BEIRUT: Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani called Friday on the Lebanese to take to the streets to demand change and revolt against the country’s political and economic crisis.

In a sermon after Friday prayers at the Mohammad Amin Mosque in Downtown Beirut, Qabbani also called on Lebanon’s “wise men” and politicians to think carefully about how to confront worsening socio-economic conditions before matters spiral out of control.

“The Lebanese people are groaning today because [of the pain of] need, poverty, unemployment and recession and even bankruptcy. It’s about time for the patient people to take to the street to demand change,” Qabbani said.

“Wise Lebanese, and not only their politicians, should think thoroughly about what they are going to do before it is too late,” he added. The prayers were attended by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama Najafi and a large crowd of worshippers.

It was the first and clearest call by a religious leader on the Lebanese to stage a popular uprising to demand change similar to the wave of public revolts currently sweeping the Arab world. Despite the call for change, Qabbani stressed the importance of the adhering to the 1989 Taif Accord, which ended the 1975-90 Civil War.

Apparently responding to a recent call by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai to amend Taif in order to enhance the prerogatives of the Maronite president, Qabbani said, “Adherence to, rather than departure from, the Taif [Accord] should be renewed, because it is [our] foundation.”

The Taif Accord stripped the president of most of his executive powers and vested them in the half-Muslim, half-Christian Cabinet.

Qabbani’s remarks came amid a political vacuum in the executive branch, with the rival March 8 and March 14 parties sharply split on how the country should be run. Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet was toppled on Jan. 12 following the resignation of March 8 ministers in a long-running dispute over the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has so far failed to form a new government since he was named for the post on Jan. 25 by the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance.

Qabbani said Lebanon has been rent by internal as well as external division as a result of complicated, explosive and changing conditions in the region.

“Lebanon is sitting on a bomb that is difficult to defuse. Amid these changing conditions, Lebanon as a state, instead of unity, has reached the edge of the greatest danger and is gradually sliding toward the abyss. Its political existence is in the intensive care ward, dying,” he said.

“The problem in Lebanon does not stem from the opposition or the pro-government camp … The real problem in Lebanon stems from political behavior, especially when the country’s social contract becomes a subject of dispute,” he said, referring to the Taif Accord.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Higher Shiite Council, Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan, renewed his call for the formation of “a salvation government” to solve the country’s political and economic crisis.

“Lebanon is now living in a state of hesitation and anxiety … We must overcome our differences, big and small, and cooperate in the interest of the country,” he said in his Friday sermon.