BEIRUT — A group of hard-line Christian men who call themselves Jnoud al-Rab (Soldiers of God) attacked a queer-friendly bar in Beirut on Wednesday evening, amid a rising wave of hate speech against the LGBTQ community in Lebanon.
According to the local news outlet L'Orient Today, a drag show was under way in the Om Bar, in the capital's bustling Mar Mikhail neighborhood, when a group of men stormed in, hurling insults and trapping people inside.
“Jnoud al-Rab attacked the venue and held everyone hostage and refused to let people out. . . . It was a good hour, more than an hour,” Tarek Zeidan, executive director of the Beirut-based LGBT rights group Helem, told L’Orient Today.
Videos of the brawl went viral on social media. One attacker can be heard saying, “This is Satan’s place. It’s promoting homosexuality on the land of the lord. . . . This is forbidden. . . . This is only the beginning.”
