Patriarch Bechara Rai. (Credit: Archive photo NNA)
BEIRUT — A social media smear campaign targeting Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai sparked widespread condemnation on Saturday from political and religious figures, prompting President Joseph Aoun to denounce attacks against Christian and Muslim religious leaders and call for “differences of opinion to remain within a political framework.”
Aoun was followed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who said that “the only true winner when the Lebanese are divided and confront one another is the one who dared to destroy the nuns’ convent in Yaroun, the mosque in Bint Jbeil, and the husseinieh in Doueir,” referring to recent Israeli attacks on religious sites in southern Lebanon.
In a statement earlier Saturday, Berri said the campaign against Rai began after what he described as an initial provocation by the LBCI channel, through videos that were “insulting” and “went beyond the bounds of political disagreement.”
LBCI had aired a video depicting Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem and its fighters as Angry Birds-style caricatures, mocking the military imbalance with Israeli forces.
Hezbollah boot and pig
Over the weekend, images circulated in which Rai’s head was replaced by a shoe, similar to boots often seen in pro-Hezbollah posts online, a pig, or a bird’s head from the popular Angry Birds mobile game. Another montage showed Rai smiling alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a statement, Hezbollah said the LBCI videos “go beyond the limits of political disagreement,” describing them as “degrading and cheap insults that lower political discourse to a repulsive level and turn it into a deliberate tool to incite the street and stir society … in order to provoke uncontrollable strife among Lebanese.”
The group urged its supporters “to be aware of the seriousness of what is being plotted against all Lebanese” and to avoid being drawn into provocations, in what appeared to be an implicit reference to alleged efforts by Israel and its U.S. allies to fuel internal unrest.
Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Moussawi echoed this message, while fellow MP Hussein Hajj Hassan suggested that “the attacks and destruction in southern Lebanon, under the supposed cease-fire, are being coordinated with the United States and Lebanon.”
Threat of legal action
“1,600 years of defending freedom… Bkirki is a mountain that does not shake,” Kataeb leader and MP Sami Gemayel wrote on X in support of Rai.
Former Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan said that “Bkirki and its patriarch embody Lebanon’s conscience.” Another former FPM MP, Simon Abi Ramia, described the cartoons as “a grave deterioration of public discourse” and “an affront to the values of respect that must govern our national life.”
The Maronite League denounced the content as “vulgar and inciting,” referring the matter to the judiciary and calling for swift action and accountability. The General Maronite Council condemned an “unprecedented level of moral degradation,” calling for immediate prosecution and warning of a threat to civil peace and national unity, while criticizing what it described as “suspicious silence” from authorities.
According to MTV, the head of the Change Movement Party, lawyer Elie Mahfoud, supported by a legal team, is preparing to file a complaint with the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation against anyone involved in insulting or defaming the patriarch.
Beirut Bar Association head Imad Martinos said it was “necessary” to take the matter to court, describing the cartoons as “an affront to all of Lebanon, in all its components, religious and secular, and a challenge to a unifying national and spiritual authority,” according to the state-run National News Agency.
Call for respect
Grand Mufti Abdellatif Derian contacted Rai “to check on him and strongly condemn the attacks,” according to the National News Agency. He said such actions “do not target one person or a specific authority, but strike at the very essence of national dignity and harm Lebanon’s image and values,” expressing Dar al-Fatwa’s support for the patriarch.
Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Sami Abi al-Mona also contacted Rai and condemned the insults, describing them as “an assault on the dignity of the nation.”
Maintaining a hardline stance toward Hezbollah, northern MP Ashraf Rifi said the group “forces the Lebanese to choose between submission or separation.”
Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Qabalan, close to Hezbollah, warned of “the danger posed by those promoting religious strife and hostility between Christians and Muslims,” blaming tensions on “media organizations aligned with Zionist interests.” The vice president of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council, Sheikh Ali al-Khatib, made similar remarks.
Aoun condemned attacks against “the heads of Christian and Muslim communities and spiritual authorities in Lebanon,” and called for differences of opinion to remain within the political sphere and for restraint from personal insults, given their negative impact, particularly under current circumstances requiring broad national solidarity.
Information Minister Paul Morcos said he is “working to combat hate speech and incitement,” in cooperation with international organizations such as UNESCO and the UNDP, as well as through media campaigns.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that ''no matter how deep political disagreements may be, and while remaining committed to freedom of expression, I have always warned against any drift toward forms of expression involving personal insults, attacks, harassment, or accusations of treason, all of which are condemnable and contribute to fueling tensions and passions.''
He added, in a post on X: ''I call on my fellow citizens to show the highest degree of responsibility and to reject hate speech, in order to avoid pushing the country toward tensions with unpredictable consequences.''
