Islamic State Is Coming, Graffiti Warns Lebanese, as the Band Plays On
By Donna Abu-Nasr Sep 4, 2014 10:55 AM ET
The crowd at the Beirut music club roared approval when the band struck the first notes of a satirical song about Islamic State chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
A woman swayed her hips in a gentle belly dance. Another doubled up with laughter, slamming her table and rattling the whiskey glasses spread across it. Some captured the moment on phone cameras, as the musicians belted out the refrain: “You will lead God’s servants to an abyss like no other.”
The mood of mockery belied the nervousness among many Lebanese that they may be Islamic State’s next target. The country is part of the Levant, where the Sunni militant group, previously called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, seeks to extend the caliphate it has established in parts of Iraq and Syria.
Al-Qaeda's Heirs
Islamic State already knocked on Lebanon’s doors when its fighters joined hundreds of militants who raided the Sunni border town of Ersal last month, clashing with the army and kidnapping more than 30 soldiers and security personnel. One of them was beheaded, reportedly by the Islamic State. The group also executed a Ersal resident it kidnapped less than a week ago, the official National News Agency said today.
“The Islamic State is coming” has been spray-painted on the walls of two churches in north Lebanon, after a picture was posted online of three boys in a mostly Christian neighborhood of Beirut setting the group’s black flag on fire.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-03/lebanon-band-plays-on-as-fears-mount-islamic-state-lies-in-wait.html
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