Saudi religious scholars condemn Arab pop idol
Saudi religious scholars have condemned an Arab television Star Academy competition as a crime against Islam and urged the Saudi Arabian pop singer who triumphed last month to repent.
More than 60 sheikhs rounded on the fresh-faced Hisham Abdulrahman, whose victory in the Star Academy reality show triggered the closest thing to pop hysteria seen in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.
In a statement posted on the Saudi news website Al-Wifaq, they also criticised the "depraved" Lebanese television station which broadcast the show.
"Young Arab men and women were put together in an "abominable state of mingling of sexes ... exposing themselves, singing, dancing and corruption," they said.
Abdulrahman received a hero's welcome on his return to Saudi Arabia in late April. But a public appearance in a Riyadh shopping mall, where admirers rushed to shake his hand or even kiss him, proved too much for authorities.
Vigilantes known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, dragged him away and put him on a plane to the Red Sea city of Jeddah, newspapers reported.
"A number of youths and girls crowded round him and deviant behaviour occurred. Then the commission removed him from Riyadh on the orders of the governor," the 63 sheikhs said in the statement, which was dated Monday.
"We call on this youth, and all who took part with him ... and all who gave media coverage or prizes or votes, we call on all of them to repent before God," the sheikhs said.
Saudi Arabia, home to the puritan Wahhabi school of Islam, requires women to be covered in public and accompanied by a male relative. Mixing of unmarried men and women is forbidden.
In Star Academy, a group of young musicians from across the Arab world shared a house and were filmed 24 hours a day as they competed for a recording contract. The programme drew huge audiences across the region, but angered religious scholars.
Saudi Arabia's main mobile phone operator said in January it was blocking customers from voting by text message for a winner because the programme failed to match the kingdom's values, but many Saudis insist they were still able to vote.
"What happened is considered a crime against Islam and a great offence against the Islamic nation," the statement said.
It also criticised the crowds who flocked to see Abdulrahman, saying they "indicate a defect in society".
Al-Wifaq said Saudi authorities had also decreed that Abdulrahman be prevented from accepting any prizes in Saudi Arabia, meaning he will lose out on a car which one local company planned to award him.
hindustantimes
