If you still think Islam forbids music watch this


Last week I caught on Moroccan television one of the most extraordinary music performances I have seen for years. It was Mohammed Al Bakri and an orchestra from Bahrain - where Sharia law is a principal source for legislation - performing Bob Marley's No woman no cry as seen in the photo. Copyright owner Tunes Arabia has blocked embedding of the performance video. But it can be viewed on YouTube via this link; do watch it all the way through as it becomes progressively more extraordinary. As Ian Whiteman declared in a recent guest contribution: "No big bearded imam was going to tell me music was haram".

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material is included as "fair use" for critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Comments

Philip Amos said…
Boggling! I do not know how or why this performance came to be, but the rather widespread criticism of it as, in effect, hypocritical (e.g.,Arabic women aren't allowed to drive, therefore...) seems to me idiotic and suggestive of a double standard. If, say, a bevy of Hollywood men recorded this song in support of and to raise money for the MeToo movement, I doubt if they would be accused of hypocrisy. For my part, I found it delightful and encouraging.

Recent popular posts

David Munrow - more than early music

Classical music must be doing something wrong

Does Facebook really have to be this dire?

Soundtrack for a porn movie

The act of killing from 20,000 feet

The Accidental Pilgrim

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Bring forth new life - Chernobyl 26th April 1986

The art of the march

Master musician who experienced the pain of genius