A view of the main street in Taalabaya, in Bekaa, Lebanon. (Credit: Facebook/Taalabaya municipality)
BEIRUT — A Syrian national was tied to a pole and beaten up in the Bekaa village of Taalabaya on Tuesday morning for allegedly participating in a fake video perceived as insulting and inciting confessional strife.
A series of videos were circulated online: the first, chronologically, was the one that angered the residents of Taalabaya to such a point that the man ended up tied to a pole — as seen in the second video, taken by one of the villagers involved in the violent reaction. In a third video, the Syrian man, filmed in the first and tied up in the second, explains to one of the villagers what brought him to that point.
Taalabaya has a mixed Muslim and Christian population, and its residents were angered when they saw the initial video, in which they say the Syrian man tells the camera that he used to sell donkey meat as goat meat and that his life is much improved since he converted from Islam to Christianity. The video was seen as a conscious attempt to cause sectarian strife within their community.
The second video, which was widely circulated online and initially filmed and shared by Taalabaya resident Melhem Hosheimy, the man is tied against a pole in the village. Residents are gathered around him, launching insults. Hosheimy is seen slapping him at some point and he later mentions in the video that the man was beaten up.
"When you insult Islam you should be up for the consequences," one of the villagers is heard saying in the second video of the beating. "You are insulting both Christianity and Islam," another says.
The third video, also shared by Hosheimy, the Syrian man tells Hosheimy that an unidentified woman promised 150 dollars and a chance to travel outside of the country if he recorded himself making such allegations concerning the meat and his supposed conversion. However, he only received LL300,000 and the woman never contacted him again.
Also in the video is another Lebanese person who residents also accused of filming a similar video inciting sectarian strife.
A security source told L'Orient Today that the Syrian man was arrested by State Security, but that security forces did not detain the people who beat him.
The head of the municipality of Taalabaya, who had previously resigned, and its previous head George Sawwan both declined to comment on the matter. Other local authorities also refused to comment.
Last month, a man was tied against a pole in two different locations in Ghobeiri, a district in Beirut's southern suburbs, by employees of a security company for allegedly trying to steal from one of the company's clients.
The municipality of Ghobeiri has since filed a lawsuit against the security company.
