BEIRUT: The mufti of Mount Lebanon Sheikh Mohammad Ali Jouzou has sought to defuse tensions over his recent challenge to Maronites to return to Syria, saying he had been misunderstood. Jouzou issued a statement on Wednesday in which he stated he had no intention of offending the Maronite community, explaining that he was criticizing everyone responsible for obstructing the country’s political life, who were proving that the country needed to be under tutelage because it could not form its own government. 

The statement cited the mufti’s exact words to argue that he did not specify any religious sect in his speech: “This is Lebanon today. Why do all Lebanese emigrate and present their country as a gift to Syria and to Syrian agents? How can the Lebanese not become weary, and not have nostalgia for the days of [Syrian occupation]? Didn’t the Maronites come from Syria? Let them go back to it and let the whole of Lebanon, not just those who are nostalgic go back to Syria.” 

Jouzou added that some people had taken his words out of context and that in doing so they intended to misrepresent his stance and stoke sectarian tensions, in order to protect their own interests in the government formation. 

Nonetheless, responses to Jouzou’s earlier speech continued to emerge. The Union for Lebanon condemned the mufti’s words and said it was shocked by the “suspicious silence by the Christians of Qoreitem,” a reference to politicians allied with Prime Minsiter-designate Saad Hariri. 

The group included the National Liberal Party’s Tigers, the Guardians of the Cedars party, the Lebanese National Movement, former members of the Lebanese Forces and former members of the Phalange party. 

“How long will you let Jouzou and those like him harm national unity?” the group asked in a statement. 

Former Beirut MP Adnan Arqaji also responded to Jouzou, saying the mufti’s comments contained sectarianism and factionalism, and resembled the rhetoric of extremist Christians who have demanded that Muslims return to Mecca. 

He added that Mount Lebanon mufti was promoting a pro-Israeli agenda by trying to encourage the exodus of Christians from the country in order to pave the way for the naturalization of Palestinian refugees. 

Meanwhile, the head of the Islamic Christian Dialogue Committee, Malek Mawlawi, concurred that the mufti had been misunderstood and had no intention of offending the country’s sectarian communities. – The Daily Star