Picture via Lebanon24
The Oxford Center for Islamic Studies was established in 1985 to encourage the scholarly study of Islam and the Islamic world and is headed by HRH The Prince of Wales. Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandella, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, The Prince of Wales and other distinguished statesmen and scholars have given lectures in the past years at the center. This year, former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati gave lecture on ‘Islam and the Challenges of Modernization’ which is quite an interesting topic to be honest.
I couldn’t find the full text yet but I spotted these tweets PM Mikati posted in the past few hours and that were part of his lecture apparently. I do agree that moderates should be taking the lead and become more proactive and I think Lebanon is in need of such moderates to contain extremist groups, specially in Mikati’s hometown Tripoli. I’ve always believed that Lebanon’s real problem is not just politics, but the lack of dialogue between different parties and the extremist views most Lebanese have in almost every topic (I’m finalizing a post on this topic).
I will update the post with the full text once available.
Mikati represents tolerance as much as my grandmother represents Chinese heritage. May i remind you that he was responsible for releasing terrorists from jail up to and including Shadi al-Mawlawi? May i also remind you that he has been bankrolling some militia commanders in Tripoli? Unless you’re getting money from him, this post is a waste of time and space.
GR,
To begin with I don’t get money from anyone to post and I’ve never done paid posts and probably never will. The reason why I shared this is because Tripoli highly needs tolerance and Mikati is from there yet extremism is winning unfortunately. That’s why I said it would be interesting to see how tolerance can be promoted there specially via dialogues.
I think it’s important to distinguish politics from religious extremism as we’ve seen how easily things got solved in Tripoli as if a miracle had just happened. Moreover, I didn’t label Mikati as a moderator but I think moderates is what Lebanon needs and the likes of Mikati and Hariri disregarding my opinion are considered as such.
I have a lot of question marks regarding what’s happening in Tripoli and who’s behind everything but I am not discussing politics here. Drop me an email and I’d love to continue this talk and share my views 🙂
GR MY DEAR friend najib mikati had notin to do with Shadi , if you gonna talk about him getting him out of jail this is not true, Najib Mikati Never Bankrolled the militia in tripoli all this is m14 propaganda, and i have always asked this question and never got the answer why when this government came into power everything in tripoli great no more fights ,looks like it was just a push of a button ,
Dear Fadi,
Please read this from a non M14 source to know the Al-Mawlawi story http://al-akhbar.com/node/93868
And if you think there is a single politician in Tripoli who doesn’t have his own ze3ran, then i am really not sure how to respond to that.
Najib — Mikati and Hariri have benefited from the sectarian tension and provocation just like everyone else. When you have the likes of Daher and Al-Miri3be on your parliamentary list, you really cannot call yourself a moderate now, can you? As for them dismissing Daher a few days ago, it was obvious that they now have a vested interest in the dialogue with Hizballah to defuse the tension. Nobody is innocent in this game, and most certainly Hariri and Mikati.
For God Sake , You Believe this newspaper or any newspaper in the Lebanon i honestly don’t Believe any of them , Just to Make it Clear M8 AND M14 say Najib Mikati is wrong then if both say he is wrong then he is right then or some what right. atleast Najib Mikati is doing in tripoli and doesnt have ze3ran i don’t think you come from tripoli to see what he done good for the city, his NGO Always doing good . Unless you wanna attack just to attack then enjoy it
And Last Not Least you Should Be Proud of a Lebanese Man Standing in Oxford Islamic Center , No Other Person Aside or Nelson Mandela or Prince Charles or These People Who did good for the world spoken there, and Najib Mikati was choosen by Oxford as the 1st arab Leader to Speak in the ISLAMIC CENTER This Means something and i don’t think oxford are that stupid to choose HIM
Haha, Fadi, are you on crack homie? The only reason they chose him is his money, not because he is a “moderate” person who has “done good for the world.” If you plan on responding as a politician’s stooge, at least have the decency to admit the wrongdoings of your master. Just for the record, you may want to ask Al-Azm and Al-Saadah who financed Al-Akhbar at one point since you seem to doubt its credibility that much.