Byblos Festival Cancels Mashrou3 Leila’s Concert

There you have it folks, the Byblos Festival has succumbed to the pressure from Christian extremist bigots and canceled the concert of Lebanon’s top band Mashrou3 Leila, in a statement issued today.

I have no words for how terrible this is for Lebanese freedoms, for Lebanese youth, music and our well being as a nation. As the lines of sensibilities of these different groups keep getting drawn around what makes them comfortable, we are all forced into a tighter and tighter space that is slowly becoming suffocating.

Shame on the Maronite Church for not being confident enough in its teaching to withstand a song.

Shame on those who call themselves Christian, who never turn the left cheek and who think that Jesus would want them to go full Crusader mode in 2019.

Shame on the faith of those who call themselves Christian that is so shaken by a lyric, by a band, by music.

Shame on those who are more mad about a lyric than about living in a country that is crumbling apart around them, with dying economies, absence of the rule of law, weapons and thugs roaming freely.

Shame on our judicial system that did not stand up for its own values, that still applies Ottoman era censorship laws, and that cares more about the emotions of a bunch of religious airheads than about civil liberties.

Shame on artists and media personalities in this country who proved, once and once again, that they are as backward minded as we always thought they are. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, but there you go. From Fares Karam, to Zein El Omr (a very proud Christian who changed his name from Tony so the Arabs would like him), to Carla Haddad. Shame on all of you.

Every single Lebanese with an ounce of nationalism should be angry at this today. We should all be mad at how they keep walking all over our liberties in the name of their religions, their gods, their politics, and we have no other way but to blog about it, tweet about it or just be vocally mad.

With each passing day, we are shown that this country is not for us. It’s for those who really love living in the dark ages, at a time where every single freedom they’ve earned can be taken away from them, maybe they can be happy then.

With every passing day, Lebanon is no longer a beacon of freedom for the Middle East, but just another one of those countries we once thought were not as good as us. We are now a beacon of ignorance, repression and oppression.

Mabrouk. Jesus must be very proud.

8 thoughts on “Byblos Festival Cancels Mashrou3 Leila’s Concert

  1. You know it pains me when I read an article where the authors name never appears. If you are so adamant about the hatred you have for the so called Christian extremists, then post your name. Do you blame us for not accepting this group. I will tell you, no one would dare say one word about the Muslim religion and be able to get awY with it. That’s what I like about the religion. People should condemn any type of religious racism on either side. Twenty years of civil war and not a darn thing was achieved by any of the religious factions across Lebanon. Bravo for cancelling them.


    • Did you read the contact page??

      Your whataboutism serves as a diversionary tactic to distract from the church’s criticism, & does not justify its actions.


    • hi karen, you live in a society which entire moral code has been defined by christianity whether you like it or not. the church is the largest institution in the world that is known for its hospitals, charities, universities, schools, environmental preservation and cultural preservation. there’s no other institution that comes even close. and yet here you are, ignoring 2000 years of moral and cultural tradition, taking them for granted and blanketing christianity with pedophilia, an accusation which has been leveled at some priest here or there, and blown out of proportion by the media. congrats for being an obedient global shill. so edgy and so empowered 😉


  2. although the concert should not have been canceled, mr fares uses that fact to promote his atheism. mr fares, you (and your likes) are using people like mashrou3 leila to promote yourself nothing more nothing less. your saltiness about a mediocre band being canceled is way over the top. you’re doing 2 things: promoting yourself and attacking christianity to validate your atheism and to appear brave to your audience. it’s always safe to attack a religion that wont give you the charlie hebdo treatment. and mr fares, there have been several scientifically recorded instances of gays reverting back to heterosexual lifestyle, demonstrating that gayness is -i know it’s a low effort pun- only a state of mind:

    so kindly tone down your unscientific atheist rhetoric. you cannot appropriate science. it’s not yours to distort. open your eyes and cool it a little on the LGBT propaganda. thanks.



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