Press Release
What is called the “Festivals of Sensation” (Zambo) in Tripoli Attempt to Show the City Devoid of its Sense of the Ummah

So Boycott Them and Stop their Licensing!
(Translated)

In blatant defiance of the feelings of the Ummah and its pain, and in blatant defiance of Tripoli, the city of knowledge and scholars, and despite the issuance of a statement from the Family Care Committee in Dar al-Fatwa in Tripoli and the North warning of this dangerous path for society, where it came in the statement: “The Committee also warns of the danger of festivals, celebrations, films, and initiatives that have recently begun to appear in our city and which compromise values and morals, and which are exploited to pass deviant messages under artistic or cultural slogans, in a city known throughout its history as the city of knowledge and scholars, and as a fortress of authentic values and unifying identity. The Committee affirms that protecting society from these dangers is a shared collective responsibility: it begins with the family and relatives, passes through educators, teachers, and scholars, and also includes civil society, municipalities, and politicians, reaching the decision-makers at the state level…”

The statement called upon the concerned parties – the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Information, and the municipalities – to take their role in confronting these phenomena, explicitly clarifying in words directed to the municipalities: “To reject the licensing of any activity, festival, or celebration that conflicts with the morals of the people and their authentic culture…” But the responsible parties act as if striking against the statement of the Family Committee in Dar al-Fatwa, and deafening their ears to the cries of Muslims in Gaza, their wounds and hunger, and even in Lebanon which the criminal Jewish entity violates. Was it not more appropriate for the municipalities in general, and the municipality of Tripoli in particular, to conclude twinning with the municipalities in occupied Palestine and its wounded Gaza, and to pursue available ways to deliver aid and assistance to our people there, instead of holding festivals of dance and singing, as if all the needs of the people of Tripoli have been met and nothing remains except some depraved entertainment?!

We realize that behind this repeated orientation towards Tripoli and its people lies the will of corruption and the alteration of the character of the city and its people from the highest political levels in the country. And the statement of MP Najat Saliba regarding a prepared plan to confront extremism in Tripoli (and beyond Tripoli) is but the best evidence.

O People of Tripoli, its Sheikhs, its Preachers, its Dignitaries, and the People of Islam in it: Your role is great in stopping this matter and what may follow it, through raising your voices from all your pulpits and gatherings to boycott this festival and the like of these depraved festivals. And your role is greater in proving that you belong to the one Ummah that groans in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Sudan. So is it permissible for us to appear as if we are dancing upon the wounds of the Ummah and its pain?!

And to the Tripoli Municipality: We have only known you as sons of this city belonging to its authenticity, and originally you represent its character and the character of its people, and festivals of dance and singing are not of its character. Tripoli of al-Sham was and still is the host of everyone who suffers pain despite its own pain, so do not today sing out of tune, and stop the licensing of the festival.

We realize the difficulty of the circumstances in light of this sweeping secularism in Lebanon and the region, but we also realize and are confident that in this Ummah there remains much good. Yet this goodness does not concentrate nor appear in its reality except if it is as Allah Almighty said:

[وَلْتَكُن مِّنكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ * وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ تَفَرَّقُوا وَاخْتَلَفُوا مِن بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ وَأُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ]

“And let there be [arising] from you a nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful. And do not be like the ones who became divided and differed after the clear proofs had come to them. And they will have a great punishment.” [Surat Aal-i-Imrān: 105].

And what we call you to is a call to goodness, and enjoining the right, and forbidding the wrong; a call to unity upon that which there is no disagreement in, and no division. And you, O people of Tripoli, its sheikhs, its preachers, its people of Islam, its dignitaries, and its municipality, are worthy of this response by the permission of Allah Almighty. So be with Allah:

[وَاللَّهُ مَعَكُمْ وَلَن يَتِرَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ]

“And Allah is with you and will never deprive you of [the reward of] your deeds.” [Surat Muḥammad: 35].