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I am Lebanese and proud to be so. I am not Turkish, and I am proud not to be.
I belong to a nation whose splendors I praise,
but there is no state to which I might belong or where I might find refuge.
I am a Christian and proud to be so.
But I love the Arab prophet and I appeal to the greatness of his name;
I cherish the glory of Islam and fear lest it decay.
I am a Levantine, and although in exile I remain Levantine by temperament,
Syrian by inclination and Lebanese by feeling.
I am oriental, and the Orient has an ancient civilization of magical beauty and of fragrant and exquisite taste.
Although I admire the present state of Western civilization and the high degree of development and progress it has attained, the East will remain the country of my dreams and the setting for my desires and longings.
Some of you treat me as a renegade; for I hate the Ottoman state and hope it will disappear.
To those amongst you Gibran answers: `I hate the Ottoman state, for I love Islam, and I hope that Islam will once again find its splendor.'
What is it in the Ottoman state that so attracts you, since it has destroyed the edifices of your glory?
...Did Islamic civilization not die with the start of the Ottoman conquests?
Has the green flag not been hidden in the fog since the red flag appeared over a mass of skulls?
As a Christian, as one who has harbored Jesus in one half of his heart and Mohammed in the other, I promise you that if Islam does not succeed in defeating the Ottoman state the nations of Europe will dominate Islam.
If no one among you rises up against the enemy within, before the end of this generation the Levant will be in the hands of those whose skins are white and whose eyes are blue.
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