights activist, journalist & political commentator.
Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
Media Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
E.Mail phoenicia@hotmail.com