Tuesday, December 07, 2010
"Baghdad is not Kandahar"
You think so?
Yesterday there was a story in the Western press about Iraq's dying classical musical tradition which had survived the last five centuries.
Last week the authorities shut down all casinos, bars, nightclubs, social clubs that serve alcohol, something "even Saddam did not dare to do," to borrow the words of an angry Iraqi writer. A few intellectuals and writers staged a poorly covered protest a few days ago.
I guess the government of the Islamic Republic of Iraq must be really worried about all those drunk Iraqis who flock out of bars and social clubs every night to blow up innocents in churches and markets, or those radical musicians and actors with their instruments of mass destruction.
The Iraqi Ministry of Education has banned theatre and music classes in Baghdad's Fine Arts Institute, and ordered the removal of statues showcased at the entrance of the institute without explaining the move, but some of the students mull religious reasons as the real motive.
“Prohibiting theatre and music in the institute for its so called “violation” of religion is only an individual opinion touted by some people hailing from religious parties, but it is contradictory to the opinion of most religious clerics and scholars,” said Dhaya al-Shakarchi, a writer and a politicians, told Alarabiya.net.
Students have also fears that the ban will extend to include other arts such as photography, directing, sculpting, and drawing.
Yesterday there was a story in the Western press about Iraq's dying classical musical tradition which had survived the last five centuries.
Last week the authorities shut down all casinos, bars, nightclubs, social clubs that serve alcohol, something "even Saddam did not dare to do," to borrow the words of an angry Iraqi writer. A few intellectuals and writers staged a poorly covered protest a few days ago.
I guess the government of the Islamic Republic of Iraq must be really worried about all those drunk Iraqis who flock out of bars and social clubs every night to blow up innocents in churches and markets, or those radical musicians and actors with their instruments of mass destruction.
