Committee to investigate 'sleazy' show named

[N.O.R.F]

Committee to investigate 'sleazy' show named

 

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief

 

 

 

Manama: Bahrain's Islamist-dominated lower house yesterday named a seven-member commission to investigate an allegedly "sleazy" cultural show, hours after 54 civil society organisations took full-page ads in four Bahraini newspapers to "defend culture and creativity."

 

The members of the commission are Ebrahim Al Hadi, Ebrahim Bu Sandal, Adel Al Assoomi, Jameel Kadhem, Mohammad Al Mezel, Abdul Halim Murad and Nasser Al Fadhala.

 

Discussing the merits of the probe, lawmakers overlooked calls to calm the situation and named members of Sunni and Shiite blocs to conduct the quizzing of information ministry officials over the staging of "obscene" scenes from a musical interpretation of Laila and the Possessed, a love story written by Bahraini poet Qassem Haddad, with a score from Lebanese composer Marcel Khalifa.

 

The decision to go ahead with the probe despite a series of statements from liberals, intellectuals and artists is set to have lasting ripple effects on the uneasy relations between society and the parliament.

 

Supporters of the annual Spring of Culture festival have charged that the three Islamist societies were seeking to hijack people's minds and impose their views on the country.

 

But Al Asala, Al Menbar and Al Wefaq whose members make up 75 per cent of the Council of Representatives said that they could not remain idle while "the core of Islamic values and the traditions of Bahrain are being attacked under the guise of culture and arts."

 

"We do not oppose art when it is genuine, but we do mind any attempt to erode our religious and social values under any excuse," said Mohammad Khalid, a deputy for Al Menbar.

 

Condemned

 

Earlier, liberals made a last-minute move to put pressure on Islamists before they decided on the probe.

 

"We strongly condemn the attempts by political forces in the parliament to stifle freedoms and creativity guaranteed by the constitution and the national action charter," the liberals said in their statement.

 

"These societies have no right of custody over people's choices and instead of addressing pressing social issues, they are preoccupying themselves with matters that are not part of their responsibilities."

 

Islamist deputies in 2004 forced the MBC satellite television channel to cancel the production in Bahrain of an Arabic version of Big Brother featuring twelve housemates, six men and six women, from around the Arab after they claimed that the show flouted Islamic traditions.

 

 

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