I am working on a documentary about "maison laique". This place is a real home for everyone who believes in secularity and dreams of a civil society.
I remember my first visit was so interesting and emotionally arousing. There is something strange in this maison. It's cozy; you feel the human part of each person you meet because that's all there is inside. No politics, no religious differences or others. Maison laique joins everyone coming from different places, different political parties and different beliefs, under one common cause, SECULARITY
Angelo Beaini met me at the door. Inviting me inside, the smile on his face made me so comfortable to ask my many questions. "I'm here till tomorrow morning, ask as much as you like". He said.
Beaini is the executive manager of the maison - which opened on February 1.
"I have the right to be governed by the state, not Bairiki or the mufti or something like that," Angelo said from the library of Lebanon's first Maison Laique.
The house, Beaini said, is a gathering place for councils, concerts, exhibitions, and discussions. All are welcome, he added, students, intellectuals, journalists, "everyone as long as they don't practice division by religion and race."
The maison laique, on Khalidi Street in Hamra, is a testament to this belief. The house is a brave but modest endeavor - there are several rooms, a library, and a garden. The walls of the salon are decorated with the works of well known Lebanese painters (Mohammad Awali, Adel Kodayah…). There is also a piano and a series of sculptures.
The library has a rich collection of books, some from the "Arab Renaissance" some from the French avant-garde, others on science and mathematics.
The house was founded by Lebanese journalist and intellectual Nasri al-Sayegh and originally funded by a Lebanese businessman in Belgium, Faouzi Abikhalil.
After Abikhalil's death, the Association for Laicite in Lebanon (APLL), which is based in Belgium, provided the support necessary to create the center.
I knocked on Mr. Nasri's office, a very pleasant person and a great personality which I admire a lot.
Sayegh defined the laicite campaign in Lebanon "as a project to revise confessionalism ... to move toward a civil society, in which citizens are citizens not confessionalists."
"The maison laique," he added, "is a place where people who believe in laicite can work together on projects that promote the cause ... students and professors alike." Sayegh said the project offered hope: "We have hope, confidence that laicite will over time show success."
My last question was: how come political discussion is banned inside maison laique?
"We must start at the human level and move to politics". Sayegh suggested: "If we start talking politics before we reach the common thing we all have- which is the human side of us - we won't agree on anything. That's why we work from the first step of the ladder to reach the top".
I invite everyone who reads this to visit "maison laique". You can have a good cup of coffee, a good chat, and a great feeling of peace.
Secularity THIS BLOG GIVES A CLEAR AND SIMPLE EXPLANATION TO THE TERM "SECULARITY". THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD, SCHOOLS OF SECULARITY AND INCIDENTS I FACED WHILE RESEARCHING.
About Me
- lamis farhat
- beirut, Lebanon
- i'm a journalist student, working on my graduation project which turned to message i want to deliver for all those who want to know more about secualarity
George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906),
British writer who coined the term "secularism."
Secularism is generally the assertion that certain practices or institutions should exist separately from religion or religious belief. Alternatively, it is a principle of promoting secular ideas or values in either public or private settings over religious ways of thought.
In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a state that is neutral on matters of belief, and gives no state privileges or subsidies to religions.
The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from traditional religious values. This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater extent to protect religion from governmental interference, while secularism on a social level is less prevalent. Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons.
Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.
Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; many secularists are religious, while atheists often accept the influence of religion on government or society. Secularism is an essential component of a secular humanist social and political
Some secularists believe that the state should be kept entirely separate from religion, and that religious institutions should be entirely free from governmental interference. Churches that exercise their authority completely apart from government endorsement, whose foundations are not in the state, are conventionally called "Free" churches.
Secularism is generally the assertion that certain practices or institutions should exist separately from religion or religious belief. Alternatively, it is a principle of promoting secular ideas or values in either public or private settings over religious ways of thought.
In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a state that is neutral on matters of belief, and gives no state privileges or subsidies to religions.
The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from traditional religious values. This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater extent to protect religion from governmental interference, while secularism on a social level is less prevalent. Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons.
Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.
Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; many secularists are religious, while atheists often accept the influence of religion on government or society. Secularism is an essential component of a secular humanist social and political
Some secularists believe that the state should be kept entirely separate from religion, and that religious institutions should be entirely free from governmental interference. Churches that exercise their authority completely apart from government endorsement, whose foundations are not in the state, are conventionally called "Free" churches.
4 comments:
ktir helweh el fikra ya lamiss..
7abbet el mawdoo3 ktirrrrrrr....
fyei 2oul i miss u?:P:P
thx a lot for your lovely comment miss lamiss
i like the idea. it's new and interesting!
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