Islamists whip dancers into shape

Sharia police arrested and flogged 32 people in Somalia recently after the 25 women and seven men were caught dancing together in a town south of Mogadishu. Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said the dance criminals were released about being whipped and explained that they’d been punished after repeatedly ignoring warnings to stay off the dance floor. “The dancing of men and women together is illegal and totally against Islam,” the Sheikh told press agency Reuters. “We neither killed them nor injured them, but only whipped them according to the Islamic law,” he pointed out (International Herald Tribune)

In related news, German record company boss Rainer Weichhold downplayed the seriousness of threats from anonymous Islamicists directed towards Great Stuff artist Butch (aka Bülent Gürler) following Bulent’s use of tone elements inspired by traditional muezzin proclamations on his new album Papillon. “We don’t want to give more energy and power to those guys, even it would be clever from a marketing perspective,” Rainer told Skrufff. “The threats were posted on a Turkish forum, in Turkish language,” he revealed.

Rainer said re-recording and re-composing the German Turk’s acclaimed (and excellent) artist album Papillon would also be ‘also impossible and no solution’ and said they’re continuing with release plans on an ongoing basis. “We will just go though with it, leaving that mess behind and hoping that people stand against those fundamentalists and let the music speak for itself,” he continued. “We think the album is amazing and we want Butch to have all the freedom of artistic expression he needs,” said Rainer.

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