LBن... LBCI Changes Logo in Solidarity with Iraq's Christians
After Lebanese networks last week aired a unified newscast in solidarity with Palestinians suffering a bloody war in the Gaza Strip, LBCI television launched on Monday a new campaign to condemn the Islamic State's attacks on Christians in Iraq.
LBCI changed its logo to “Lbن,” and took the initiative after Muslim Iraqi journalist Dalia al-Aqidi wore a cross around her neck in solidarity with her country's Christian minority.
"From Mosul to Beirut, we are all ن,” LBCI said at the beginning of its evening newscast.
It continued: “We are all subjected to threats because we are different, whether it was about our religious beliefs, our sex, or our skin color.”
"We are all doomed because of Palestine's occupation, and because of sectarian walls in the East and we will not tolerate turning into walls on which letters of death or of displacement are written,” it added.
The newscast was referring to the letter N, ن in Arabic, which refers to “Nassarah” – the term by which the Koran refers to Christians. Since its rise, the Islamic State militants had in been tagging Christian houses in Iraq with the letter N.
The local network then announced that in solidarity “with ourselves and with Iraq's Christians and Muslims,” LBCI's logo will become Lbن, and launched the hashtag #Lbن on social media websites.
LBCI hoped that its initiative would be translated into a solidarity campaign adopted by other media outlets in the country.
Al-Aqidi, the Iraqi journalist whose symbolic step was met with great support on social media, insisted in an interview on LBCI that those attacking Christians in Iraq “do not represent Islam.”
"I have not been harassed yet (for wearing the cross) and I like to call myself an Iraqi, not a Sunni,” she said.
Se explained to MTV that she did not change her religious affiliation.
"I am not an apostate but I am not with those killing Christians in my name,” she said.
"We called for wearing the cross to express our rage over and our rejection of these oppressive approaches,” al-Aqidi told An Nahar daily about her campaign, rejecting to take a neutral stance.
“'The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis',” she elaborated, quoting Italian poet Dante.
S.D.B.
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