Illustration based on the photo of Antoun Sehnaoui's dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, and U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus, in Washington on July 27, 2026. (Credit: Moussa Maaoulouf/L'Orient-Le Jour)
They are instantly recognizable: shaved heads, steroid-built muscle, aggressive religious tattoos covering their forearms and necks, almost always clad in black and often armed. Their emblem leaves little doubt: a red-and-white crusader shield, the wings of Saint Michael and a Bible, displayed on their social media accounts and even on their mopeds.The Jnoud al-Rab (“Soldiers of God”), a small extremist Christian group, burst into public view in June 2022. In Sassine Square, in Beirut’s Achrafieh district, a handful of its members vandalized a Beirut Pride display — a vertical garden created to mark Pride Month. In a video that quickly went viral, they openly spewed hatred, threatened the LGBTQ+ community, and accused it of pursuing “satanic” aims. The group’s repeated excesses prompted Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea to...
They are instantly recognizable: shaved heads, steroid-built muscle, aggressive religious tattoos covering their forearms and necks, almost always clad in black and often armed. Their emblem leaves little doubt: a red-and-white crusader shield, the wings of Saint Michael and a Bible, displayed on their social media accounts and even on their mopeds.The Jnoud al-Rab (“Soldiers of God”), a small extremist Christian group, burst into public view in June 2022. In Sassine Square, in Beirut’s Achrafieh district, a handful of its members vandalized a Beirut Pride display — a vertical garden created to mark Pride Month. In a video that quickly went viral, they openly spewed hatred, threatened the LGBTQ+ community, and accused it of pursuing “satanic” aims. The group’s repeated excesses prompted Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir...