Fadlallah: Muslim unity best guarantee to protect country

Source: Daily Star, 21-05-2008
BEIRUT: Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said Tuesday that the unity of Muslims in Lebanon "constitutes the greatest guarantee to protect the country, civil peace and coexistence." During a meeting with Sheikh Maher Hammoud, the imam of the Quds Mosque in Sidon, Fadlallah said there were "continuous attempts in the country to exploit political incidents and use them on the sectarian level."
"We have two groups acting on this front - one that does not show openness to political issues with their local, regional and international ramifications and one that is outside the Islamic circle and always tries to reap its political fruits by inciting sectarian strife," he said.
According to Fadlallah, the US administration does not distinguish between Sunni and Shiite Muslims when they oppose its policy, "because it only looks with the eye of its interests and those of 'Israel'."
"The US works to humiliate all Muslims," Fadlallah said, calling for finding "wider formulas of cooperation between Islamic movements away from sectarian titles."
He stressed the need to "rehabilitate" the internal Islamic arena by adopting "unity speeches" and rejecting attempts to incite this or that party.
"The Islamic arena is in dire need of scholars who work on unifying people instead of giving accumulated political problems sectarian colors," he said.