Leading Lebanese Muslim: extremists misinterpret Islam
February 18, 2016
Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, a leading Lebanese Muslim figure said that “certain religious notions espoused by extremist Islamic movements, which they interpret as central tenets of the Islamic faith” are “in point of fact,...nothing of the sort.”
Muhammad al-Sammak, the secretary-general of the Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue in Lebanon, co-president of Religions for Peace, and an advisor to Lebanon’s chief mufti, said that the notion of dhimmitude should be superseded by citizenship, that the notion of the caliphate has no basis in the Qur’an, and that extremists confuse Christianity with the West.
“The West has renounced Christianity, severing its cultural link with religion and embracing secularism as the foundation of its societies,” said al-Sammak. “When the West sets itself up as a defender of the rights of Eastern Christians, it is not moved to do so out of any reasons of faith, but rather by the desire to protect its interests in the region.”
Al-Sammak also charged that “Christianophobia” among Muslims is a reaction to “Islamophobia” in the West.
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