BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt slammed those clerics in the region who recently called on Muslims to abstain from congratulating non-Muslims on their religious holidays.

Druze leader Jumblatt said: “These opinions are bizarre and incomprehensible, especially when they are issued in countries that have recently witnessed massive popular uprisings that called for freedom of expression, freedom of religious and political association and an independent media.”

Jumblatt pointed out that citizens of these countries have suffered for decades from authoritarian and repressive regimes and would not accept new forms of hegemony.

“The Egyptian constitution that was written in 1923 secured complete equality among all Egyptians under the rule of law and granted them civil and political rights without any discrimination on the basis of descent, language or religion,” he said.

“Is it logical that the current constitution is less representative than the one written in that past?” Jumblatt added that the Arab people have paid heavily to oust dictatorships and to reclaim their dignity and rights.