“A few minutes separated us from a massacre…”

LGBTQ+ activist Doumit Al Azzi recounted details of an attack that took place at a nightclub on Mar Mikhael Street in Beirut.

A night of terror and horror unfolded for the patrons and goers of Madam Om nightclub and café, as they were directly assaulted by the extremist group Jnoud Al Rab during one of the events being held at the venue.

Club staff recounted the details to Daraj.

As a drag performance took place inside of the club, an unknown individual entered the venue and began filming and harassing those present, shouting and cursing at them. It became apparent from one of the circulated videos that he was associated with Jnoud Al Rab, as his voice could be heard in the video, shouting: “This is a place of Satan promoting homosexuality. It’s forbidden on the Lord’s land.”

One of the nightclub owners attempted to speak to the assailant in an effort to calm him down and prevent the situation from escalating, but he did not respond.

Within moments, dozens of self-identified members of Jnoud Al Rab- which translates into “Soldiers of the Lord”-  surrounded the venue, attacking both the patrons of the nightclub and its owners who were outside.

Inside the nightclub, the staff quickly closed the doors to prevent more people from entering and to protect those inside, especially as the extremists had started breaking chairs, tables, and signs outside. They attempted to break down the doors and shatter the glass to invade the place, all while shouting threats and insults and intimidating those inside. Some individuals locked themselves in the bathrooms, imagining the worst-case scenarios.

Doumit Al Azzi, who was present at the nightclub during the attack, told Daraj: “From the moment we realized that members of the extremist group Jnoud Al Rab were present, only a few minutes separated us from locking the doors to prevent them from entering and committing a massacre.”

Regarding the security forces’ response to the attackers, Al Azzi confirmed that two officers from the Internal Security forces arrived at the nightclub and stood by, watching. They even entered the club, attempting to find something to incriminate the clubgoers, trying to turn them from victims into criminals, explained Al Azzi.

Indeed, while we were at the scene after the incident, we witnessed several individuals in black attire on motorcycles lurking around. We asked one of the security force members about these individuals’ identities, and he told us, “You know who they are, it’s not us.”

The security forces’ failure to provide protection for victims of similar attacks is not new, but it is an additional indication as to why individuals from the LGBTQ+ community, women, and marginalized groups refrain from reporting any attacks to the security forces. They know they will be met with ridicule and neglect, being turned from victims into criminals, while the attackers remain unaccountable, shielded by society, authority, and sectarianism.

Who is Jnoud Al Rab?

Jnoud Al Rab is an extremist Christian group that emerged in 2019, claiming to protect the Christian community, specifically in Ashrafieh. Its members do not exceed a few dozen, but they have sought to distinguish themselves through a shallow extremist discourse about protecting Christians and societal ‘values’. Their discourse focuses on demonizing sexual minorities, and as such, they have staged protests and displays, often armed, emphasizing religious speech. They are recognizable by their black attire and muscular appearance, and most of them were employed in security companies.

It is believed that they are connected to the banker Antoun Sehnaoui, a figure associated with Lebanon’s financial and economic collapse.

Notably, the group has enjoyed a kind of unofficial political and religious cover, positioning themselves as the Christian counterpart to the ‘self-security’ concept propagated by Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, their practices negatively affect the openness that neighborhoods like Ashrafieh and Mar Mikhael have been known for, impacting the Christian community, which now feels threatened due to this phenomenon.

“We are alone on the frontlines”

What happened on Wednesday is one of the most dangerous attacks in recent times. 

The attacks are incited and fueled by a political and religious regime whose members have united to launch aggressive campaigns against members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

These campaigns have escalated over the past year after Interior Minister Bassem Mawlawi’s decision to ban and criminalize activities related to Pride Month. Following that decision, positions and speeches have contributed to inciting hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community and demonizing them.

The culmination of these campaigns was a series of consecutive speeches by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, through which he explicitly urged his supporters to crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community, to deal with them violently, and to adopt murder, “without any limits.”

These campaigns have taken on bizarre dimensions, including withdrawing a child’s game from schools because it has rainbow colors on them, and launching media campaigns to ban the Barbie movie for allegedly promoting homosexuality and undermining family values. Meanwhile, the country is sunken in deep crises, all managed by these ministries.

A frenzy under the title of “protecting society from deviance” has emerged, joining together parties, sects, and groups that have never united on any principle. They now find common prey in members of the LGBTQ+ community, focusing on intimidating, demonizing, and excluding them, after marginalizing women, girls, and children, as well as failing to secure protection for them as well.

These groups are the pillars of a failing authority that searches each time for a scapegoat to hang all their failures on. The result is a dilution of public discourse on any accountability, given their responsibility for the comprehensive economic, financial, and social collapse that the country has been experiencing for nearly four years.

What’s more dangerous is that these extremist groups are now provided with an official political and religious discourse that grants them absolute legitimacy to violate personal and public freedoms, including public spaces that once were safe for individuals. They subject these individuals to various forms of harm, particularly in light of the security agencies’ negligence and the complete paralysis of the judiciary due to political will.

Under the pretext of protecting societal values, religion, and traditional customs, and weaponizing the claim that they are a security force that protect religious and sectarian identities, these groups and individuals, backed by the overarching religious and political system, are threatening both public and individual civil liberties, leaving individuals to confront these threats on their own.

“Despite being a targeted, marginalized, and oppressed group in society, we have always been at the forefront of the battle defending issues of democracy and public liberties,” says Doumit Al Azzi. “But if they succeed in defeating those at the forefront, they will move on to others, to women facing the same patriarchal system, to public and political liberties, to the media, and to academic freedoms. Everyone are targeted as well if [the LGBTQ+ community] falls.”