The Day Somali Music Died
Islamist insurgents have ordered Somali radio stations to stop playing music, a ban that went into effect last Tuesday. This order follows the Islamists’ ban on musical ringtones, movies, men without beards, football, women’s beauty salons, and bras. Those not adhering to the new ban risk a grave threat to their physical well-being, which includes getting assassinated or undergoing Sharia-based punishments. Such punishments include having your limbs amputated, your eyes gauged out, your tongue cut out, and your ears cut off.
A majority of radio stations in southern and central Somalia stopped playing music and jingles on Tuesday. In Mogadishu, the capital, only the government-controlled Radio Mogadishu, which is protected by African Union peacekeepers, and the UN-funded Radio Bar-Kulan, whose studio is in Nairobi, resisted the order.
In order to understand this phenomenon, it is critical to keep in mind that for the totalitarian radical, experiencing any kind of joy means succumbing to the false consciousness that, in the utopian mindset, must be purged from the earth. Earthly joy distracts from the constant vigilance that is necessary to engage in revolutionary battle.
This is why Lenin refused to listen to music, since, as he explained, “it makes you want to say stupid, nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell.” For Lenin, violent revolution was the priority — a priority endangered by the emotions music could induce.
Sayyid Qutb, one of Islamism’s godfathers, could relate to this vision all too well — and he serves as a perfect example of Islam’s rejection of the joyous celebration of this world and this life. In his work Milestones, Qutb demonizes the pursuit of individual interests and sensual pleasures — but above all sexual pleasure — and of personal happiness and fulfillment. The word “desire” reverberates through Milestones as a diabolical entity.
Thus, America was, understandably, the main target of Qutb’s fury. He lived in Colorado from 1948 to 1950, and he was enraged by Americans’ interest in having “a good time” and “fun.” He despised all the comforts of modern American life. He was particularly repulsed by a dance he witnessed after a church service. He writes with horror:
The dancing intensified. … The hall swarmed with legs. … Arms circled arms, lips met lips, chests met chests, and the atmosphere was full of love.
Here we see totalitarian puritanism as well as the totalitarian craving to reject the reality of personal love.
Yet another reason everyone should rush out and become a follower of the “great religon of peace”. . . . .NOT!!
Does it not seem strange that the mullahs and immams preaching this are at the very top of the group promoting it. The immams of Iran own the prostitution rings and control the drug trade and probably not surprizing, the CD trade. Indeed these are the opiate of the masses, especially when one is filling thier pockets from it.
The prophet was none to fond of music and prohibited it to believers. Islam – putting “dys” in dysfunctional for 1400 years.
I follow and commend David Pryce-Jones argument, but wish he used either of Lewis Carrol’s Alice books as an example rather than Daniel Defoe’s novels: neither The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe nor The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was “conceived specifically for the imaginative child.”
An excellent example of tracing the sources of today’s war within Islam, Dr. Glazov. Much more of this is needed to enable non-Muslims to understand the nature of the deep reform that must be implemented to render Islam harmless to the West.
Understanding the nature of meaningful Islamic reform will arm non-Muslims against the deception of phony reformers such as Tariq Ramadan.
There are moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. We non-Muslims can wield some influence to create the political conditions under which a reformed Islam can be born. Prosecuting all attempts to establish Islamic law in the West is the first step. Opposing all governments that support traditional Islamic law (the member states of the OIC) should be a First Principle of our foreign policy.
Muslims must create a peaceful version of Islam. We need to push them in that direction.
I’m reminded of the Ayn Rand quote in
WE THE LIVING:
” They came as a solemn army to forbid life to the living.”
Pretty much covers ‘em all.
The news about Somalia comes as no surprise. The radicals have been terrorizing the citizens for years. The imposition of ‘Taliban’ and ‘Mujahadeen’ rules, as were imposed in Afghanistan, indicate that this dehumanizing behaviour comes from Islam. The same story continues to repeat itself. That leading Islamic countries are not protecting the people of Somalia, indicates either their approval of these tactics, or they have no compassion for fellow Muslims. Maybe it is both. Liberal Muslims claim that ‘they (the terrorists) are not real Muslims’. That Muslims perpetrate these humanitarian crimes on other Muslims, is astonishing. I’ve been waiting for a Muslim leader to declare these actions are wrong. I’m still waiting… My blessings to Dr. Glazov and other brave writers who expose the insanity of the hateful Sharia based laws in Muslim countries.
How are they going to tell which women are wearing bras?
Mark The Great – the religious police feel the women’s chests, or make them jump up and down and watch them to see if they jiggle.
This is not a joke. They actually do this.
Another good reason to ban music is that it sticks with the listeners. How many of our Marines in WW2 could remember songs played by Tokyo Rose? A song can contain lyrics that are against the regime. Irish folk songs that are still sung blast the British.
If you are a dictator, you want to be feared. You can’t afford to be mocked. Songs are a good way to do just that.
Great article. Too many in the west don’t get what Islam is all about. This article clearly shows some of the hateful requirements which Islam foists upon its believers.
“On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
….hmmm, Heavy Metal, indeed!!!
Anyone remember the Underminer at the end of The Incredibles?
“Behold the Underminer! I am always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon all will tremble before me!”
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If the President, the congress and the environmental whack jobs would only see clearly enough to allow us to develop fully our own abundant natural resources which are virtually bubbling up underneath our feet we could, in a very short period of time, completely free ourselves from our dependence on importing foreign oil. We have plenty of oil, coal, natural gas, within our own borders, off our coasts, to keep us solvent for the next couple of hundred years, more then enough time for our inventive and creative fellow citizens to develop a viable alternative source of energy. We would have scenes of Arab leaders, Kings and rulers coming to America on bended knee, bowing and scraping before whoever is President, begging that we buy their oil. What else do they have to sell? Sand? Then we can simply tell the entire Muslim world to kiss our collective rear ends. If the Somali leaders want to ban music, hey go for it Islamic nut jobs!!! If they want their women to grow beards as well as the men why heck we’ll be more then happy to sell them the technology to make that happen for them. If they want their 10 year old daughters, sisters and cousins to be legally married let them do so. We can just wash our hands of the entire problem.
Apparently factions of Somolian terror organizations found their way to the Chicago area, for the first time Chicago a huge populated city in the united states is finding decapitated and dismembered body parts at crime scenes. My ability to report their activity was hampered by a black caucas who didnt like my comments about their emppowering such a group of somolians locally and they have had me rendered unfit to stand trial on a disorderly conduct where I identified members of their terror cell financial fraud ring in the south burbs and was immediately persecuted because i would nOT SHUT UP ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON .. persons in cook county circuit court felt i would SAY TOO Much and alarm the public. having your body parts dismembered is something to BE ALARMED AND ALERT ABOUT. I am lucid and fed up with the coverup!! Pam Toll Park Forest IL USA
He despised all the comforts of modern American life. He was particularly repulsed by a dance he witnessed after a church service.
I argue that Qutb was ignored by the bobby soxers, went home to Egypt and poured out his resentments on paper.
Hence, the origins of prudish Salafism as a function of Qutb’s resentment and jealousy.
Music & rhythm are integral to the African soul, good luck trying to destroy that in Somalis.
‘There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful.’
Don’t you recline on bejeweled couches beside rivers of wine in Paradise, with houris/virgins attending your every need ?
Aren’t the joys of martyrdom sold as a libertine life awaiting you ?
What shall we make of these dancing Mullahs!?