Heavy Metal Islam
The official Iron Maiden site has posted the following article:We would like to make you guys aware of a very interesting book, "Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam" which has recently been published by Mark LeVine. It describes in great detail what is happening with Metal in the Muslim world, giving us the background and describing the difficulties, often highly dangerous, encountered by Metal fans and bands there and also what it means to them. If you are at all interested in Metal and its cultural significance to fans in unexpected areas of the planet it is well worth checking this out...
Head here to read the rest.
2 Comments
I'm muslim from iran... islam is a great and complete religion as good az cristian... dont look at afganistan or iraq for islam.... yes... in iran if you listen to metal they think you are satanist... and you are mad person... they make documentaries and show in TV and said all of metal band are satanist... but n.p we listen to metal and suport it... there is a maidan fans blog in persian language too... but i cant see iron maiden official site becouse its filer... sorry for english (up the irons)
Mr.jack, your description of life as a metal fan in Iran is similar to how things were for metal fans in the American mid-west in the 1980s - they used to burn Iron Maiden records and any guy who grew his hair long and wore a metal t-shirt was considered a Satanist. So yeah, Christianity has been just as hostile to heavy metal as some people Muslim countries.
I think it's cool that there are metal fans in Iran, and it proves that, although we might seem very different, deep down we have so much in common. People often don't understand the metal can be uplifting and inspirational, not just nihilistic. But it is sad that people make life hard for you, just because of the music you listen to.
Nowadays, most people in the west are accepting of metalheads and not longer have the idea that they are satanic or evil. I hope that one day it will be the same for you.