A Roundtable on International Religious Freedom in Lebanon and the Middle East

With the Zovighian Public Office and the Syriac League

Professor Laure Abi Khalil: "Our call is to work together to make human dignity the first and ultimate foundation of religious freedom in our world"

At the invitation and organization of the Zovighian Public Office and the Syriac League, a roundtable on "International Religious Freedom in Lebanon and the Middle East" was held on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at the Zovighian Public Office headquarters in Beirut.

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Professor Michel Abs participated in the roundtable as a speaker, represented by Professor Laure Abi Khalil, the Coordinator of the "Dialogue, Social Cohesion, and the Preservation of Human Dignity" program at MECC. She delivered an intervention on how to protect religious communities in Lebanon and ways to defend religious freedom.

In her remarks, Professor Abi Khalil concluded by emphasizing that "religious freedom does not mean protecting sects from one another – it means protecting the human being as a human being, where faith is a free choice, not a political identity card. Our call is to work together—international leaders, religious institutions, and civil society—to make human dignity the first and ultimate foundation of religious freedom in our world today."

Noting that the roundtable included many interventions, with the participation and attendance of specialists from various fields and specialties.