Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix

FilmFlaneur
Senior Member

God is not my co-pilot.

@filmflaneur
Posts: 5,573
Likes: 1,201

Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT

Quote

Post by FilmFlaneur on Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT

A Tunisian court has sentenced a British DJ to a year in jail after he played a dance remix of the Muslim call to prayer.

London-born Dax J, was charged with public indecency and offending public morality - but had already fled the country before the court case. He had also issued an apology. The nightclub was shut down after footage of the weekend's event was shared on social media and sparked outrage. A court spokesperson told AFP news agency that the court dismissed charges against the nightclub owner and an event organiser, but the prosecution has appealed saying the two should have checked what the DJ would be playing.

The event was part of Orbit Festival in Nabeul in the country's north-east. The footage showed clubbers dancing to music played by two European DJs. The music included a dance version of the call to prayer, the religious act that Muslims perform five times a day. "We will not allow attacks against religious feelings and the sacred," the governor of Nabeul, Mnaouar Ouertani, said when the club was shut down.

Earlier in the week, the organisers of the Orbit Festival apologised in a post on the event's Facebook page, but said that they did not accept responsibility for the playing of any offensive music. The DJ "did not realise it might offend an audience from a Muslim country like ours," they said in the post (in French). Dax J has offered his "sincere apologies to anyone who may have been offended by music that I played at Orbit Festival in Tunisia on Friday". "It was never my intention to upset or cause offence to anybody," he said.

Dax J has performed at festivals and nightclubs around the world including techno festival Awakenings in Holland and the UK's Glastonbury. He runs a studio in Berlin, where he also works as a sound and mastering engineer, according to his management company. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39522342

One supposes that the DJ's version was intended as an irreverent riff rather than an arrangement to specifically address a youthful audience and bring more into the mosques - unless a call to prayer would also be unacceptable, say, when given a classical darabakh (Tunisian drum) accompaniment. One remembers that the venerable Cliff Richard brought out a pop version of the Lord's Prayer some years ago in the UK and faced no opprobrium, while Christian rock, with lyrics full of religious sentiment seems to face no problems either;so perhaps this is another case of other cultures, other minds, and of Islam lacking a sense of humour. Either way, Dax entertainment, folks. Or not.

Last Edit: Apr 7, 2017 10:25:55 GMT by FilmFlaneur

There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.

Aj_June
Junior Member

@aj1june
Posts: 2,556
Likes: 1,184

Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 10:41:08 GMT

Quote

Post by Aj_June on Apr 7, 2017 10:41:08 GMT

Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT FilmFlaneur said:

A Tunisian court has sentenced a British DJ to a year in jail after he played a dance remix of the Muslim call to prayer.

London-born Dax J, was charged with public indecency and offending public morality - but had already fled the country before the court case. He had also issued an apology. The nightclub was shut down after footage of the weekend's event was shared on social media and sparked outrage. A court spokesperson told AFP news agency that the court dismissed charges against the nightclub owner and an event organiser, but the prosecution has appealed saying the two should have checked what the DJ would be playing.

The event was part of Orbit Festival in Nabeul in the country's north-east. The footage showed clubbers dancing to music played by two European DJs. The music included a dance version of the call to prayer, the religious act that Muslims perform five times a day. "We will not allow attacks against religious feelings and the sacred," the governor of Nabeul, Mnaouar Ouertani, said when the club was shut down.

Earlier in the week, the organisers of the Orbit Festival apologised in a post on the event's Facebook page, but said that they did not accept responsibility for the playing of any offensive music. The DJ "did not realise it might offend an audience from a Muslim country like ours," they said in the post (in French). Dax J has offered his "sincere apologies to anyone who may have been offended by music that I played at Orbit Festival in Tunisia on Friday". "It was never my intention to upset or cause offence to anybody," he said.

Dax J has performed at festivals and nightclubs around the world including techno festival Awakenings in Holland and the UK's Glastonbury. He runs a studio in Berlin, where he also works as a sound and mastering engineer, according to his management company. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-39522342

One supposes that the DJ's version was intended as an irreverent riff rather than an arrangement to specifically address a youthful audience and bring more into the mosques - unless a call to prayer would also be unacceptable, say, when given a classical darabakh (Tunisian drum) accompaniment. One remembers that the venerable Cliff Richard brought out a pop version of the Lord's Prayer some years ago in the UK and faced no opprobrium, while Christian rock, with lyrics full of religious sentiment seems to face no problems either;so perhaps this is another case of other cultures, other minds, and of Islam lacking a sense of humour.

I believe this is a recent development in some parts of Muslim world. I remember how music and songs were opposed by Taliban when they ruled over Afghanistan. But actual Afghan culture had no problems with music.

phludowin Senior Member @phludowin Posts: 7,571 Likes: 3,866	Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 11:31:52 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by phludowin on Apr 7, 2017 11:31:52 GMT My opinion: Tunisia has gone to the dogs.
	Common sense is another word for prejudice.

FilmFlaneur Senior Member God is not my co-pilot. @filmflaneur Posts: 5,573 Likes: 1,201	Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 11:55:21 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by FilmFlaneur on Apr 7, 2017 11:55:21 GMT Apr 7, 2017 11:31:52 GMT phludowin said: My opinion: Tunisia has gone to the dogs. It also goes to the disco, it seems.
	There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.

Deleted
Deleted Member

@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:

Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 12:13:00 GMT

Quote

Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2017 12:13:00 GMT

Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT FilmFlaneur said:

This is nothing new when it comes to Muslims and what many of them think should happen to those who "disrespect" or "abuse" Islam.

UK Institutions Have ‘De Facto Blasphemy Law’ Protecting Islam, Claims Secular Critic

The National Secular Society (NSS) has said Muslims are creating a “special category” to protect Islam from criticism in the UK, and the press and British institutions have “internalised de facto blasphemy law” after a gymnast was banned from competition after “mocking” the religion.

“We need to challenge this cultural taboo against mocking religion – but let’s be clear, I say religion, but really Islam is trying to put itself into a special category – that’s what the problem is,” the communications officer for the NSS, Benjamin Jones, told talkRADIO.

“Other religions broadly in the country, particular Christianity, accept the hard fought wins of the enlightenment, that religion is not in a special category that can not be criticised or mocked,” he added.

This Tuesday, British Gymnastics banned Olympic champion Louis Smith from the sport for two months because he had breached the institution’s code of conduct and supposedly failed to “use [his] profile to have a positive impact on… communities”.

In a leaked private video, Mr. Smith was seen drunkenly pretending to pray in an Islamic style at a friend’s wedding reception, whilst saying the Muslim phrase and war cry “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Mr. Jones slammed British Gymnastics’ code of conduct, which forbids athletes from making any “offensive or abusive remark or joke”. “That’s obviously such a broad category, that could include absolutely anything,” he said.

However, the Louis Smith incident is “just one episode in a much bigger problem that we have”, he added, pointing to an ICM poll release this year, showing that 78 per cent of British Muslim believe there should be no right to publish images of Muhammad in the UK.

“There is a fundamental divide between this large number of Muslims and the rest of society,” he said. “I think Islamists have realised that they can not have an outright blasphemy law… so instead they’re trying to have their next best thing, which is a cultural taboo.

“And unfortunately, we’re seeing institutions like British Gymnastics helping them with that project.”

The UK’s last remaining blasphemy laws were abolished in 2008, and the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 protects “discussion, criticism, or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuses of particular religions… [and] practices…”

Mentioning the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, Mr. Jones said: “It is about fear, and people are afraid. And there’s a whole spectrum of people who are trying to shut down criticism and mockery of Islam… and there is this real danger that everybody, including the press… have internalised this de facto blasphemy law.”

On Wednesday, Charles Walker, a Conservative MP, challenged the prime minister on the persecution of Mr. Smith, accusing politicians of “looking the other way” when the athlete was sent death threats.

“When people make fun of Christianity in this country, it rightly turns the other cheek,” he said.

“When a young gymnast, Louis Smith, makes fun of another religion widely practised in this county, he is hounded on Twitter, by the media, and suspended by his association.

“For goodness sake, Mr. Speaker, this man received death threats and we have all looked the other way. So my question to the prime minister is this: What is going on in this country because I no longer understand the rules?”

Mrs. May said she “understood the level of concern” but claimed that those exercising freedom of speech had to take responsibility for their action.

“This is a balance that we need to find,” she said. “We value freedom of expression and free speech in this country – that is absolutely essential in underpinning our democracy.

“But we also value tolerance in relation to others; we also value tolerance in relation to religions. This is one of the issues that we’ve looked at in the counter-extremism strategy that the government has produced.

“I think we need to ensure that, yes, it is right that people can have that freedom of expression, but in doing so that right has a responsibility too and that is a responsibility to recognise the importance of tolerance to others.”
www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/03/islam-making-untouchable-says-national-secular-society-louis-smith-ban/

chasallnut
Sophomore

@chasallnut
Posts: 506
Likes: 158

Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 13:02:06 GMT

Quote

Post by chasallnut on Apr 7, 2017 13:02:06 GMT

Apr 7, 2017 12:13:00 GMT @superdude6090 said:

Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT FilmFlaneur said:

This is nothing new when it comes to Muslims and what many of them think should happen to those who "disrespect" or "abuse" Islam.

UK Institutions Have ‘De Facto Blasphemy Law’ Protecting Islam, Claims Secular Critic

The National Secular Society (NSS) has said Muslims are creating a “special category” to protect Islam from criticism in the UK, and the press and British institutions have “internalised de facto blasphemy law” after a gymnast was banned from competition after “mocking” the religion.

“We need to challenge this cultural taboo against mocking religion – but let’s be clear, I say religion, but really Islam is trying to put itself into a special category – that’s what the problem is,” the communications officer for the NSS, Benjamin Jones, told talkRADIO.

“Other religions broadly in the country, particular Christianity, accept the hard fought wins of the enlightenment, that religion is not in a special category that can not be criticised or mocked,” he added.

This Tuesday, British Gymnastics banned Olympic champion Louis Smith from the sport for two months because he had breached the institution’s code of conduct and supposedly failed to “use [his] profile to have a positive impact on… communities”.

In a leaked private video, Mr. Smith was seen drunkenly pretending to pray in an Islamic style at a friend’s wedding reception, whilst saying the Muslim phrase and war cry “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Mr. Jones slammed British Gymnastics’ code of conduct, which forbids athletes from making any “offensive or abusive remark or joke”. “That’s obviously such a broad category, that could include absolutely anything,” he said.

However, the Louis Smith incident is “just one episode in a much bigger problem that we have”, he added, pointing to an ICM poll release this year, showing that 78 per cent of British Muslim believe there should be no right to publish images of Muhammad in the UK.

“There is a fundamental divide between this large number of Muslims and the rest of society,” he said. “I think Islamists have realised that they can not have an outright blasphemy law… so instead they’re trying to have their next best thing, which is a cultural taboo.

“And unfortunately, we’re seeing institutions like British Gymnastics helping them with that project.”

The UK’s last remaining blasphemy laws were abolished in 2008, and the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 protects “discussion, criticism, or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuses of particular religions… [and] practices…”

Mentioning the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, Mr. Jones said: “It is about fear, and people are afraid. And there’s a whole spectrum of people who are trying to shut down criticism and mockery of Islam… and there is this real danger that everybody, including the press… have internalised this de facto blasphemy law.”

On Wednesday, Charles Walker, a Conservative MP, challenged the prime minister on the persecution of Mr. Smith, accusing politicians of “looking the other way” when the athlete was sent death threats.

“When people make fun of Christianity in this country, it rightly turns the other cheek,” he said.

“When a young gymnast, Louis Smith, makes fun of another religion widely practised in this county, he is hounded on Twitter, by the media, and suspended by his association.

“For goodness sake, Mr. Speaker, this man received death threats and we have all looked the other way. So my question to the prime minister is this: What is going on in this country because I no longer understand the rules?”

Mrs. May said she “understood the level of concern” but claimed that those exercising freedom of speech had to take responsibility for their action.

“This is a balance that we need to find,” she said. “We value freedom of expression and free speech in this country – that is absolutely essential in underpinning our democracy.

“But we also value tolerance in relation to others; we also value tolerance in relation to religions. This is one of the issues that we’ve looked at in the counter-extremism strategy that the government has produced.

“I think we need to ensure that, yes, it is right that people can have that freedom of expression, but in doing so that right has a responsibility too and that is a responsibility to recognise the importance of tolerance to others.”
www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/03/islam-making-untouchable-says-national-secular-society-louis-smith-ban/

The difference in this instance is it happened in Tunisia not the UK. I'm not saying I think it is right, but doing that sort of thing in a mainly Muslim country is walking a thin line where tolerance is not something that is practised. The FIFA World Cup in Qatar is going to test a Muslim country's tolerance!! Extremely hot weather, football fans used to swilling copious amounts of alcohol and wearing shorts and not much else!! Can't see there being any bother there.

Never say anything in an electronic message that you wouldn’t want appearing, and attributed to you, in tomorrow morning’s front-page headline in the New York Times.” — Colonel David Russell

Marv Elite Member Learn to swim... @pvtleelemon Posts: 11,024 Likes: 7,376	Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 13:13:39 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Marv on Apr 7, 2017 13:13:39 GMT I don't know anything about Tunisian culture but I'd imagine he was given the harshest conviction possible once they realized he'd fled.
	Rest in Peace Cash Rest in Peace Sulla

thefleetsin Junior Member @thefleetsin Posts: 3,741 Likes: 744	Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix Apr 7, 2017 14:48:09 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by thefleetsin on Apr 7, 2017 14:48:09 GMT but it's perfectly okay for the religious to attack the world at will.

Tunisia sentences British DJ for Muslim prayer remix

Post by FilmFlaneur on Apr 7, 2017 10:00:47 GMT

Post by Aj_June on Apr 7, 2017 10:41:08 GMT

Post by phludowin on Apr 7, 2017 11:31:52 GMT

Post by FilmFlaneur on Apr 7, 2017 11:55:21 GMT

Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2017 12:13:00 GMT

Post by chasallnut on Apr 7, 2017 13:02:06 GMT

Post by Marv on Apr 7, 2017 13:13:39 GMT

Post by thefleetsin on Apr 7, 2017 14:48:09 GMT