In his first TV interview after a long absence, Saad Hariri talked about many things but what interested me most were his stances on civil marriage and Qabbani’s speech. This is what he said as quoted by Naharnet:
Hariri: Calling people expiates is not acceptable and addressing civil marriage in the approach Mufti Qabbani took is also rejected.
Hariri: Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey are all Islamic countries that adopt civil marriage. Will Qabbani consider their people expiates?
Hariri: There are many aspects in Lebanon that are not legal from a Muslim perspective.
Hariri: Personally I do not accept that my children marry in a civil union, but a deputy is a representative of the entire nation and of all people.
Hariri: Despite the different views on civil marriage I support debating it and going through with it.
Thumbs up for this brave position and let’s hope others will follow!
This is a great blog but simply too biased towards 14 of march. State your opinion objectively, and STOP BEING BIASED.
I am sorry you feel that way but I strongly disagree. Go through the blog and you’ll see I’ve only been objective and crystal clear.
I don’t vote nor intend to, I don’t support any group or party and I state whatever I believe is wrong away from politics and narrow-minded views.
Civil marriage is a topic that concerns us all as Lebanese and requires everyone’s support, mainly influential leaders like Saad. I didn’t see this coming yet it was pleasant to hear him take this stance (And I couldn’t care less about his political agenda).
This is a civil right just like internet, security, electricity, water and good roads among other things are other rights that concern you as a Lebanese citizen and must be provided to you by your representatives. Once you start considering things this way you will understand where I come from.
Najib, I can appreciate the effort at a balanced view, but we all have our biases.
In many ways, it is about what we don’t say vs. what we do say.
Let’s not forget that his father squashed the Civil marriage proposal in the 90s, and propped up Qabbani who is now the most vocal (and incompetent) opponent of civil marriage.
These are things worth mentioning, even though Saad may not agree with his father’s views.
Also, what are a few empty words about civil marriage, when he is involved in the funding of fundamentalists in the background.
It’s just not worth giving hm any props. Just like you are light in your props to the telecom minister, you should do the same with M14.
Just my two cents.
Rock,
As far as I know, the blog has been running for barely 3 years now. I am not here to judge Saad’s political career nor his past and his father’s line. This is what I’ve been talking about in almost every post I mention a minister or MP in it.
For me, it’s what happens now that I am interested in. If Saad supports civil marriage today then great, if he lies about it later he’ll get a blast from me. I’ve criticized Telecom Minister before then saw how he fixed many things and praised him on many occasions and he follows me (and back) on twitter now and we exchange talks.
Electricity-wise, it was a big failure and no one can argue against that. Security-wise I never spared Charbel during the kidnappings nor the army nor its chief when Pierre Hachach was arrested. When it came to Basketball, I condemned all of them for mixing politics and sports together. When the Orthodox law was proposed, I mocked it. When the new media law was issued, I laughed it off as well.
No offense but when you (not you personally) are only focusing on the posts that interest you without looking at the bigger picture, you think I am biased here and there.
The truth is and I repeat it: I’ve never posted anything that had to do with politics on this blog so far whether you want to believe this or not. When a Telecom minister does his job, it has nothing to do with his affiliation. I am blogging as a citizen reporting to a representative concerning his specific duty and a service I am paying for with my taxes. It’s about accountability and our rights as citizens to ask for such basic stuff as water, electricity, security and internet.
This is what I’ve been wanting to achieve above all through this blog. Make everyone realize that we should point out errors when we see them, and try to hold officials accountable for their acts. This is what bloggers do all over the worlds without the need to be politically affiliated to anyone. When you complain to a restaurant owner for his bad service, you don’t care about who he follows or who he votes for.
If we ever want to get somewhere in this country, we should promote transparency and accountability whenever we have a chance to do so. That’s what I believe in and try to preach.
Again, I invite you to go through the blog and see a lot of posts dealing with hot topics and see that I am not leaning towards anyone. And just to confirm that, it could be that M14 aren’t doing anything at all in the first place worthy mentioning. After all, I am not here to report news but post about interesting stuff 🙂
I must admit, you were very persuasive in this reply.
I am starting to reconsider my opinion regarding your position in perceiving things.
Najib,
I’ve been following your blog since the beginning and I check it daily – I’m a fan of it. It’s a huge help staying in the loop while not living in Leb.
With that, I will always take the chance to take a swipe at Saad (I too don’t vote, but we shouldn’t hesitate to call out phoney and arrogant politicians).
Honestly I just don’t think he deserves a post such as this – his position is meek at best. I wouldn’t call it “support” for civil marriage but more like tip-toeing around the subject.
Anyhow, keep up the good work on this blog – it’s appreciated. Any comments are just feedback : )
Cheers!
I have been reading your blog for 2 years, even I went through every post that I missed. Most of your posts become very interesting when you state your opinion (Jeita competition, Achoura..). However when it comes to politics, you always praise the actions of 14 march, and most of that by your tweets and not just posts.
It surprised me to know that you don’t support any group, which puts everything now into different perspectives.
Civil marriage or not, he made a point that is normal to me and not by any means “brave” and worthy of a mention in a post here. I didn’t see any tweets or posts praising someone from the other political group for taking similar stances.
To prove my general point which is bias ,regarding your neutral position, I will be posting a comment whenever I see some sort of bias in here.
Please consider my criticism as constructive and keep doing what you do best :Blogging.
Biased,
Civil marriage has been a hot topic lately and I’ve been praising influential people showing their support including the president regardless of what I think of them.
To have a Sunnite leader go against the Mufti and his father and ask to legitimize it is a brave move, which I hope he will follow.
I don’t understand why do u keep on taking things in a political matter. This is a social demand not a political one and don’t be surprised that I don’t take stance with anyone because I convincingly don’t.
Anyway I always look forward to constructive comments and don’t mind taking this talk even further privately if you have other thoughts you d like to ask me about as I dont wanna be dragging such talks on the blog.
“Despite the different views on civil marriage I support debating it and going through with it”, this means that his position is not clear, why didn’t he support when he was ruling from 2005 to 2011.
Najib your support of 14 March is making you blind, please be more objective and don’t be fooled but the statements of Mr.Hariri.
Elie,
I don’t know why I have to go through this again everytime. Stop taking things from such a perspective and look at the bigger image.
I am not a fan of Hariri nor the president nor any other party but I support those who are for legalizing civil marriage.
Most of the politicians have been in governments from 2005 till 2013 so we can’t start blaming them all. The issue is reopened now and it’s being supported so let’s push for it and pressure them to make it happen.
The second he goes against it I will have a post ready for him.
Why don’t u guys understand Najib’s position ?
It’s a sad affair seeing all these extremely negative replies from people blinded by their political/sectarian allegiances. To have the arguably most popular and representative Sunni politician in an Arab country, while the region is in the midst of being engulfed by a tsunami of political islamic radicalism, come out in the open and declare his support for a cause that goes against islamic teachings and butting heads with the top religious chief in his sect over the issue… this is nothing short of astounding… for those dismissing this talk as nothing but politicking against the mufti because of his political stances, you fail to realize that Saad has much more to lose by betting on civil marriage than by succumbing to populism and being more Sunni than the mufti and embracing the mufti’s rhethoric. Saad is full of crap in lots of ways, but you gotta give credit when it’s due and on this one time he’s actually taken a position that supports those working towards a more secular Lebanon and people are shutting him down on this crucial issue because they’re against Hariri or March 14!!?! jesus christ everything is not Black or White!
I’m not a frequent blog reader but I gotta admit over the years of reading some articles every here and there I never noticed a clear bias from the author towards one side or another. He seems like someone who genuinely criticizes politicians from whichever camp when they fuck up, which in Lebanon happens every minute.
Sorry for the long rant and the lack of punctuation/spacing, too stoned to care about these silly things lol!
Thank you Sir.
Let najib undrstand his position first… Just kidding guys.
What do you mean?
I Have a question for u why when i always post something positive about you (rarely done
… You always dont reply. This will not prevent from alwsys writing on your blog. As for ur question i was somehow kidding
Everything you post is positive to me and I answer you in a constructive way and for the best. Iza baddak thank you for ur compliments Tekram 3aynak Rayyis Elie bass el soumout 3alamtou el rida 🙂
Sar fiyyi nem el layle hahahaha