The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Muslim Brother's political songs album banned

Rather amusing story from Fustat:

The former member of parliament for the Muslim Brotherhood, Mukhtar Nouh was planning on releasing his first CD with political songs, when reaching a dead end, in form of the entertainment cencorship committee.

The committee, refused to comment on why they decided not to give Nouh´s CD the license and the go ahead, but judging from this following quote, the critical lyrics is behind the decision.

"One song in the album talks about a ruler who tours his country every year. In one province, one of the citizens stops the ruler to ask why food, medicines and jobs have become so scarce," recounts the bearded Nouh.

"The next year, another citizen asks the ruler the same question, but adds where has the first citizen gone!"
As Fustat points Nour is a middle-generation Brother. A lawyer and former treasurer at the Bar Association, he was arrested in 1999 and put on military trial at Huckstep army base over a long period before being sentenced in 2001. In the early 1990s, Nouh was instrumental -- some say the key strategist -- in the Brotherhood's push in syndicate elections. He was released, I believe, in 2002.

If anyone has Muslim Brotherhood political songs, or any other interesting political songs, do let me know. I'd love to create an archive of Egyptian political songs (I have a pretty big Sheikh Imam collection, but would like Islamist stuff too.)