4 Men Interrupt Sermon at al-Amin Mosque, Mufti Deplores Incident

Four gunmen stormed Mohammed al-Amin mosque in downtown Beirut during a sermon by Sheikh Hisham Khalifeh on Friday, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The news agency said that a verbal dispute occurred between Sheikh Khalifeh and the armed men during the prayers. The four men later left the mosque.

However, the army command denied later on in comments to the NNA that any armed man entered the mosque.

According to LBCI, the army imposed security measures near the mosque after a dispute between Sheikh Khalifa and three men, who refuted his speech.

The channel said that the three men fled the premises later on.

Sheikh Khalifeh, according to LBCI, was preaching about national and Muslim unity.

Later on Friday, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani condemned the incident, describing it as “incitement to strife among Muslims and inside their mosques.”

Qabbani slammed “the parties behind this behavior.”

For its part, the Directorate General of Islamic Endowments said “some young men entered the mosque to stir a tumult and launch insults and offensive words.”

“They tried to force Sheikh Khalifeh to step down from the podium while he was delivering a sermon revolving around unity, shunning extremism and reckless behavior, and shouldering responsibilities during this critical period Lebanon is going through,” the directorate added in a statement.