In the Name of God the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

Statement issued by the Sheikhdom Akl and the two religious and judicial bodies at the Confessional Council of the Druze Unitarian Community

By the invitation and in presence of his Eminence the Sheikh Akl the Sheikh Naim Hassan, the Honorable Sirs members of the current religious body elected at the Confessional Council of the Druze Unitarian Community met at the House of the Community in Beirut in presence of the religious committee, the President of the Druze Confessional Courts and the Respectful judges. They discussed the topic of the offence to the Great Messenger (Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon him) as well as the procedures that should be done as a response to the repetitive targetings to our Islamic nation in particular and to all the religions and sacraments in general in order to repulse the risks resulting from these intentional attacks and slanders. At the end of the meeting, the attendees issued the following statement read by the Head of the Cultural Committee of the Council the Sheikh Sami Abi El Mouna:
- The Sheikhdom Akl and the religious body of the Confessional Council at the Druze Unitarian Community as well as the Druze Courts in Lebanon strongly condemn and reprove the repetitive offences of the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers Muhammad (Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon him) and which ended up with the movie offending his noble position for that this dishonorable and suspicious movie has carried by its content, timing and purposes. The attendees also condemned the photos published by a number of foreign newspapers and the underestimation of the Great Prophet’s values that appeared through them, a flagrant intention to offend his pure history and a violation to the Holiness of the Islam with no consideration to the Muslims’ thoughts in the World.
- As the attendees condemn the producers and promoters of this film, they lay the responsibility on the ones who back and protect them. They warn at the same time of repeating such deviant practices that has become a threat to the worldwide security and peace by provoking dissensions and conflicts between the partisans of the different celestial religions.
- The attendees stressed on the danger that might be caused by such an immoral act and the reactions that might result from it. As they can see through this a nourishment to the fire of dissension, they call for a conscious and reasonable confrontation and serious responsible solutions as well, starting from the claims to the International Community including the United Nations and all the concerned countries and worldwide bodies and organizations, as well as those working for the dialogue between religions, to cooperate in order to put an end to these horrible practices and to this carelessness offending humanity and human dignity, by reviewing the laws related to the right of expression and the freedom of opinion and striving to legislate new laws that prohibit these violations and severely sanction whoever dares committing them under the pretext of the freedom of expression or any other pretext.
- The attendees called all the Lebanese, Christians and Muslims, to remain united in solidarity facing any attack to the dignity of any category among them, and to certify with every new challenge, that they are able to reject dissension and maintain their uniting national union.
- The attendees call upon their Muslim brothers in Lebanon and in the World to be self-controlled, pray and act responsibly for the victory of Islam and the Great Prophet, to response in an organized civilized way, not to be conducted to the chaos, violence, passivism and dissension that their enemies are planning for, so that our sons and parents would be proud of what we are, honored by their Islam that resists to the provocations, attacks and slanders and convinced, before anyone else, that Islam is a religion of civilization, dignity and humanity.

Beirut, on September 21, 2012