Rima Karaki is on a roll. After making international headlines around the world for shutting up the Islamist Hani Al Siba’i, her show’s most recent episode is dropping a bombshell of an equal, but less international, caliber.
A priest has been filmed on camera sexually harassing and assaulting a woman, from showing her his penis, asking her to jack him off, to asking her if her vagina was tidy and tight. It’s utterly disgusting.
It starts with a meeting with the priest over some business matter. Eventually, the man starts to hit on the reporter (he doesn’t know she is one, obviously). After inquiring about her living arrangements, he invites her to stay at his local.
From there on out, he starts to talk about his libido.
Suppose we want to sleep together.
In hypothetical scenarios of course. “Suppose we want to sleep together,” he tells her, before going on a tirade about his sexual prowess. Yes, he is 70 but he can still fuck like a stud. And he doesn’t take viagra!
I don’t do it more than twice a week. Even once sometimes.
He only sleeps around once or twice a week.
It has to be completely secret. My social status cannot permit gossip.
I’m a man and the woman I want should keep my position and dignity.
After all, he is a priest and his position in society demands high levels of privacy and secrecy. No gossip allowed when it comes to him, of course.
I want your vagina to be tidy and clean. Is it tight or loose?
And of course, the highlight of the conversation is to know whether her vagina, or as he calls it “at’out,” is clean and nice and whether it is tight or not.
I’ll pull it out and show it to you… take it…
Play with it… It’s soft.
And then there are the sexual advances, from flashing her his penis and asking her to jack him off and get it erect.
– Show me… Take it off. – Take what off?
To asking her to flash him as well.
– Get away from me. What do you want from me? – A kiss… and it’s enough.
To try and kiss her forcibly.
– Isn’t this against religion? – Why are you afraid?
To not even caring when she brings up that what he’s doing is against the religion he should be preaching. When it comes to being horny, that holy cloak is dropped like the last piece of leaf covering up Venus’ crotch. Here’s a link for the full video:
The tragedy of the matter doesn’t stop here. While watching the video and feeling horrified at what that man was doing, the true horror was on the right side of the screen in the comments section as people, including women, tried to DEFEND what he was doing.
This is disgusting and has nothing to do with Christianity. The question to ask is why are they targeting only Christian religious men?
There were those who clearly see this as an anti-Christian campaign. Why else would anyone want to discuss this ever? Because Rima Karaki didn’t, just last week, make global ridicule of an Islamist!
He’s a wise-ass and she’s a slut. Her voice is irresistible.
And there were those who blamed her for being a whore with an irresistible voice. How could any man resist?
Since this TV station and its reporters are whores, doing this report clearly shows that the priest is innocent… Would they dare do this to non-Christian religious men? Or is it because they know our religion is that of peace and mercy they attack us? A day will come where you will fall to the hands of people who will make sure you forget what your profession is.
And there’s the one who thinks NewTV and its reporters (females) are whores, which clearly shows that the priest is innocent. And of course NewTV wouldn’t do this had the religious man not been Christian. I mean, can they even?
They’re sending her to seduce him and then they’re glad they caught him… go home.
Support to the priest also comes from non-Christian Lebanese. When it comes to penises, men must stick together. How dare that woman try to seduce the priest?
Good for him. She’s a slut.
Certainly the woman is to blame.
Don’t you have anything other than religious men to talk about? Go see politicians and their actions. Disgusting media.
And it’s all clearly an LBC and NewTV led propaganda because there’s no way a priest can do this. The priest in question tried to defend his “honor” by accusing NewTV of fabricating the video and sending a woman to seduce him.
Not All Priests Are Bad… But This One Is Rotten:
Being born and raised Christian, going to a catholic school and being around churches all my life, I can attest to not all priests being bad. One bad priest does not ruin the whole. Some are men who actually follow the teachings of their religion and who try to help people to the best of their capacities.
This priest, however, is beyond rotten. What he’s doing cannot be defended. NewTV wouldn’t have sent an undercover reporter to his office hadn’t they known about his practices. They should have shown his face. They should have said his name.
How many women has he molested before? How many women has he sexually assaulted? How many women has he slept with? How many women thought they had no other options but to sleep with him? How many people has this priest terrorized through Sunday sermons into sexual repression, of fearing their bodies, for the sake of being chaste to God?
How disgusting is this man to think that “women seducing him” is an excuse to be such a revolting man whose vows of chastity were not only thrown out of the window, but burned at the altar of the Church he serves?
His Church should strip him of his cloak, and ban him from all his religious practices.
How horrifying is it to think that there are people in this country who think that just because someone is a priest or a religious man can absolve the horrible things that those people do? How scary is it that there are people, even now, who can fathom defending such a man just because of the way he prays and who think that TV stations have an ulterior motive other than to get people talking?
Do people really think that the Lebanese Church, whichever this priest belonged to, would have done anything about him even if they had known? The Vatican is barely doing anything about the pedophiles.
I’m sure this isn’t a one incident thing. There are probably plenty of priests and sheikhs in the country doing worse than this, to age groups that are even younger. Before you try and defend this scum or even agree with him that the station trapped him, think about all the people who have fallen victim to them and who don’t have a voice to defend them.
A priest does not a holy man make. Religion does not a good person make. Repeat after me.
Update:
New TV met with the priest for an interview that he requested. His name is Antoun Farah, currently the head of a Lebanese charity for the handicapped. Obviously, he claimed that the video is fabricated… but he refused to meet the woman whom he harassed. He was shown his face on the video without the blurs and he was still adamant that it wasn’t him.
How so, he was asked. I don’t know was his reply.
The fact that he’s not a priest practicing in a parish does not change anything in the way he should be dealt with. What’s scarier is that he was stopped from practicing in a Church due to a previous scandal that may have involved sexual harassment as well and still the Lebanese Church in charge of him did not think it would be best if he were stripped of his religious title.
Let me put it this way: if any priest is faced with anybody in front of them, naked to the skin and tempting them, it is their job not just to resist temptation but to cover those people up. Such a disgusting man.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Reblogged this on Ritachemaly's Blog and commented:
When I saw the video I was horrified!!!! Elie explained how the new tv show LIL nasher covered the story. Immediate Action must be done to CRIMINALISE THE GUY For Assaulting the women. More than that, I request the CHURCH IN LEBANON, The Maronite Church to immediately Stop, and Criminalise the “Priest”! Violence against Women, especially Sexual Harassment and Assault NEED TO BE CRIMINALISED!!!!!!! Lebanese Church Should React!!!
Thanks Elie for wonderfully covering the story!! I am reblogging you. Here is the direct link to Elie’s blog: https://stateofmind13.com/2015/03/10/lebanese-priest-caught-on-video-sexually-assaulting-a-woman/#like-11900
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Who cares at the end of the day? He is a human being before being a priest. Also, look at the others (sheikhs, imams…) and all the ones who try to hide behind their religious clothes. Do not focus on one. Look at what you deputies and ministers are doing. That just proves that you have nothing to do except gossipping. Jeha ma fi ella 3a khalto. Criminals are controlling the country. Terrorists are free running around covered by the criminals. Everyone has a gun and is ready to shoot and kill for any stupid reason. Unfortunately, this country is now a jungle.
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This person needs to be CRIMINALISED and punished by the Civil courts. what this person has done is harrassment and sexual harrassment which is worse!!
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Airy be rabbak 3a rabbon 3a rab allah w mohamad wel masse7 7ara2to 3ordna bel ta3asob wel ghaba taba3kon !!
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He used to be a priest in the Greek Orthodox church and not Marounite. I agree with you. It is a crime. I hope there is a law against in Lebanon.
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I mentioned that he is Greek Orthodox just for the information. I am not protecting any church Marounite or Greek Orthodox.
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Pingback: Lebanese Priest Caught On Video Sexually Assaulting A Woman | Ritachemaly's Blog
the STORY IS … I can’t find words to describe it!! HORRIFYING?! thank you Elie for explaining it very well in your post.
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The video made me sick, the comments made me hurl. Outrageous
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Lebanese in their entirety are a backwards people. muslims and christians alike. that’s why your country isn’t worth the dirt it’s been built on
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Nova, if you are an Arab talking from an Arab point of view, well let me just say that such disgusting incidents happen everywhere, but at least we in Lebanon have the decency and awareness to deal with them instead of sweeping them under the rug like other Arabs do.
Nova, if you are a “Westerner” talking from a “Western” point of view, much worse incidents have happened and still happen in both Europe and the U.S./North America.
Either way, the backwards people are people such as yourself who either fail to see their own “dirt”, or who prefer to sweep their own “dirt” under the rug instead of tackling the issue!
And just for good measure: haters gonna hate!! 🙂
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Sometimes, certain narrow-minds try to defend the executioner/torturer due to blind fanaticism but they should know something, such behaviors exist in all religions and cultures, and that doesn’t mean that the ignorance, stupidity, and animalistic sexual instinct of a person should cause the entire population to be tagged and judged. We’re only focusing on one person here and not an entire sect..
Just stating a fact.
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You are absolutely right.
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This person is unfortunately from my own hometown. He used to be the priest of the little village that I came from but he has been stripped off from preisthood a while ago. This is not his only scandal. He was in prison before. He sold stolen cars…Carried a gun in church. If I see him I would spit in his face. He has alienated a whole village from going to church. His actions should not have never been tolerated by the church in the beginning. I am so disgusted.
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Reblogged this on and commented:
Thank you Elie for covering this. The problem with our society doesn’t appear to be that he has blatantly disrespected his religion, his position and his authority as a priest, but rather that she was even involved in the conversation with him. It shames me to think that we live in a society where the victim is to blame, these kind of ideas with regard to sexual offences were explored in England in the 70’s (look at Amir’s work for example), it’s a shame that almost 50 years on people STILL blame the victim!
May I remind you that he is a man, not an animal. What does that mean? Something called self-control exists. Indeed some of you may say she tempted him (I don’t actually see how a woman merely being there is tempting), but it doesn’t mean he has to act upon those feelings, especially since he’s made a vow to God.
This is a blatant abuse of his position, and a clear sexual offence (yes he would be prosecuted in England). Where one abuses his position the penalty is greater on this side of the world, and I don’t see why this shouldn’t apply to a man like him in Lebanon. Stop blaming the victim, she is not a whore. He made the CHOICE, the conscious decision to speak to her in that manner and he should face the full scope of consequences which come with committing a blatant sexual offence, and an abuse of his power.
This isn’t an attack on religion at all, this is a man who has chosen to disrespect her and abuse his power and it could happen, and indeed does happen to men from all backgrounds and religions.
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What Lebanese people need to understand is that if someone of their own faith has committed a crime, their first reaction should not be to try to find a way to defend them solely based on the fact that they belong to the same sect. This is why we see so many Elies and Tanioses saying that the program is rubbish and that the priest only reacted to lewd behaviour by the reporter. Same goes for the person who felt the need to specify that the priest came from the Greek Orthodox Church, not the Maronite one (as if that makes a difference). I am a practicing Maronite myself and it is our duty no matter what religion or sect we come from to denounce such people regardless of whether they ressemble us or not. It is the day we become capable of doing so that we can start talking about having a country.
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Kamel I agree with everything you said but just a correction if you are refering to me I belong to the Greek Orthodox church and i wasn’t defending the Marounite and I personally do not care about any sect. I was just correcting the information since I know this person. Growing up, I prayed constantly that the church would do something about him. I truely hated going to church because of him.
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are there any updates on this issue?
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Plain and simple, the priest is a liar… Worse than him, are those attempting to justify his despicable act. What a shame. I say this as a Christian Lebanese.
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He is not a priest now ,The Church defroct him long time ago because of his behaviour,He still call himself priest,And by the way ( who has not sinned?) Everyone one of us is a sinner just let’s us pray psalm 51 .
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