Walid Phares/Call for Lebanon’s civil society to express solidarity with Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in Iraq

Call for Lebanon’s civil society to express solidarity with Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in Iraq
Walid Phares
21 July/14
I urge leaders of civil society in Lebanon to organize peaceful protests in solidarity with the endangered communities and minorities in Iraq, after the ethnic cleansing of Mosul of its Christians and the ongoing persecution of Turkomen, Shabak, Yazidi and moderate Muslims. Lebanon, the country that has maintained a pluralist identity for decades can show the world that the Middle East will remain a land of pluralism. We hope Lebanon’s NGOs, Christians and Muslim alike would organize public events in the coming days. This would be the only Middle East country to openly stand by the minorities’ victims of barbarism led by IS (Daesh). If Lebanon civil society mobilizes, it would help the international community to raise the issue and address it. This is an opportunity to show a long lost unity among Lebanon Christians. They can come together on this platform. And an opportunity to see Christian and Muslim moderates acting again for the benefit of freedom. Our best regards. We have initiated already contacts with civil society and Church leaders and hope to hear good news.