❊ Lebanon Should Stop Arresting People for “Devil Worship”

Angie puts it best:

Behold the modern day witch-hunt: people bent on condemning alternative dress codes and unconventional lifestyle choices as evil and otherwise directed by Satan.

Devil worship is one of the most ridiculous charges Lebanese officials can throw at you. It’s a throwback to a time when people felt threatened by anything that was slightly unconventional; a sort of conspiracy between the elite, the clergy and the superstitious to lock up societal “trash”.

Is there a legal definition of “devil worship”? Does it involve hurting or limiting the freedom of other members of society?

If it does, then we should at least change the name of the accusation. “Devil worship” sounds embarrassingly medieval and we can replace it with the more contemporary felony of “anti-social behavior”. We do that by creating clear and transparent laws for what constitutes such behavior. This will help prevent “I don’t like how you look” arrests.

Here’s how the British law identifies anti-social behavior:

• rowdy, noisy behaviour in otherwise quiet neighbourhoods
• night time noise from houses or gardens, especially between 11.00 pm and 7.00 am
• threatening, drunken or ‘yobbish’ behaviour
• vandalism, graffiti and fly-posting
• dealing or buying drugs on the street
• litter and fly-tipping rubbish
• aggressive begging
• drinking in the street
• setting off fireworks late at night
• abandoning cars on the street

As you can see from this list, it focuses on the actions of people, not their taste in music, clothes or deity. This is how it should be in Lebanon too.