The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, said that we are not living in a crisis only but rather in a catastrophe. He pointed out to the participation of political leaders and religious scholars in what is going on, and added that all of these enjoy the support and even the sanctification of certain popular spheres.

His eminence welcomed any dialogue that might reduce the tension, and called for a popular dialogue in case the dialogue between politicians fails.

The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah received a delegation of the Muslim - Christian Dialogue Committee, headed by its Secretary General Muhammad As-Samak, and included Prince Harith Shihab, Dr. Kamil Minasa, Dr. Ali Hasan, Dr. Michel Abbas and John Sluaimanian. The delegation briefed the Sayyed of its continuous efforts to find a common ground for Christian – Muslim dialogue, which reduces the political tensions that has created new complications in the relations between the various groups, sects and individuals.

During the meeting, His Eminence explained that he is following the movement of the Muslim – Christian dialogue and wishes it to extend to religious and academic issues and not to remain merely a committee that meets with Sheikhs and priests; because we believe in the dialogue of the people in the face of those who erect barriers between the sects. Thus we are called upon to extend the dialogue to the grassroots level at a time everybody is announcing the death of the dialogue between politicians and officials.

The Sayyed added: I hope that we will all join hands to get Lebanon out of this narrow tunnel it is living in, because there are several people who are systematically destroying Lebanon in the name of protecting it… I agree with what a prominent journalist said about the politicians in Lebanon, who climbed up a big tree, and started to watch the fire burning beneath them without trying to save the country or getting down to share the people their sufferings.

Lebanon has offered the Arab states quite a lot, whether in their literary and press upheaval or even on the political level. Lebanon used to be the country that interferes in the Arab world problems, to either resolve it, or further complicate it.

Lebanon had the advantage of being politically realistic whether it agrees with the people who created the problem or disagrees with them. But we are now swimming in a sea of political abstraction that has thrown Lebanon into a maze. Everybody is interfering with our affairs, and we have entered the era of tutelage in a way that most of what we see of political positions and lines is not Lebanese. We are not living in a crisis but rather in a catastrophe that high ranking officials and religious scholars are responsible for its continence.

But the problem is that all of those enjoy the supports, protection and even the sanctification of the people… The problem has always been lying in the sectarian regime that created the gabs, which all others have penetrated from, although the sects themselves are an indication of wealth while the sectarian regime is but of source of poverty.

After the meeting Prince Harith Shihab said:

The meeting with the great authority Sayyed Fadlullah takes one into the depth of the crisis we are living in, and then to the means that enable us to overcome it. We came out from the meeting with the hope that it is not totally closed and that there is still some hope. It is true that the current crisis is bigger than any crisis Lebanon witnessed before, but men of good will are still trying to act and we hope that we can overcome the crisis in the near future, especially that we have a constitutional timeline that we ought to respect.