The Religious Persecution Begins...
Technorati tags: Music, Black Metal, Youth Issues
myAsylum just found out that the Malaysian National Fatwa Council (fatwa - an Islamic edict or declaration of law) has made an edict stating that Black Metal is haram.
(Thanks to Screenshots reader antiracist).
Pix from The Star archives
This is the latest episode that began with the ridiculous Mastika article that came out sometime late 2005. Following the article, two police raids were conducted on 'suspected' Black Metal gigs: one in Seremban (December 2005) and more recently, the raid on Paul's Place in KL on New Year's Eve.
(more persecutory news, in the full post)
Based on the news report (as reported in Utusan Malaysia), perhaps the most shocking "fact" is that Black Metal culture is attributed to Metallica!
"Menurut Dr Shukor, setelah diteliti dan dikaji dari semua sudut, didapati ajaran kumpulan itu yang diasaskan daripada kumpulan "Metallica" di Amerika Syarikat menggunakan simbol salib terbalik pada tahun 70-an, jelas bertentangan dengan ajaran Islam."
Walski's Translation: According to Dr. Shukor (referring to Datuk Dr. Shukor Husin spokesperson for the Fatwa Council) after scrutinizing and researching this from all angles it has been found that the teachings of this group (i.e. Black Metal), founded from the group "Metallica" in the United States using inverted crosses in the 70's, clearly goes against the teachings of Islam.
Last time I checked, ignorance is also something Islam looks down upon. Newsflash: Øystein Aarseth seen spinning in his grave...
HELLO!!! A quick check at Wikipedia will tell you what Metallica has to do with Black Metal - nothing, nada, zilch!!! And by the way, Dr. Shukor, Metallica wasn't even around in the 1970's. Pray tell which alternate universe do you belong to?? And more important, what research sources did you use (if indeed any real research was done)?
Maybe I'm being nitpicky on pointing out this glaringly stupid statement - but what I find really scary is the repercussion to this: persecution of the independent music scene. To be fair, Dr. Shukor did add that listening to music from "Heavy Metal" groups is okay.
If Dr. Shukor (whom, by the way is the Rector of Kolej Universiti Islam Malaysia in Nilai) can't tell Metallica and the Black Metal genre apart, how is one expected to believe that any of the various state religious departments (a.k.a. Religious Police) can?
More raids on indie gigs (especially if there are Malay kids involved), raids on shops selling any paraphenalia with "illicit"/"haram" imagery (fill in your scary imegary here), clampdown on zines... I shudder to imagine.
December 31, 2005 may have been a black spot on the Malaysian indie music scene. Today, that spot just got bigger and blacker...
