American Mideast Coalition for Democracy | 072018
Washington DC: Today the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to condemn the arrest and interrogation of Maronite Christian activists in Lebanon and to address the matter directly with Lebanon’s Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, who will be attending the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom event being held in Washington DC next week and hosted by Secretary Pompeo.
Last year (May 20, 2017), the Philos Project held a conference in New York City composed of Syriac Maronite Christians who are working to revive the ancient Aramaic language, culture, and Aramean identity. Aramaic was the common language spoken by Jesus in the First Century.
This conference, opened by Maronite bishop Gregory Mansour, included many community delegates from the US, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. It was attended by three Maronite Christian citizens of Israel, one Maronite priest and two brothers who have a program teaching Aramaic for the Maronite communities in Israel.
One of the attendees from Sweden, Roni Doumit, visited Lebanon a couple months ago. At that time, the Lebanese authorities questioned him about contacts with any citizens from what they call the “enemy state” (Israel). The authorities took the information and let him go. Last week he went back to Lebanon and was arrested and has been jailed. The formal allegation is “facilitating the connection with citizens of the enemy state.”
Another Lebanese architect, Amine Iskandar, was also called in for questioning last week. The authorities took his cell phone and asked him to come back to meet with them on July 18, 2018. After his initial questioning, he was asked to return again on July, 23. He is not sure what will happen and what kind of allegation will throw at him.