It seems like every few weeks, some “priest” writes a horrifying Facebook note or article in a newspaper, detailing the “evils” of Yoga, how it’s “satanic”, how it makes you “hysterical”, derives from “pagan” rituals, etc.

For most of us, it’s a funny and sad reality of religious people: they’re afraid of what they don’t understand, and consider anything more popular than Sunday mass, as a “satanic threat” to be dealt with. Now, anyone who went to a school, and owns a device that can connect them to the Internet, knows none of this is true. We just shrug it off, laughing at those priests and their followers, and how stupid and hateful they are.

However, if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that the Lebanese church and its enthusiasts might be stupid, but they are also very powerful. Below, I will discuss two instances about how the church’s oppression materialized in the real world, and why Yogis should be careful, and not just dismiss this orchestrated smear campaign as just another example of religious stupidity.

The Metal Witch Hunt (Late 90s-Early 00s)

It all started in 1994. A troubled kid showed up to morning assembly at my old school, pulled out a gun, and shot himself in the head. He was the son of a big-shot military commander, and his suicide came right after Kurt Cobain had shot himself in the face. Questions about abuse within the boy’s family were quickly stifled, and instead, a new culprit was blamed: heavy metal (not sure Nirvana qualifies as heavy metal, but hey, what else do you expect form the Lebanese chuch and authorities?).

That’s when the infamous metal-head witch hunt began, and is sadly, still ongoing almost 25 years later… Metal heads were actively hunted down by Lebanon’s police at the behest of the church. Their concerts would be raided with armed, plain-clothed undercover police. Their bands would be detained and questioned. Kids with long hair, skulls in their clothes or wearing a “Metallica” shirt would be arrested, forced to do a drug tests and charged with “blasphemy” and “worshipping satan” and other absurd charges.

Here’s what it felt like, from a PopMatters.com article:

When Deaïbess, a Christian, showed his interrogator the rosary around his wrist, he was accused of wearing it as “camouflage”. After signing papers promising that he would not listen to Nirvana or worship the Devil, he was released — only to be arrested again in 2007 for operating a heavy-metal-friendly pub in Beirut.

Each wave of arrests has been an effort by Lebanese leaders to distract the public from a political crisis, such as the end of the Syrian occupation in 2005 or increasing gas prices in 2002, Deaïbess said. “I firmly believe that every time the government needs to distract people from important issues, they will start an attack on metalheads. We are always the scapegoat of this rotten society.”

After the arrests in 2002 and 2003, many metal musicians fled Lebanon for good, weakening the scene. “[Arrests] will happen again. The Lebanese metal community is too weak right now to do much about it. I hope we’ll have enough good records that are supported internationally, so that our voice is so loud they can’t shut it out anymore,” Kaoteon said.

If you were a teenager like me back then, you heard about this. I still remember my school banning anything that was black, or had skulls or skeletons on them. A metal band’s patch on your backpack meant you were immediately in trouble.

This hysteria culminated in regular “reports” of “satanic rituals”, especially in and around cemeteries. Almost every suicide of a young person was automatically assumed to be part of a “black mass”. Tele Lumiere even broadcast live “exorcisms” of metal heads, who in retrospect, seem to have been mentally ill people, being abused for religious people’s satisfaction…

Disgusting stuff…

The Mansur Labaki Scandal

This is the single event that made me lose complete faith in Lebanon. Convicted by his peers in the Vatican as a serial child molester, Labaki, the man behind most of the Maronite hymns and songs you learn in Catholic school, has an INTERPOL arrest warrant in his name now. Instead of facing justice, he’s still a free man, although the church did give him a slap on the wrist: he can’t do mass anymore.

What’s shocking in this case, isn’t that a priest was molesting kids, that is a trait that has been recurring worldwide for decades. It’s how it was covered up. Rumors are that a TV series idolizing the predator priest are in the making, and will be, you guessed it, aired on Tele Lumiere (the exorcism junkies).

However, the thing that scared me the most, that showed how vicious and evil the church and its acolytes can be, is how they tried to cover up the stories of his victims in France. Victims and their families in France started a website, where victims can share their stories and people can support them in their recovery. The url of this site was subsequently banned from being accessed in Lebanon, and the same url, but with a .com instead of a .net, was set up that “exonerates” the disgraced priest… I found this out while working at LBCI News, and it took me an entire week of pounding the pavement, to find the paper trail. The .net could be accessed via TOR back then, but not on Lebanese DSL or mobile Internet. This ban was based on a judge’s order. So, in other words, the Labaki fans banned the victims’ support website, used the exact name, but with a .com instead of a .net, to try and hide the truth. If you are convinced of innocence (despite the INTERPOL warrant and Vatican guilty verdict) then why try to hide the stories and replace it with your own?

The Church is Evil and Powerful

We have a tendency to dismiss the religious as stupid fanatics, and even though that is largely true, they’re also very dangerous. They’re the kind of people that forcibly put sexual abuse victims in “der el saleeb” without due process. The kind of people that barricade journalists inside an Orthodox church after word came out an orthodox priest was also abusing children in Koura (Pandalemon). They’re the kind of people who 23 years later, still shut down and ban Metal music.

So, yogis, be careful. This orchestrated smear campaign about “being satanic” isn’t just religious people being religious people, it’s paving the way for another witch hunt. You might think it’s farfetched, but think of it this way: if a priest calls up a police officer and tells them some kids with dreads are having a “yoga festival”, who do you think he’ll believe? The vegan kid with dreads, or the priest he needs a blessing from to stay in his position? Just look at what the psy trance scene has been suffering through the past few years…

Organize yourselves, get good lawyers and always make sure you are on the good side of the cops and government. Take the priests who accuse you of satanism to court. Don’t let the mixture of ignorance, corruption and religiosity steamroll you like they tried to do to the metal scene, the psy scene and victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Don’t just laugh it off, you are in actual danger, by an extremely powerful oppressor that answers to no one in Lebanon.

Namaste everyone! ❤