Published in the series «Forums of Beit al-Hikma », this conference was given at the eleventh session of the International Meetings of Carthage in April 2008, and devoted to the issue of violence.
The lecturer believes that the dialogue between the Arab world and the West is running up against two major pitfalls: the general confusion between the concept of terrorism and that of resistance on the one hand, and the true nature of the Palestinian resistance, on the other. First he tries to clear the ambiguity deliberately maintained between Islam and violence. Then he shows that resistance can never be equated with blind terrorism, as it is fundamentally a legitimate response to foreign occupation. It is therefore a sacred duty, that of defending the homeland and safeguarding its honour. Within this context, martyrdom simply regenerates the conditions and rules of an insane and disproportionate war. There is no martyrdom, he reaffirms, without a great and noble cause.
Reviewing the lessons learned from European history, the author brings back the horrors suffered by people during the bombing Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He is greatly astonished by the fact that when it comes to the Lebanese or Palestinian resistance, some deeply cherished ethical principles are invoked in the West by those very people who have ignored or even violated them during the Second World War.
He concludes that calling upon the Palestinians to cease any resistance simply means subjecting this people forever to total submission to the Israeli occupation and denial of their political rights on the land of his ancestors.
