The Byblos international music festival in Lebanon has dropped Mashrou' Leila - a popular local band from its 2019 line-up "to prevent bloodshed and maintain peace and security." The cancelation occurred when threats to violently disrupt the concert swirled on social media after high-profile Christian activists accused the band of producing songs offensive to the religion that they have also labeled as blasphemous, although Mashrou' Leila was cleared of wrongdoing after a judicial investigation by authorities. Church leaders and politicians also joined the campaign to cancel the concert. The cancellation is a worrying development for freedom of expression in Lebanon. This is a petition to ask Yo-Yo Ma to boycott the festival and cancel his concert scheduled for August 24th as the organizers of the concert succumbed to the pressures exerted by activists and canceled the performance, failing to stand for basic human rights values such as freedom of expression and equality among human beings (the lead singer openly identifies himself as homosexual, an issue that was repeatedly made reference to by the activists that worked against the concert in their comments on social media).
