A group of young people dressed like comic book characters were brutally attacked and imprisoned for organizing a Comic Con event in Libya this weekend, according to local Facebook reports.

Image courtesy of Libya Comic Con

Hundreds of young Libyans were attending this weekend’s festivities in the capital, Tripoli, many dressed as American or Japanese comic book characters, when an armed paramilitary group raided the event, and accused the youth of abandoning Islam and promoting violence.

“This sort of festival imported from abroad exploits the weakness in religious faith and a fascination with foreign cultures. It is necessary to address and fight this destructive phenomenon, which prompts the dissemination of pornography and feeds the minds of adolescents, motivating them to kill,” the Special Deterrent Force, an armed Islamist police force that works for the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord, wrote on its Facebook page.

 

Read the whole story from Newsweek.

Featured image of Firefly characters at Dragon Con 2009 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons