The irony was off the charts last Friday when an Islamic State (ISIS) jihadi from Syria, Issa al-Hasan, murdered three people and injured many more in an attack at the “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen, Germany. This attack was a vivid and painful indictment of the left’s idol of “diversity,” but it was much more along with that: it was a grim reminder of the fact that as Islamic jihad becomes an ever more common feature of life in the West, music festivals are favorite targets.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Solingen’s “‘Festival of Diversity,’ marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.” Al-Hasan explained that he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who had carried out the attack in order “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” He added that he had chosen the Festival of Diversity as his target because he wanted to kill a “group of Christians” and was apparently unaware that only the most watered-down type of Christians would be attending such an event.
It was also significant that the Festival of Diversity included live music. Jihadis have been attacking music events for years. On Nov. 13, 2015, in Paris, Islamic jihadis carried out a series of coordinated attacks across the city, murdering 130 people. Ninety of them were killed inside the Bataclan concert hall, where a band called Eagles of Death Metal was playing a concert before 1,500 people.
One of the jihadis, Salah Abdeslam, asserted that the massacre was revenge for French military actions against jihadis in Iraq and Syria. “We fought France, we attacked France, we targeted the civilian population. It was nothing personal against them,” he said. “I know my statement may be shocking, but it is not to dig the knife deeper in the wound but to be sincere towards those who are suffering immeasurable grief.”
Then on May 22, 2017, another jihad mass murderer killed 22 people and injured 59 at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. The perpetrator was a man named Salman Ramadan Abedi, a man whom friends described as a “devout” Muslim who had memorized the entire Qur’an. He was known to British authorities as a terror threat and had been in touch with a recruiter for ISIS.
Islamic jihadis again struck a music event in Russia on March 22, 2024, screaming “Allahu akbar” as they murdered 145 people at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, where a rock band called Picnic was performing.
The most obvious reason why Islamic jihadis strike musical performances is because large crowds attending them, making them perfect sites for a mass casualty event. But Islam’s antipathy to music should not be overlooked as a contributing factor. The Islamic hatred of music is largely unknown in the West but shows up in news from the Islamic world now and then.
Last Monday in the village of Chiksa in Bangladesh, Muslim authorities banned music at celebrations of weddings and birthdays — and at all other events as well. In 2023, the Taliban were reported to be patrolling wedding halls to ensure that the prohibition on music was not being set aside.
This was because, although the prohibition is widely ignored, music is forbidden in Islam. An Islamic tradition depicts Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, prophecying that there will be a “collapsing of the earth” when “singing slave-girls, music, and drinking intoxicants spread” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 2212). In another, Muhammad again equates the corruption of the Muslims with their acceptance of music, along with alcoholic drinks: “People among my nation will drink wine, calling it by another name, and musical instruments will be played for them and singing girls (will sing for them). Allah will cause the earth to swallow them up, and will turn them into monkeys and pigs” (Sunan Ibn Majah 4020).
Related: The Palestinian Flag: As Inauthentic as the Palestinian People
According to the classic manual of Islamic law, "Reliance of the Traveller," musical instruments are condemned (r40.1); singing or listening to singing is offensive (with the exception of songs that encourage piety) (r40.3); and on the day of resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress. (r40.1 (2)).
In light of all this, it’s no surprise that jihadis would target concerts. Not only do they present the prospect of a large crowd, but also a large crowd that is engaging in behavior that angers Allah. Authorities in Europe and the U.S. should be studying this fact and providing extra security for music events. But they aren’t, of course, doing any such thing. That would be “Islamophobic.”
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