Dear friends
If you believe “that Lebanon is more than a country it is a message of freedom, a model of pluralism and a special space for dialogue and coexistence of different cultures, ethnicities and religions.” join us to sign this petition addressed to Mr Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary General to designate Lebanon as a Land for Dialogue among civilizations and cultures.
Dr Nick kahwaji (past WSG)
Member of the steering committee of LDC initiative
[email protected]
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A letter from Dr Guita Hourani
Dear Liaison Officers and Friends,
We are inviting you to sign a petition addressed to the UN Secretary General to designate Lebanon as a Land for Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures.
Click on the following link to sign the petition
We are also asking you to share this call with your contacts be they Lebanese, of Lebanese descent, people of good will, friends, family members, acquaintances, colleagues, alumna, etc.
Encourage them to SIGN THIS PETITION (Liking the event does not count as a signature).
The campaign is a Notre Dame University Initiative supported by Lebanese people, friends of Lebanon, people of good will, civil society advocates and organizations who believe that Lebanon is a land of dialogue and needs to be internationally acknowledged as such by the UN and its member states.
My name is Dr. Guita Hourani. I am the Director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center and the Petition Campaign Coordinator at Notre Dame University.
Like St. Pope John Paul II, Ayatollah Muhammad Mahdi Shamseddine, the Muslim-Christian Summit at the Maronite Patriarchate in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon and around the world, we believe that Lebanon is more than a country it is a message of freedom, a model of pluralism and a special space for dialogue and coexistence of different cultures, ethnicities and religions. We also believe that Lebanon’s vocation is to embody this message and to strive to live it and to promote it despite all the challenges and the obstacles faced.
We started this petition to capitalize on the call by former President Michel Suleiman to the UN to designate Lebanon as “an international center for the management of the dialogue of civilizations and cultures and consequently a global laboratory for that inter-entity dialogue”. Your signature will make a difference because the world needs a place where dialogue takes place not on the macro levels but also on the micro levels – on the levels of people in their daily lives as it is the situation in Lebanon. Your signature will give people hope and strengthen their resilience not only in the Middle East, but also around the world for an alternative to disputes, conflicts and wars. The Middle East needs Lebanon to be this space and your signature will make it happen.
Thank you for supporting this initiative and for signing the petition.
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.” Architect Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846 – 1912).
On behalf of the Steering Committee, the Executing Officer/Director of the Initiative Dr. Edward Alam and I, Petition Campaign Coordinator, thank you in advance for your support.
Regards,
Dr. Guita Hourani, MA, MURP, PhD
Director
Lebanese Emigration Research Center
Notre Dame University
P. O. Box 72 Zouk Mikayel, Lebanon
Tel. 961-9-208992
Fax. 961-9-224517
Email: [email protected]
URL: www.ndu.edu.lb/lerc