Metalheads are always considered among many as the outcasts of society, and that’s because we always to speak out against injustice, oppression and retarded social bullshit.
Still, most modern societies have accepted the fact that you cannot silence millions by oppression, imprisonment, or intimidation, and have respected the right of freedom of speech and the right to pursue your own ideologies.
I would like to address this certain matter which occurred some days ago in Lebanon, and which involves an official statement from the General Secretariat of Catholic Schools concerning the final day of the Beirut Rock Festival 2009, which involved these bands: Tristmoon, Weeping Willow, To/Die/For and Anathema.
This is a screenshot of the actual statement:
General Secretariat of Catholic Schools Statement
First I’d like to tackle some naming errors, mainly the title of the event, which translates to The Beirut Rock Dancing Festival which is rather funny since dancing was attributed to the 50’s era Rock n Roll > Elvis. Another error is “To/Dye/For” which is actually “To/Die/For“.
The main issue to be discussed however are the ridiculous accusations of satanic rituals, “spreading the death culture” and the masterpiece “no cameras allowed because of their fear that someone witnesses what will happen”. The first argument I’d like to make is that hundredsof men and women had cameras (professional/cell cameras), as well as the OFFICIAL & PROFESSIONAL shooting of the event, to be broadcasted on LEBANESE LIVE TELEVISION. Therefore the argument of ‘no witnesses present’ is wrong, and I won’t even bother to talk about the satanic rituals idea, since that is utterly absurd, unimaginable and simply outdated.
The argument that drugs are going to be distributed during the event shouldn’t be even mentioned here because the risk of that happening is the same during a local basketball game, an Arabic pop concert or any large gathering of people, and we don’t see any statement from the Secretariat telling parents to prevent their kids from going to a basketball game. Parents should trust their kids to make the right decisions, since oppression will only push them to do bad things.
Any real Rock fan would also know that both these international bands are far from the standards of ‘extreme’, so any speculation that they might be involved in any ‘dangerous activity’ is simply hilarious.
Finally, I would like to say that the Secretariat has an opinion of its own, which we should respect simply because we believe in Freedom of Speech, but opinions which involve accusations should always be backed up by facts, or else everyone would accuse every organization in this country of corruption simply because of some few bad apples in the bunch.
