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Aden: Yemeni Islamists have defaced billboards promoting an Arab diva, and an Islamist lawmaker dubbed her planned concert on February 14 as an "invitation for vice", raising concern among liberals in the country.
Asala, a renowned Syrian singer, often criticises flashy female artists who rely more on their looks and steamy music videos than their talent, but that has failed to stem criticism.
"We have to play a significant role to stop the concert Asala will hold in Aden because it is a violation of Sharia (Islamic law)," Islamist parliamentarian Fouad Dahaba said in a statement circulated through mobile telephone messages.
"Holding this concert ranks as an invitation for vice." Dahaba's call was echoed by several prayer leaders in their Friday sermons who also criticised women's sports and some other art forms and activities they see as sacrilegious.
But several liberals in the country, the ancestral homeland of Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, said Dahaba's call showed a rising Islamist tide.
Plan to isolate
While concerts in many Muslim countries are regular events, some more conservative societies - mainly in the Arabian peninsula - reject public entertainment by women in line with Islamic teachings.
Yemen is ruled by a secular US-allied government that joined Washington's "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, but society is conservative at heart.
Most women in the capital Sana'a wear an all-enveloping cloak when they go out in public, and usually cover their faces too.
The country is also home to militants and has seen militant attacks including the 2000 bombing of US warship Cole and a similar attack in 2002 the French super tanker Limburg.
"Do not believe the enemies of your city who want to change its character and isolate it from the world the same way the Taliban did to Afghanistan," October 14, a semi-official newspaper said in an editorial referring to the Al Qaida-allied rulers of Afghanistan, toppled in 2001 in a US-led invasion.
In 2003, Bahraini Islamists fought pitched battles with police during a protest against a concert by Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram whose performance they deemed immoral and several lawmakers sought to ban her show in Manama.
Ali Al Maqari, who performs songs inspired by Islamic ideas, said Yemenis welcomed Asala, adding that Islam was key to the evolution of several art forms in the region, a view shared by many Muslims.
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