Dancing Muslims
Now here's something to be encouraged - British Muslims having fun and thumbing their noses, metaphorically speaking, at the men in beards who declare that signing, dancing and generally letting your hair down is forbidden by the Koran.
Dancing Muslims’ YouTube hit attacked as ‘sinful’
By Robin Henry - The Sunday Times
The video, involving more than 60 people, aims to be ‘joyous’
A VIDEO featuring British Muslims dancing and miming in the street has become a surprise internet hit.
The video, which shows Muslims lip-synching to the hit song Happy, by Pharrell Williams, has had more than 1.4m views since it was posted on YouTube less than two weeks ago. However, it has also been attacked by some Muslims who say it demeans their religion.
The film was the brainchild of the Honesty Policy, an anonymous group of seven young British Muslims who have set up a blog where people are encouraged to talk freely about Islam.
More than 60 people, including friends of the group, their families, children, a Muslim scholar, social commentators, community leaders and artists took part in the shoot for the video, at locations ranging from Oxford to Wembley stadium.
Last week the video, titled Happy British Muslims, inspired an American spin-off filmed around Chicago.
“The idea was to take a different approach to how young people engage and discuss Islam. The video was supposed to just be a side project to show British Muslims as individuals, coming together in a way that was positive and would make people smile,” the Honesty Policy said.
The group enlisted video-savvy friends to film around the country and wrote to prominent British Muslims, including Timothy Winter, an Islamic scholar at Cambridge University also known as Abdul Hakim Murad.
“Within the first few hours of uploading it we had more than 60,000 views, at that point we realised it was going viral,” the Honesty Policy added. However, although the response to the video has been largely positive some Muslims have attacked it as “sinful”.
In one comment posted on YouTube, Esam Ahmed said: “This singing, dancing and lack of respect for the hijab and how it is to be worn is very sad. None of this is from islaam [sic], islaam is free from this stupidity.” Other commenters claimed music is haram — forbidden — by the Koran.
Mo Ansar, a Muslim commentator who appears in the video, said much of the criticism came from a “narrow and hardline” interpretation of the Koran that did not truly represent Islamic culture.
“For the last 120 years or so there have been some hardline views on music, which do not represent the part it has played in Islam for more than 1,000 years,” he said.
Hannah Habibi Hopkin, a pop artist who also appears in the video, said commenters were divided into those who saw it as a positive attempt to combat stereotypes and those who “argued that it is a sinful, covert attempt to secularise Muslim youth”.
“People seem to feel that they have to come down on one side of the fence or the other,” she said. “I don’t think of it like that . . . it’s a cute thing, and innocently joyous.”
@robin_henry
A VIDEO featuring British Muslims dancing and miming in the street has become a surprise internet hit.
The video, which shows Muslims lip-synching to the hit song Happy, by Pharrell Williams, has had more than 1.4m views since it was posted on YouTube less than two weeks ago. However, it has also been attacked by some Muslims who say it demeans their religion.
The film was the brainchild of the Honesty Policy, an anonymous group of seven young British Muslims who have set up a blog where people are encouraged to talk freely about Islam.
More than 60 people, including friends of the group, their families, children, a Muslim scholar, social commentators, community leaders and artists took part in the shoot for the video, at locations ranging from Oxford to Wembley stadium.
Last week the video, titled Happy British Muslims, inspired an American spin-off filmed around Chicago.
“The idea was to take a different approach to how young people engage and discuss Islam. The video was supposed to just be a side project to show British Muslims as individuals, coming together in a way that was positive and would make people smile,” the Honesty Policy said.
The group enlisted video-savvy friends to film around the country and wrote to prominent British Muslims, including Timothy Winter, an Islamic scholar at Cambridge University also known as Abdul Hakim Murad.
“Within the first few hours of uploading it we had more than 60,000 views, at that point we realised it was going viral,” the Honesty Policy added. However, although the response to the video has been largely positive some Muslims have attacked it as “sinful”.
In one comment posted on YouTube, Esam Ahmed said: “This singing, dancing and lack of respect for the hijab and how it is to be worn is very sad. None of this is from islaam [sic], islaam is free from this stupidity.” Other commenters claimed music is haram — forbidden — by the Koran.
Mo Ansar, a Muslim commentator who appears in the video, said much of the criticism came from a “narrow and hardline” interpretation of the Koran that did not truly represent Islamic culture.
“For the last 120 years or so there have been some hardline views on music, which do not represent the part it has played in Islam for more than 1,000 years,” he said.
Hannah Habibi Hopkin, a pop artist who also appears in the video, said commenters were divided into those who saw it as a positive attempt to combat stereotypes and those who “argued that it is a sinful, covert attempt to secularise Muslim youth”.
“People seem to feel that they have to come down on one side of the fence or the other,” she said. “I don’t think of it like that . . . it’s a cute thing, and innocently joyous.”
@robin_henry
