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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysia cancels controversial Iranians concert |
| 2011-02-17 |
| [Straits Times] MALAYSIA has cancelled a concert by a singer dubbed Iran's Bob Dylan Lemme guess: he wears a proletarian hat and sings through his nose, occasionally giving a hit on the harmonica... after an Islamic party argued Mohsen Namjoo's work was incompatible with Islam, media reports and his website said on Wednesday. "Youse can't sing through yer nose! It's un-Islamic! It's in the Koran someplace! You could look it up!" The 34-year-old, whose music fuses traditional Iranian music with pop and jazz, was due to perform in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. "The Profit (PTUI) never sang through his nose, youse can bet on that!" But Malaysia's minister for information, communication and culture, Rais Yatim, said the event would no longer go ahead. 'The government will not allow the concert because it (is) not appropriate in terms of religion, culture and the country's cosmopolitan nature,' he was quoted by the Star newspaper as saying. In 2007 Mr Mohsen was dubbed Iran's answer to Bob Dylan by the New York Times, which highlighted his 'playful but subtly cutting lyrics' about growing up in an Islamic state. Malaysia's conservative Islamic party, the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), had pushed for a ban against Mr Mohsen. |
| Posted by:Fred |