We at Swedish branch of the Aramaic Democratic Organization, ArDO, are very proud and pleased to hear that you have raised the issue of the misuse of name of the great legacy of our great artist, poet and writer, Gibran Kahlil Gibran for the Kahlil Gibran International Academy (KGIA). We also stress the importance of stopping to stamp the Christians living in Lebanon and especially the Maronites as well as those Christians living in the rest of Middle East for being ethnically Arabs only because they speak Arabic. The fact is that the majority of the people who were living in this area of the world before the Arab Muslim invasions were ethnically Aramaic-Syriac and had their own beloved Aramaic language which was spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ himself before they were forced to convert to Islam and give up their language for the benefit of the Arabic, which has been a synonymous for the language of Islam as Muhammad was speaking it.

As we are living in the 21th century it’s time to stand up and tell the truth about all the crimes that have been committed in the past as well as those that are committed in our days against our people, without being accused of being this or that or if it comes to the worst, be killed. Every one should be given the freedom to express himself and decide his own destiny, not matter what it is. It is time for us to shake out all our burdens caused by others and have the aim to revive our sacred heritage and our Aramaic-Syriac language by teaching it in our schools and make it our official language again, not in Lebanon only but in all our historical countries. This is the only way to honor our great Aramaic author Gibran Kahlil Gibran and many others like him for their contribution to developing the Arabic language. This should in no way be taken as any hostility against any group. As we can see in all western countries, all immigrants, Arabs and Muslims among others that have fled from their native countries enjoy all kind of freedom, far away from what they were used to. They are given the rights to exercise their religion more then ever, to build places of worship, to build their own schools, to speak any language they want and so on. This and only this should be deserved to be called co-existing between different ethnicities and religions. Everything else is nothing but a play to the gallery as the case is in the Middle East.

At last we wish you all success in your efforts to gain your rights and hope to continue working together.

Sincerely Regards

Gabi Galo