BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai urged both Lebanese Christian and Muslim communities Monday to maintain ownership of their land as a way to preserve Lebanon as a model of coexistence in the East.

Speaking during a visit to the coastal area of the Iqlim al-Kharoub district, about 30 km south of Beirut, Rai hailed the region’s residents, who “overcame the miseries of Lebanon’s bloody Civil War to rebuild and develop the district.”

“This diverse Lebanese family of Muslims and Christians means a lot to us and gives us the strength to hold onto our mission in Lebanon … we live the challenge of globalization as people remain distant, fighting cultural and religious wars,” Rai said addressing crowds in the front yard of St. Charbel church in Jiyyeh.

“I call on all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians to maintain ownership of their land and refrain from selling it even to each other … You must hold onto your land, your history and must not sell your land no matter what the circumstances,” Rai added.

The patriarch also praised the “roots of faith” in the Chouf region, which witnessed several wars and significant displacement of Christians at the peak of Lebanon’s Civil War between 1975 and 1990.

“Beloved sons of Jiyyeh, you remained with us despite the fact that you left abroad to Australia, America and Europe. I salute you all and we are honored by our diaspora. You will always remain in our hearts and in the mind of the patriarchate,” Rai said to the crowds.

Rai added that each religious community has written its own part of Lebanon’s history.

“We are incapable of writing a united history, not because we don’t want to but because each group has written a part of our history, which we call the Lebanese mosaic,” Rai said.

Rai kicked off Saturday the first leg of a historic tour in Sidon, 275 years after a head of the Maronite Church last visited the southern coastal city.

Rai traveled Monday to the Chouf mountains where he expressed his hopes that a national dialogue develop into a national conference, laying down a “new social contract between the Lebanese stemming from the National Pact.”