The “Al-Mabarrat Scouts Association” held its annual scouting conference entitled “The Al-Mabarrat Scouts: A Caravan of Pioneering in Service and Worship” at the Al-Saha Heritage Village on the airport road, under the patronage of the president of the “Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association” Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, and in the presence of the deputy Emile Rahmeh, the director general of Al-Mabarrat Association Mohammad Baqir Fadlallah, the president of the Scouts of Lebanon Union Joseph Khalil, the president of the “Al-Mabarrat Scouts Association” Afif Al-Zayat, a number of religious men, former presidents of the union, and representatives of scouting associations.
The conference opened with the national anthem and the anthem of the “Al-Mabarrat Scouts Association”, performed by the Imam Al-Hassan troop, then a welcoming speech by the conference's secretary Mohammad Nasrallah, in which he said: “It is pride enough for this scouting movement that with its modest means and its authentic aims it has been able to attract to itself a large number of young people, to snatch them from between the jaws of the city clamouring with what technology has produced, and to walk with them into the embrace of nature, where life is hard and rough.”
He added: “The Al-Mabarrat Scouts Association will be part of the process of continuous development and self-evaluation that Al-Mabarrat Association follows in all its works and accomplishments. Certainly everything presented by way of planning and working papers at this conference revolves around this context and contributes to fulfilling the aims of Al-Mabarrat's message and to spreading its thought and its culture through creating an aware, cultured and steady generation that releases its energies for the sake of goodness and openness.”
Afterwards the Al-Sayyeda Mariam troop presented a singing segment entitled “We Are the Youth”, and there was a speech by the president of the Scouts of Lebanon Union Joseph Khalil, who said: “At the start of the sixth millennium I visited, with my companions the members of the administrative body of the Scouts of Lebanon Union, His Eminence Allama Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah at his residence. I remember that he that day likened the scouting movement to the sun, which flows into the universe without asking permission and gives light to the world, life to humanity and warmth to the earth. In these difficult days we remember His Eminence and contemplate the depth of his words, and we affirm through this meeting that in our Lebanese and international scouting movement we are children of light and of life, friends of the environment, and children of a humanity built on the civilization of love and on filling the bridges of meeting.”
Khalil said: “I am proud today, through my participation in your conference, that the Scouts of Lebanon Union should perform its role and its message and stand alongside the Lebanese scouting associations gathered under its banner, in the belief that the union shows in its work the unifying national image, forms in its performance the Islamic-Christian unity and establishes in its presence true citizenship.”
He added: “Your conference falls within the framework of activating the association's work, modernizing its programmes and performing its role in serving society, respecting difference of opinion and diversity of positions, and believing in the one God, proceeding from the constant that religion is for God and the homeland is for everyone.”
Then there was a third singing pause by the Imam Al-Mujtaba troop entitled “My Homeland, O Song of Al-Mabarrat”, then a speech by the president of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association Sayyed Fadlallah, in which he said: “I am full of hope that this conference will open a door that looks out upon a better future for our new generations and for this homeland, which is living the worst stage of its history as a result of the collapse we are witnessing of all national, moral and human values, and of the corruption that has come to control its joints at every level.”
He added: “Al-Mabarrat Association's entry into scouting work came from its belief in the importance of this work at the level of building the human being and directing his capacities so that they pour into serving society and building the homeland. It held that this work helps it to achieve the aim for which it came into being, namely raising up the human being and strengthening his presence.”
He continued: “I value the slogan the association put forward for this conference under the title ‘A Caravan of Pioneering in Service and Worship', where it headed its role with two things: serving people first, which it placed before worship - not out of any diminishment of worship, but because serving the human being is the practical expression of worship.”
He said: “Here we shall not see a scouting association that is isolated and withdrawn, suffocating within closed sectarian, denominational and political circles. Yes, it is an association committed to a religion and a denomination, but I do not see in this faith of its anything that isolates it from others; rather we see it strengthening its openness to them in every arena of this world. We want scouting work not to be in the image of the divisions we suffer from in the country, but rather to be unifying, uniting and bringing hearts closer together.”
Fadlallah pointed out that “when His Eminence Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah gave scouting the title ‘Lebanon's moral army', his aim was to affirm that scouting should be a unifying heading for the moral and human values on which all religions and denominations meet. There is no Islamic truthfulness and another Christian one, no Islamic trustworthiness and another Christian one, no truthfulness in this denomination other than that denomination; and if we live these values we shall know how to differ in religion or denomination without this difference turning into a problem - rather it will teach you how your logic may be beautiful, your style beautiful, your starting points beautiful and your aims likewise.”
Fadlallah affirmed “that we want scouting to be a unifier through moral values, and a builder of them, and an institute for educating young people in self-reliance, in the spirit of volunteering, in living in interaction with the other and in attachment to the land. Through this conference we want to contribute to restoring vitality to scouting work, which needs to be activated at the level of presence in public service and in all its fields, so that its role is not confined to accompanying activities, celebrations and parades; rather we want it to be the pioneer of civil and community activities.”
He concluded: “The hopes are great and the ambitions are many, but before them are obstacles, and we are able to face them if our efforts are united at the level of programmes, activities and the exchange of expertise and competencies. For our part we are ready to begin working together, and to unite in a practical, unifying formula; for if the politicians have failed to unify this country, then let scouting seek to carry out this role.”
Afterwards certificates and medals were distributed to the leaders, so that the specialized workshops could begin on the new scouting programmes prepared by the association to suit technological development, in addition to social service activities. Then the recommendations were raised for approval by the general assembly of the Al-Mabarrat Scouts Association.
