Posted on 04/02/2010 7:34:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A burqa-clad contestant on the Arabic version of "American Idol" landed in the finals after bravely blasting hard-line Muslim clerics on live television, sparking outrage among religious conservatives in the Middle East.
Unlike the wildly popular Fox show, contestants in the Middle Eastern version recite traditional and original poetry rather than sing.
While most regale the audience with odes to the beauty of Bedouin life and glory of their rulers, Hissa Hilal stunned audiences last week by attacking Muslim religious leaders as "vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind," and guilty of "preying like a wolf" on people seeking peace.
She specifically blasted fatwas -- declarations by imams that often incite violence -- as a side of the extremism that is "creeping into our society."
"I have seen the evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden," Hilal recited, speaking with only a hint of her eyes visible through her black veil.
Naturally, her verse has inspired numerous death threats on Islamic militant Web sites.
But her brave words clearly tapped a nerve, as she was wildly cheered by the audience and voted into the competition's final round.
"My poetry has always been provocative," said Hilal, a housewife and mother of four from Saudi Arabia. "It's a way to express myself and give voice to Arab women, silenced by those who have hijacked our culture and our religion."
Her poem was specifically seen as a direct assault on a prominent Saudi cleric who issued a fatwa against those who call for the mingling of men and women. More broadly, Hilal was also seen as attacking all the hard-line religious leaders who have widespread influence throughout the Middle East.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Women are/have been head of states in such Muslim countries as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
We’re still waiting for our first one here in the USA.
It’s a spook...
I worry for her too. I don’t know where she found the courage. I hope she is the start of something good, but given Saudi Arabia’s history, that seems a long shot.
Just read this week that Boyle receved her first royalty check to the tune of $4 million dollars.
Hopefully the wait will not be long now.
It certainly is a step in a direction that would endanger her. Arab & Mid East society justifies “female freedom” under the guise of segregation of sexes and you know what?
If that works for them more power to them in THEIR own country ~~but there’s no free speech;that’s the problem
I hope she survives the backlash
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