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| Arabia |
| Bahrainians Reject Anti-Celebration Censorship |
| 2007-06-05 |
| Protests against restriction of freedom of expression have recently emerged in Bahrain, following a dance performance titled Majnoun Lilah that was held as part of the country's annual Spring Cultural Festival. Islamist circles in Bahrain claimed that the dance contained "immoral acts" that they said were against religion, against morality, and against societal custom. As a result, the Bahraini parliament decided by a majority vote to establish a committee to investigate the matter. Islamic MP Abd Al-Halim Murad explained the reasons for the Islamist opposition to the dance performance: "What happened at some of the activities of the Spring Cultural Festival was not part of [our] culture!... The MPs saw the scenes in which the male and female dancers were in perverted positions. It is absolutely impossible to remain silent about this - especially when the scenes were presented publicly, without shame!... Our country is Bahrain, not France or America! Bahrain is a Muslim country, and its identity is Islamic and Arab; its principles are Islamic, and its character is Islamic..." The show's creators, Bahraini poet Qassem Haddad and Lebanese artist Marcel Khalifa, rejected the Islamist criticism. In a joint communiqué, they said that what the Islamist circles were doing was a kind of "terrorism [against] forms of thought and culture, and repression of any creative effort." Haddad and Khalifa said that the position of the Islamist MPs was "not only an insult to free individuals who seek only knowledge and enjoyment, but also an insult to any civilized country that belongs to the 21st century... Is it appropriate that the people of a civilized country are represented by MPs who fantasize about taking over the regime - which, [if they did, would become] a regime of prohibition, repression, and expropriation?" With the show's creators stood some 50 civil organizations, which issued a communiqué condemning the parliament's decision to set up an investigative committee. They accused political circles in the Bahraini parliament of "strangling the atmosphere of freedom and forcing its dominion on the choices of the citizens." Bahrain's media joined in the protest against the restriction of freedom of expression and freedom of creativity in the country. In addition, criticism appeared also in the press of other Gulf countries. Newspaper editors and columnists attacked the Islamist circles for their interference in the lives of Bahrain's citizens, and called on them to stop the religious coercion and the damage to individual rights. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 If these dances are what I'm thinking they are, they are "traditional", i.e. very old? So how come they have been square with Islam until now? I think they hit a nerve with this one, maybe they will start to wake up some day and get out the pitchforks and torches. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-05 23:02 |