The distinguished Jaafari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan, emphasized during the Ramadan lecture at Imam Hussein Mosque in Burj al-Barajneh that "internal dialogue is essential as it forms the foundational aspect of national agreement and is the swift path to national salvation. No president means no meeting or consensus, which is catastrophic for the country's sovereign interests. The judiciary is required to be part of the security effort in forming a comprehensive security effort for the country. We do not want a 'security and sectarian cocktail' nor speeches that are misplaced nationally. There is no excuse for the shortcomings of authority and agencies, and the game of apologies is transparent. What we need is an army of monitors to protect markets and ensure the rule of law in the fields of work, healthcare, and security, and to protect public administrations from the corruption that erodes them."
He continued: "The country cannot be redeemed except by preventing foreign hands from seizing Lebanese hands. Employers in this context commit a national betrayal. Non-Lebanese displacement is a national catastrophe, and some should remember that Israel has been waging wars of displacement, occupation, extermination, and atrocities since 1948. What liberation movements are doing is self-defense. The prophets' law says: repel evil and tyranny from yourselves, and do not surrender your necks to criminals. Whoever defends the oppressed has resurrected the oppressed, and whoever abandons the killer shares in their crime. The strong right is better in the sight of God than the weak right, and there is no peace while the oppressor cuts the throat of the oppressed. The people of the south represent the strong right, not the weak right; they did not submit their necks to an occupier nor remain silent about a criminal. The law of the prophets who preceded us says: 'God does not love silence about the oppressor nor surrender to the killer.' Let's set aside differences that harm the country because Lebanon needs its people, and national interests require national dialogue, not in Washington or other capitals that trade in the ruin of nations."
