Lebanon: far-right group ‘Soldiers of God’ is exploiting the country’s unsettled past to stir sectarian tensions

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon have exchanged almost 5,000 attacks across the border. Lebanon is being pulled into a war it cannot afford. But the country’s weak state has little power against the militias that operate within its territory.

A string of overlapping crises over the past decade, coupled with political paralysis and an economic depression that has crippled much of the state and fuelled poverty, has brought Lebanon to the verge of collapse. In Lebanon’s capital city, Beirut, the absence of state power has prompted some communities to take security matters into their own hands.

In the Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh in eastern Beirut, one neighbourhood watch initiative formed to reassure residents worried about crime has led to the formation of a private militia named Jnoud al-Rab (Soldiers of God). Soldiers of God is a far-right group made up primarily of young working-class men who see themselves as “guardian angels”, patrolling the streets at night to keep the community safe.

Beirut is already witnessing a rise in self-securitisation in places under the influence and control of Hezbollah. The rise of Soldiers of God has raised fears that Achrafieh will join this trend, evoking parallels with the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) when the state collapsed, militants controlled the streets, and Beirut was ideologically divided into the Christian east and Muslim west.

When Soldiers of God goes out on patrol, it claims to do so in defence of Lebanon’s Christian lands against the “Islamist peril”, as well as “criminals” and “outsiders”.

In Lebanon, these “others” often refer to Syrian refugees. Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world. To the Soldiers of God, the “other” is any non-Christian, but particularly supporters of Hezbollah and its Shia Muslim political partner the Amal Movement. Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker and major figure in the country’s political establishment, Nabih Berri, has led the Amal Movement since 1980.

Although Lebanon’s civil war officially ended in 1990, sectarian and political divides remain. In October 2021, members of the Lebanese Forces party clashed with Hezbollah and Amal supporters in Beirut, resulting in the deaths of at least six people. The Lebanese Forces, which was established in 1976 as the country descended into civil war, is an anti-Hezbollah Christian political party and has the largest bloc in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament.

Soldiers of God had played a partial role in stoking up sectarian fears and prejudices beforehand. Investigations by army intelligence showed that members of the group wrote religious slogans and drew crosses in a number of Beirut’s Christian neighbourhoods the night before the fighting broke out.

The growing polarisation in Lebanon has much to do with Hezbollah’s “offensive” war with Israel. According to Soldiers of God, it’s not just the welfare of Lebanon’s Christian neighbourhoods that Hezbollah is putting at stake by opening a front with Israel, it’s the welfare of the entire country.

In January 2024, Soldiers of God took over flight screens at Beirut’s Rafic Al-Hariri Airport to assert its position as the defender of Lebanon. It displayed a message warning Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, against entering into a war with Israel. The message said:

In the name of God and the people. Rafic Al-Hariri airport doesn’t belong to Iran or Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah, you won’t find support if you curse Lebanon with a war you can’t handle. We will not fight on behalf of anyone. You took away our port now you will take away the airport because of your weapon transfer. Let the airport be free of you.

Since then, the divide between Lebanon’s Christian and Shia communities has grown even further, culminating in the killing of Pascal Suleiman, a senior figure in the Lebanese Forces party, on April 7.

Enforcing division

The rise of Soldiers of God is reminiscent of darker times in Lebanon’s history, when militias enforced sectarian, territorial divisions.

In December 2022, young men on motorcycles carrying Moroccan flags were beaten in the Achrafieh area by members of Soldiers of God. The men were celebrating the Moroccan national football team’s historic qualification for the Fifa World Cup semi-finals in Qatar. They were mistaken for members of Hezbollah and Amal as they travelled from west Beirut, a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood.

The group also employs violence against those it claims are threatening traditional Lebanese values and customs. A few months earlier, in June 2022, the group vandalised a billboard in Achrafieh that had been decorated with flowers and a rainbow flag to celebrate Pride month.

Later that day, Soldiers of God posted a video online accusing the LGBTQ+ community of promoting satanism and posing a danger to their children. And in August 2023, members of the group also attacked a LGBTQ+ friendly bar in Beirut, disrupting a drag show and trapping people inside the bar while chanting homophobic slurs.

There is a real concern of increasing violence, even more so because Soldiers of God does not stand on its own. The group has a reported annual budget of £260,000 and is closely tied to, and financed by, former warlords and militias who participated in the Lebanese civil war.

Soldiers of God is playing on divisions in Lebanese society to promote its cause. What the future holds for Lebanon is uncertain, but the declining presence and capacity of the state has paved the way for sectarian conflict to return as armed groups take security matters into their own hands.