Official statement:

On Friday, the media office of the festival organizers, who was to host Sepultura went to Facebook to announce that authorities represented by the General Security have banned the Brazilian band from entering the country and refused to process their visas. The band had been scheduled to perform in Beirut on April 28th.

Two days later, the organizers released a press release in which they included the authorities' reasons for refusing the visas of the band. Besides accusing the band of "insulting Christianity" and being "devil worshippers", authorities said the band had previously played in Israel and filmed a video clip showing their support of Israel, giving grounds for their decision knowing that Lebanese laws put any person who previously had traveled to Israel or have Israeli Visa on his passport in danger of being arrested.

While the organizers had denied all the accusations confirming the band never played in Israel or insulted Christianity, they confirmed trying to request the revocation of the ban order.

The bands wide fan-base in Lebanon and the Middle East who were excited about the concert used social media to express their anger and disappointment with the banning decision. Many have criticized the authorities' description of the band as "devil worshippers" as ignorant. In fact, metal music has been culturally related to "satanism" and "devil worshipping" in the Middle East.

For Sepultura, this is not their first time in the region. The band has played in Dubai around two years ago and were scheduled to have a concert in Cairo earlier in 2016, but they were banned for the same "devil worshipping" accusations and the concert's organizers were arrested.

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The media office of the organizers of Sepultura Live in Beirut concert released the following statement:

We were going to host a concert for the International Brazilian Metal Band Sepultura on the 28th of April at The Palace - Aresco Center, Beirut. After duly applying for artist entry visas for the band, we were informed that band members had been banned from entering Lebanon. The concert organizers were not even allowed to view the decision. However, after enquiring before the artists' division, we were told that the issue is delicate as it relates to insulting Christianity, that the band members are devil worshipers, that they held a concert in Israel, that they filmed a video clip supporting Israel, and that the decision was issued by the head of the General Security Forces.

We would like to clarify that these accusations are totally untrue. The band did not play in Israel. The aforementioned video clip mentions Israel's racism without naming it. The same video clip, which was launched in 1993, contains scenes of Israeli repression, and members of the band are shown drinking tea with Arab clans.

As for insulting religion, current members of Sepultura fight against all forms of corruption, and call on the world to return to goodness and nature and to reject corruption. Since it's the nature of metal music, the band uses a violent style of expression. But they did not directly attack Christianity. in fact, the band's vocalist has shared on his personal Instagram account photos of St. George's Cathedral in Lviv - Ukraine a few days ago. It should be noted that the icon of Saint Charbel appears in the photo.

We would like to point out that the band is socially active as it tries to shed light on corruption in societies without adopting any ideology or being inclined towards any thought. On the contrary, through their lyrics, they ask people to return to God and to reject an abnormal automated society, not to worship Satan as interpreted by some.

Finally, we would like to point out that it is a shame to see such censorship in Lebanon, a country that claims to be the only democracy in the Arab world, where freedom of thought and belief is safeguarded impartially, while countries that are more religiously stringent, such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, host this band that was banned from entering Lebanon (Dubai is hosting them for the second time).

Sepultura has held a concert in Dubai in 2017, and will be having a second concert at the Hard Rock Café in Dubai on May 2nd, and a concert in Turkey on April 30th.

Source:	albawaba.com
Band profile:	Sepultura