Conservative groups seek to shut down concerts in Iraq
Iraqis fear that Islamic parties and armed religious groups are trying to impose their fundamentalist views on social and personal freedoms.
Concern is on the rise recently among Iraqis and defenders of freedom due to the heated rhetoric against concerts in Baghdad. Those concerned are expressing fear that such rhetoric may be the beginning of the imposition of a “religious guardianship on society.”
On Dec. 29, 2021, the religious Baqir al-Olum University in Baghdad issued a press statement denouncing concerts in the capital and stressing the importance of reintroducing the laws of “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.”
The statement by this Islamic university comes days after concerts were held in Baghdad that were lambasted by clerics and Islamic parties.
Iraqis derided these clerics and Islamic parties, accusing them of owning and protecting nightclubs that abound in drugs and human trafficking yet trying to ban family concerts and turning a blind eye to gambling and drug clubs.
