The right to headbang

by John Fortescue

Female metalheads going to shows, headbanging in their head scarves?

This is not a typical view of life in the Muslim world.

They’re supposed to be pious and conservative, right?

Well, think again.

Mark LeVine has been looking at the world of metal in the Muslim world for his book, Heavy Metal Islam, and what he has discovered is suprising.

“I’ve been to festivals with 100,000 people in Morocco and Turkey.

"Most major Muslim countries have fairly good size metal scenes,” says LeVine.

From the shores of North Africa to the mountains of Pakistan, the world of metal is blossoming.

Blossoming scene

“It’s a whole enterprise that’s removed from the market.

"It’s almost completely non-commercial… a grass roots movement, a sub culture traded as contraband.

"It could never reach a huge level.

"It’s not like anyone can make a living,” he says.

An underground music scene that can attract 100,000 people to a festival sounds contradictory.

But so are many elements of the Muslim metal scene.

Metal is a musical genre long associated with Satan and the dark arts.

But these groups are Muslims: “A lot of them are religious and don’t see any incompatibility,” says LeVine.

However, the dark spectre of Satanism has not escaped the scene altogether.

Just as western groups have been accused of nefarious dealings with the dark one, so have groups in the Middle East.

In Morocco in 2003 14 heavy metal fans were accused of Satanism and were sent to prison.

Fortunately, after campaigning by fellow fans and human rights groups, they were released.

According to an Islamist Moroccan Politian, Mustapha el-Khalfi, the boys were guilty of “not only Satanism as a ‘religion’, but also as a way to give some arguments for young people to be libertarian, to do what they want to do, even if these activities or practices or behaviour are immoral.”

Bombed studios

Heavy Metal in Baghdad, produced by VBS, brought attention to the scene and helped Iraqi metal band, Acrassicauda, stage a concert while documenting bands and fans.

A year after the concert those involved with the film returned to find their rehearsal studios bombed.

This year the band was granted refugee status in the US, after having spent the last two years living in exile, bearing prices on their heads because of their music.

Despite this, LeVine thinks that the views of people like el-Khalfi are waning and conservative Muslim countries are becoming more relaxed in their attitudes towards metal:“A decade ago Islamists were using the metalheads as scapegoats to show that they were protecting Islam from western evils, but now it’s much more liberal.

"In places like Egypt or Morocco, even in Saudi Arabia, where four years ago you couldn’t find a legitimate metal show, now they have them much more in the open as long as they follow certain rules.”

He also reflects on the supposed link between musical freedom and political freedom by saying: “Being a metalhead is itself a political act.

"While the scene itself might not be overtly political, since they’ve suffered so much: arrests prosecutions, etc., a lot of people that become politically active come out of the metal scene.”

Metal in the Muslim world clearly differs from its western counterpart, and LeVine has made a striking observation:“The interesting thing about the Middle East is that the metal heads are very smart, very well educated, not at all like the typical stereotype in the US of the stoned metalhead with the long crimped hair.“