UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gig

[Spicer]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3295316.ece

From The Sunday Times
February 3, 2008
Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gig
Maurice Chittenden

NEVER mind the fundamentalists, here’s Morrissey. The rock singer is planning to play a concert in Iran as his contribution to the international healing process.

The singer, whose songs include Bigmouth Strikes Again and Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, is in talks with the Iranian government and the Foreign Office about staging a performance in Tehran later this year.

Morrissey, 48, who has been outspoken in attacking the allied invasion of Iraq, says he wants to link the visit to other planned concerts on a tour of the Middle East. His management team is in contact with the music office at the Islamic culture and guidance ministry in Tehran.

Rock groups are allowed to perform only with a licence from the ministry and there are strict guidelines about conduct under Iran’s sharia (Islamic law). Violators can receive imprisonment, fines or the lash.

“I would love to sing in Tehran,” said the former Smiths front man, whose most recent album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, opened with the song I Will See You in Far-off Places.

He has described the decision by George W Bush and Tony Blair to invade Iraq as “worse than terrorism . . . the action of egotistical monsters”, while his first solo album, Viva Hate, included a vitriolic attack on Margaret Thatcher called Margaret on the Guillotine.

Iran is still suspicious of pop music. Last summer police raided an underground festival in an orchard near the town of Karaj to stop what they called a “provocative, satanic concert”. More than 200 people were arrested.

If the event does go ahead, Morrissey will have to play to an audience segregated by gender. Women would be allowed only if they stayed in roped-off areas and wore modest clothing, including headscarves. All song lyrics would be vetted. Female backing vocalists and mixed dancing in the aisles would be outlawed and beer, of course, would be banned.

Morrissey would be the first western singer to perform there since Britain and Iran restored full diplomatic relations in 1999 after a 10-year-long rift caused by the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwah against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

super cool of Moz... but if Morrissey gets "the lash" - I will invade Iran myself.

 

[nogodsnomasters85]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

Lucky for them. I just hope he plays Boston again, soon.

 

[lottie]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

He is insane to even attempt this,
only takes one nutter to take offence and he could die...


hopefully its an overblown hyped up nothing...

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

He is insane to even attempt this,
only takes one nutter to take offence and he could die...


hopefully its an overblown hyped up nothing...

oh you are just pissed because you are not the nutter that gets to lash him.

I think Moz is superfantastic for not living in fear. I also think he will be just fine. Iran is not so full of "nutters" as you think. In fact I know plenty of people from Iran and they are dignified, intelligent, and beautiful people with many beautiful aspects to their culture. This is not Afghanistan or Iraq... its a totally different deal. Generalizing like this is so silly... The man played the friggin midwest in America... now that is dangerous. He could have been sat on.

 

[Not Right in the Head]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

The man played the friggin midwest in America... now that is dangerous. He could have been sat on.

Hey...

 

[stephk817]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

oh you are just pissed because you are not the nutter that gets to lash him.

I think Moz is superfantastic for not living in fear. I also think he will be just fine. Iran is not so full of "nutters" as you think. In fact I know plenty of people from Iran and they are dignified, intelligent, and beautiful people with many beautiful aspects to their culture. This is not Afghanistan or Iraq... its a totally different deal. Generalizing like this is so silly... The man played the friggin midwest in America... now that is dangerous. He could have been sat on.

I'm sorry but he didn't risk real physical punishment singing in the midwest. Iranians are decent people but their religious fanatical government is a whole different matter.

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

I'm sorry but he didn't risk real physical punishment singing in the midwest. Iranians are decent people but their religious fanatic dictators are a whole different matter.

I dunno... i think he will be fine... I don't think they go after Morrisseys I think they go after people who effect their money and politics.

Some people who attend the show could end up being persecuted or accused of homosexuality but I think it would be well after the fact... when Moz has gone and people have looked into the reputation of the whole phenomenon.

I still don't think it is so chock full o' nutters in Iran... I think they go for money and political people... or religious figures... somehow not artists... just sayin what my view is.

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

Hey...

 

[lottie]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

oh you are just pissed because you are not the nutter that gets to lash him.

I think Moz is superfantastic for not living in fear. I also think he will be just fine. Iran is not so full of "nutters" as you think. In fact I know plenty of people from Iran and they are dignified, intelligent, and beautiful people with many beautiful aspects to their culture. This is not Afghanistan or Iraq... its a totally different deal. Generalizing like this is so silly... The man played the friggin midwest in America... now that is dangerous. He could have been sat on.

LOL, true..
and foiled again me dear, you are turning into a true frinker now...

 

[William4]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

super cool of Moz... but if Morrissey gets "the lash" - I will invade Iran myself.

i'll be right behind you!!!!
i hope this doesnt turn out to be a recipe for disaster

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

LOL, true..
and foiled again me dear, you are turning into a true frinker now...

.....

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

i'll be right behind you!!!!
i hope this doesnt turn out to be a recipe for disaster

hell no! If they dare touch a hair on his head me and William4 are heading in with black masks and gloves and tearin the place up.

they wont dare.

 

[Chartres]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

I believe the Ayatollah has more to earn if he can make a successful concert then if he is allowed to make a concert and the whipped, it would be front page news. Not saying that he's likely to be allowed to play, a simple background check will prove he got a habit of speaking his mind.

 

[Shaw]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

Great idea - i would be be delighted if he played there. Peoples' perspectives on Iran are unbelievably media influenced.

 

[nowherefast944]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

hell no! If they dare touch a hair on his head me and William4 are heading in with black masks and gloves and tearin the place up.

they wont dare.

you'll join the army?

 

[suparni]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

you'll join the army?

no just an army of 2... me and william...

I agree that people's views are shaped by the media and I don't think Iran is as full of nutters as everybody thinks... I don't know that Moz will have a show there... but I think it would be fine if he did... perhaps even great if he did!

 

[justme]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

no just an army of 2... me and william...

I agree that people's views are shaped by the media and I don't think Iran is as full of nutters as everybody thinks... I don't know that Moz will have a show there... but I think it would be fine if he did... perhaps even great if he did!

It would be great, but i don't believe he will ever be allowed to do it

 

[Piss Me Off]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

Would it be a particularly big gig? I can't really imagine the fanbase....

 

[Vulgar Picture]

Re: UK Sunday Times Article: Heaven knows I’m Muslim now - Morrissey lines up Iran gi

good on Morrissey! what a typically racist Sunday Times headline, (not surprised considering it's owned by the disgusting Rupert Murdoch), don't those morons know that not all Iranians are muslims, and many non-muslims visit and live without danger in Iran, and so do Jews (unlike Muslims in Israel)...so why the hell the sensationalist headline, as if being a muslim is some kind of dirty word anyway.

So yeah good on Mozza for going to play for his fans in Iran, "oh my God he went to play in evil Iran surely he's going to get strung up and killed", bullshit, Iran is a diverse and sophisticated country, the only nutter Mozza is at risk from is the one in the White House who might bomb the country while he is there.

Good on Morrissey for showing solidarity with a nation threatened with the same anihilation which his own butchering government wreaked on the Afghans and the Iraqis, it's important for as many people as possible to do things like this and stand side by side with Iranians.