You think you're better than me because you have a beard??

by Busac (Bahrain)

Hey everyone. Well this is my first article and I hope to impress you guys. I wrote this blog a while ago to be posted on myspace but never got the chance. Keep in mind there is a bit of anger in between the lines and the occasional swearing (or perhaps a bit more than occasional) but this is in no way targeted at you guys, I was just a bit pissed when I wrote it. I hope you enjoy it

…Ahem…

“People who think they’re better than everyone else just because they have a long beard are really starting to piss me off! Sometimes it feels like they insist on just wanting to portray you as everything wrong in this world and they are everything right. And even when you try to explain yourself, they treat like you’re a kid saying “I know how to make a million dollars over night”. GROW UP YOU STUPID GUYS!!!

For the people who read this from different ethnicities, there are people living with us who intentionally grow long beards to show their devotion to their religion, similar to Judaism. However in reality they’re just trouble. To these days, some of the problems we have faced is usually something to do with them. I shall demonstrate:

First and foremost is Music. Music is a very disputable subject in this country (or region actually) simply because some people say it is “forbidden”. Let’s just break this subject down to the simplest explanations. What is music? A collection of notes and/or percussive sounds arranged to make some sort of melody (or not) that could be a representation of a certain idea (whether it be good or evil). In order to make music, you need creativity. And what is creativity? It is the ability to come up with new ideas from scratch or combine old ideas in a new way. To have creativity in your mind is a very precious gift from god. Everything we see and hear today was at some point just an idea in someone’s head. Creativity as I see it is a gift from god that is often overlooked. This form of creativity does not harm anyone so there’s nothing bad about it, even if it was representing evil thoughts. The reason these “religious figures” claim it is forbidden is that it distorts the mind of a person and can often cause it to do many things.

Can we get real for a minute here? If these so-called “religious figures” are so sure that music is forbidden, you’d think they would remember the reason why other things are forbidden right? Alcohol and drugs are forbidden because they harm the human body. In fact, any substance that can make you unaware of your acts is at some point harmful, which is why they are forbidden. That being said, there are many people here that smoke cigarettes but still claim to be very religious by heart, and whenever someone asks them why do they smoke, they said it wasn’t written in the Qur’an (as if cigarettes existed more than 1400 years ago). Can anyone just use their heads for one second? Cigarettes cause lung cancer, that’s the fact of it whether people like it or not. Since it is even printed on the box itself, I’d think people who stick to forbidding drugs and alcohol would also come to the conclusion that this substance would be forbidden too because it is harmful to the body similar to drugs and alcohol, the only difference is that it’s much less severe. However, these bearded morons have somehow put music up with these addictive substances for some reason, they say it is forbidden because when you listen to it, it “takes control of you” and causes you do weird shit (I’m guessing they’re talking about dancing/headbanging/mosh pits, etc) and they also say you get addicted to it.

One thing everyone must remember is that it is a true fact that you can never ever control what a person believes in, the only thing you can do is maybe influence it or enlighten them, but never control. People seem to always forget that. Whenever we have a local gig of some sort here (metal concerts to be more precise), we always have to see articles written in several newspapers about “devil worshipping acts” or something of the sort. And then when we say that we do not perform any of the written rituals and even try to prove it by showing video tapes of concerts, then people will start saying stuff like “we’re only worried for our children”. The guy who makes these claims (those who live in Bahrain will surely know who I’m talking about) once took it too far and said we kidnap and eat kids and drink the blood cats or dogs. We tried to fight back by having an interview with several of our friends and this hypocrite. Right there he started to change his strategy and say stuff like we are only worried about you because you are the youth of this country. And then he started saying other shit like “what if a little boy comes to your concerts and sees the dark and angry atmosphere and then he gets into it and becomes a devil worshipper even if you say you don’t send out that message. Well that may be because YOU didn’t do your job and raise him to be a freaking thinker! Maybe your attitude towards that makes kids seem like robots who will accept any information given to them and believe it. Remember that people think the way they do based on their personal experience and how they were raised. If you’re worried about your kids turning into devil worshippers due to concerts, try talking to them for a change and see their thoughts on the situation and where they stand about it, or if the situation gets a bit more serious, try convincing them that this is nothing more than music and that it should not control what you think, and that these are merely representations of what message the band is trying to send. There could be just that tiny slim chance that their interest in music is only just (gulp!) a hobby!

Use your god given minds to think a little before judging people by their appearance! I mean you’re going to a metal concert, what do you expect? Some guys wearing white and pink shirts and have like three vocalists and one keyboardist?? It’s a metal concert! Expect to see black clothes and long hair and spiked accessories, and most of all, expect a very loud sound! If you don’t like it then go hit your head on the wall of your choice! I’m not responsible for your stupidity, I will not pay for your ignorance!

If you are as “religious” as you say you are then I have a few things to say to you:
- It is wrong to make up stuff about people
- It is wrong to have a two faced personality or a double standard
- It is wrong to judge people without knowing them
- It is wrong to believe something without verifying it
- It is wrong to jump to any conclusion
- It is encouraged to ALWAYS give people the benefit of the doubt no matter who they are

After that interview I mentioned earlier, within the next few days he gave a speech in a mosque continuing with his old strategy: “These people worship the devil! We must get rid of them! Kick them out of the country! People who wear black are evil! Our children are in danger! Oh god WATEVER SHALL WE DO?!?!? How about SHUT UP AND GET A LIFE!

Once again he tried to demonstrate the “effect of heavy metal” on kids. Guess what he did? He did this lecture in front a large group of audience and brought in a mentally challenged person (who is not going to act normally of course) and then he claims that heavy metal did this to him.

Now because of idiots like these and even bigger idiots that believe them, we can never go and walk in the streets without some people looking at us like we’re dirt, when in some cases we even corner them in religious talks and leave them with nothing to say. Once it has gotten to a point where some bearded guy calls us from inside his car, expects us to go to him, and then tries to give us advice about religion and how he think he knows more about metal music than we do. I mean, if you really feel you’re that wise and mighty and powerful that you feel the unstoppable urging need to give advice to people before you die at that very second, the least you could do is get off your lazy ass go to them, not call them to come to you!

There is also another portion of people who think (and I would like to emphasize the word “think”) they are “modern thinkers”. These people attempt to explain why this type of music should be forbidden instead of just forbidding it with no explanation at all. I tried asking one of these “modern thinkers” about this subject and he told me that music should be forbidden because it gives people impure thoughts. Should I even comment on this? I decided to test him out. I told him when you listen to classical music, what do you think about? His answer was that he visualizes himself dancing with some girl wearing a long red dress (in other words he’s trying to say music enables lust). I asked another guy that same question and his answer was watching an orchestra behind a conductor. A third guy said his memories. That alone disproved his “explanation” because I showed him that this was purely subjective. So basically if music gives him impure thoughts then he can stop listening to it, those who listen to it for the sake of the art itself shouldn’t be affected by such a childish attitude. Then he tried to corner me by saying ok what do you think about when you listen to it? I told him I imagine the whole orchestra while they’re in a studio session recording and how it’s all done, because I’m into recording too and I could use the tips, nothing more, nothing less. The guy still tried to corner me by saying something like “What if a person listens to a song that talks about killing and then it influences him and he goes and kills someone, you can’t deny that the music didn’t push him to it”. Well my answer is: “If all it took for this guy to kill someone is just listening to one song then the problem lies with the person and not with the song. In this case the music isn’t an influence, it’s an excuse. If you shoot a person in the head, is it the gun’s fault? Or is it yours?” Stop blaming stuff for your pathetic actions!

You want to know my opinion about music in our religion? We have a category of actions simply labeled “Distractions” (Mulaheyat). This category has a very simple and straightforward explanation: It’s fine to do it as long as it doesn’t take you away from your god. It’s as simple as that! And some of the things under this can include gaming consoles, TV, just hobbies in general (which includes music). Now the weird part is that all of the other stuff mentioned are all considered normal here. Some people put off their praying just to watch some soccer match on TV or the F1 race or whatever but still want to give you a lecture about music and how it turns you into Satan or some other dumb shit like that.

However, I would also like to add that music that boldly encourages sexual behavior is, to me, one of the crappiest shittiest forms of music ever created (and I use the term music very loosely) Whenever I watch any music channel these days, all I see is one song after the other talking about how hot a girl is! It’s either about how some guy who’s just a sex addict that tries to cover up his own insecurity by explaining in details how tough he is, how many fights he’s been in, how many bullets he took, and how he wants to do it with some prostitute. If it’s not that, it’s some girl trying to explain how hot she is and how she makes guys go crazy in attempts to convince herself that she is still young and still has it, or sometimes they try to make a whole song about how they would reject a guy for some stupid reason (which returns us to the guys getting insecure and writing songs about how tough and sex-starved they area, it’s really just a cycle of stupidity when you think about it). I believe the psychological reason for this is the absence of self-confidence in them, maybe even self-respect.

I’m sure you’ll know which singers I mean by this. Those types of songs to me are the ones that should be forbidden because they show very little responsibility to what message they are sending out to people, especially because cases of HIV diseases are currently increasing more than ever. If they do anything to the world, it’s just widening a scar over and over again. All for a stupid minute and a half of upbeat dancing. But then again, that’s my opinion because I hate that kind of music, if you like it just for the hell of its groove then that’s your choice and I respect that. But I’ll tell you one thing, the day that some of those guy celebrities gets HIV or those girl celebrities get raped on the streets, trust me when I say I’ll celebrate it because they will do this world a favor and finally show that what they do is irresponsible.

You know what’s the sad part? It’s that these songs are famous worldwide and are best sellers no matter what message they send out, and guess what? I see more people copying this pop/rap shit than I see people becoming devil worshippers. Why doesn’t anyone say anything about that? If the main concern is distortion of the mind and stuff like that, then why not stop Britney from telling young teenage girls about how fun it is to be with guys? Take any one of her songs and just listen to what she says. These can make it seem normal for a girl to lose her virginity at such a young age and be totally fine about it because she might think it’s “fun” and not done out of pure love between two people, which could possibly get her pregnant or worse infected with STD if in case she carries on like this. Unfortunately, the subject of safe sex is completely absent here because apparently the idea of sex became very different than a bond between people, it is now considered the shameful act that must be avoided at all costs hoping it would not happen. If you avoid a disease, does it go away? What do you expect if you avoid sexual education and be irresponsible enough to not teach sons/daughters about safe sex? The result? More teenage moms and an optional dad with no job and no money.

Now back to the subject!

All I want is for these religious people to think with their mind and not just try to say what is right and what is wrong. Open your mind, open your ears, listen, and most importantly THINK before you decide anything. Ever since these guys have been put in power not too long ago, all we hear is: this guy said this or this guy said that or they said this is wrong. That same guy I was talking about a while ago also accused a cultural festival of giving the viewers ideas of sex just because a guy and a girl were dancing. It’s a freaking dance!!! GET OVER IT! There was no nudity or dirty talk. How is this supposed to portray sexual acts?? His case was that the girl unbuttoned the guy’s shirt and then they danced, so?
And according to him “no Muslim would ever tolerate this kind of act to be performed in front of an audience”. The funny thing is that his comments were dismissed by the organizers of the festival because according to them all the people that came there had fun and enjoyed the show, and he was the only one who didn’t.

This also brings up another topic, Guys and Girls. In the local gigs we do, it’s usually a public invitation and people would buy tickets to enter. Guys and girls who do listen to this music would want to go so naturally there are going to be guys and girls sitting in the same room. This subject has also been an easy target for people who don’t know how to think. They always seem to forget that we always provide security in the concert and we will not tolerate any kind of unwanted behavior. So truthfully speaking, their daughters aren’t in any danger of being violated in any one of our concerts, but again no one listens and will always use this against us by saying stuff like: would you allow your sister/daughter to go to places like these? Kindly remember that when some geeky Arabic singer comes and makes a concert, you have all sorts of stupid behavior between guys and girls going on, guys make out with girls, phone numbers spread around faster than germs, and nothing is said, only because it’s Arabic and considered to be the musical art of the middle east, more like a musical piece of bull crap these days since the actual feel of real Arabic music is almost entirely vanished with these new age Arab bullshit singers (you will notice that almost all the new Arabic video clips resemble clips made by Shakira, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, or in some cases the music itself is very close to western music). I have nothing against western music, but at least it’s called western because it is the western areas of the world that come up with his type of music, but copying western music and calling it art from the east is just disgraceful. I know me and my band play western music, but at least we admit it’s western but just with an added touch of middle eastern, we did not say we created a whole new thing and called it middle eastern metal.

Music is now also being viewed as a western threat because it is a means to reach the minds of the youth of the country. Yeah ok! like Megadeth’s Holy Wars is going to have a negative impact on this region, when it is really an awareness of the Palestinian struggles with Israel, or Lamb Of God’s 11th Hour, and many others. If anything, a large number of heavy metal bands actually support the people living here and are against these wars initiated on them, which is nothing but positive in my view and I have nothing but respect for these bands. And yet these mindless idiots continue to label them as dangerous threats and even devil worshippers. And in most cases, they continue to do so ONLY because these artists (or the majority of them) come from America. So fucking what if they came from America? They were decent enough to make songs supporting the Middle East during hard times, and what have the Arabs done in return for this? Sit on their ass all day blaming others. I, for one, am very appreciative of people who did show their support for us during hard times and I will never forget it. I just wish the “good kind hearted” idiots of this country realize it. True, I don’t support all the wars started by the US President, but I’m talking about the actual goodness of the people of the country, a government is not the country.

Now focus on the bigger picture for a minute. The world is changing, people are practically merging together, this country is becoming a multicultural society and it holds many religions. Of course there are going to be conflictions between beliefs of people, you’re going to see guys and girls holding hands and walking in the streets because they have the freedom to do so. These people don’t need some elected hypocrite to determine what should or should not be allowed in this country. Keep in mind I’m not talking about the actual government of this country, I’m talking about the people in general who encourage this type of behavior.

People who always focus on right and wrong are the reason this country is behind the rest of the world. Would you believe that there was a time that mobile phones with cameras and Bluetooth technology were not allowed? Their story was that guys take photos of girls without them knowing and then spread them. Don’t you notice they make it seem like it’s an automatic thing that guys will do this? Sometimes they will also go as far as blaming the girl for not covering herself up in case this happens. Not one thing about how wrong it is for guys to do this. And then the stupid verbal attacks started, saying that mobile phones with cameras should be forbidden because they are a dangerous threat to society. Need I say anything else? How much stupider can a person get? I mean, put a limit to how stupid your accusations are!! If you’re going to ban mobile phone cameras because of that pathetic reason, guys can easily use normal cameras to do the same thing. You going to ban those too? And then what? You’re going to keep saying: this is wrong this is wrong? Next thing you know we’re back in the stone age because cars have been banned because of the increasing number of car accidents.

If there’s a problem, take the necessary actions to fix it! Don’t just whine about it and attempt to ban it altogether. These technologies were made for a reason and were meant to benefit the people. If people here don’t use it that way, it’s their own fault, not the creator of the technology’s fault. Use logic for a minute! It’s not the mobile phone cameras or the music that are threats to this society, it’s the way people are raised and taught to think here. It’s the people of this society that are a threat to themselves.

Keep in mind this is all one guy that made all these ridiculous accusations, think about how many more encourage it.

And don’t even get me started about how these religious people are slowly separating the people of this country. Different segments of the same people are becoming enemies now because of false messages that these religious figures give out to people. I’m not preferring any segment over the other, I want this to stop so we could have a united country for once at least.

Fun Fact: This issue got that guy hit in his eye because of a rude comment that he said to a member of the other segment, and in all honesty, I think he deserved it, don’t you agree?”