BANNED AID – A guide to the banning of music. Part 5 – RELIGION

Previous posts:

Part 1 – Racism – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/01/13/banned-aid-a-guide-to-the-banning-of-music-racism/

Extra post – Bitch I’m back like J.Christ –

Part 2 – Politics – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/banned-aid-a-guide-to-the-banning-of-songs-part-2-politics/

Part 3 – Illegal Substances – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/02/03/banned-aid-a-guide-to-the-banning-of-music-illegal-substances/

Part 4 – Gender – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/02/24/banned-aid-a-guide-to-the-banning-of-music-gender/

RELIGION IN GENERAL

I have heard it said that atheists are people who have read the Bible, and theists are people who have had the Bible read to them. Several atheist bloggers have talked about having strongly religious upbringings and after a careful examination of religious doctrine and sacred texts, and an acquisition of scientific and critical thinking, rejected their religion. Chumbawamba even released a song dealing with a situation much like this – CHUMBAWAMBA – We Don’t Go To God’s House Anymore – “Well driving on, I tasted sweet salvation / As we sung away the pulpit and the past”. The song references Damascus and Malatesta. On the road to Damascus, the capital of Syria, is where St. Paul was converted to Christianity as described in the Bible, in the Book of Acts, chapter 9, Verse 10. Enrico Malatesta (1853 – 1932) was an Italian anarchist and revolutionary socialist. Here is the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1JawSJJggE&ab_channel=p00k .

Are songs like this dangerous to the religious community? Should they be banned so that people won’t hear them and turn away from religion? Is turning away from religion necessarily bad?The principle of freedom of religion / freedom from religion is a good one but some extremist Christians think that freedom of religion means that Christians get to be in charge but non-Christians don’t. They want to be able to ban songs like this one. They also think that they can say anything horrible they like about Islam or Judaism or atheism and no one gets to criticize them. If they do get criticized they cry about having their freedom of religion suppressed. That’s not how freedom of religion works. Here are some examples of religiously controversial songs which Christian extremists have banned or probably would like to ban:

  1. JUDAS – Lady Gaga – This was banned because it was said to be disrespectful of Christians. She was not allowed to perform the song in Lebanon.
  2. THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO – The Beatles – The line “The way things are going, they’re going to crucify me” from this Beatles song got that song banned in some parts of the United States. Remember, too, that Lennon and the Beatles faced death threats and boycotts when Lennon said “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” and American religious fanatics twisted that into Lennon supposedly saying that The Beatles were better than Jesus, something he never said. First, he was talking to a British journalist about British fans. Second, he said it with sadness, not as a boast. Third, when it was published in Britain everyone basically just ignored it. Fourth, given Beatles record sales, and attendance at Beatles concerts versus church attendance, Lennon was probably right. Finally, if a person follows a particular religion and a second person says something negative about that religion, what does it tell you about the first person if their first reaction is a death threat? It probably tells you that they’re pretty insecure about their religious beliefs. It may also tell you that they’re unstable and violent and need therapy and / or imprisonment, and their views on religion may not be particularly worthwhile.
  3. Lil Nas X has released a pair of extremely religious songs, accompanied by two well done music videos, which have caused outrage in the American religious community. So much so that I devoted an entire post to those two songs (see above for the link).
  4. GOD – John Lennon. This is another John Lennon song whose message can best be summed up by this line from its lyrics: “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” In the song John basically tells Beatles fans to grow up and stop worshipping The Beatles. Unfortunately, that is a message that many Beatles fans to this day, 54 years later, can’t accept. The song, however, has Lennon saying that he also doesn’t believe in The Bible or Jesus (or Buddha, Mantra, Gita and so on) which some religious zealots didn’t like. Here’s the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCNkPpq1giU&ab_channel=JohnLennon-Topic
  5. ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Monty Python – “For life is quite absurd / and Death’s the final word”. This is from the final scene, the crucifixion scene, of the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the best thing the Pythons ever did, IMHO. According to interviews, the Pythons started out to make a film mocking Jesus but discovered that he actually had some good things to say so they completely switched their focus and made a film about the followers of Jesus. The Jesus figure in the film is treated with respect. However, the film, brilliantly written and executed, is scathing in its sometimes subtle and humorous condemnation of hypocritical religious authorities, so it was banned all over the place by religious leaders, which basically proved the point of the film. In writing the film script the Pythons actually read various religious documents, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, which makes sense as five of the six Pythons are high achieving successful graduates from Oxford and Cambridge University. Some religious leaders condemned the film while openly admitting that they hadn’t seen it. Draw your own conclusions. At one point Python John Cleese publicly announced that he wished to thank all those who banned the film because that probably doubled the viewership and hence increased the money he and the other Pythons made from the film. The track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M&ab_channel=Melonhead622
  6. IMAGINE. John Lennon. Lennon was an atheist and his biggest post-Beatles hit was this song but in some places in the American south the song was banned because it infuriated various evangelical groups because of the following lines: “Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try / no Hell below us, above us only sky”.

There have also been all manner of either atheist, rationalist, humanist or even anti-theist songs. I described a few above off the top of my head but there are so many of them. Here is a link to a web site listing two hundred songs about atheism, secularism, skepticism and related matters – how many of these should be banned? Any of them? – https://www.michaelnugent.com/atheism/atheist-songs/

Here are a handful of songs from that site – should any of these be banned?

  • GOD’S SONG by Randy Newman – “How we laugh up here in Heaven at the prayers you offer me” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwC1HDaw6s8&ab_channel=RandyNewman-Topic
  • CHARLIE (i.e. Charles Darwin) by Chumbawamba – “Steer a course for a brave new world / Of common sense and wonder” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZimSEpZ0U&ab_channel=Pete
  • I THINK HE’S HIDING by Randy Newman – “Now I’ve heard it said, that our Big Boy’s dead / but I think He’s hiding”
  • OLD MAN by Randy Newman – “There won’t be no God to comfort you / You taught me not to believe that lie” (by the way, Newman turned eighty himself a few months ago)
  • DEAR GOD by XTC – “And all the people that you made in your own image see them fighting in the street / ‘Cause they can’t make opinions meet about God”
  • BIG SKY by The Kinks – “Big Sky feels sad when he sees the children scream and cry / But the Big Sky’s too big to let it get him down”
  • A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Tom Lehrer
  • A RATIONAL RESPONSE by Greydon Square
  • THE GOOD BOOK by Tim Minchin
  • NOTHING FAILS LIKE PRAYER by Dan Barker
  • THE ABSENCE OF GOD by Rilo Kiley

ANTISEMITISM

Since the advent of the Gaza-Israeli War on October 7, 2023, a lot of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have been emerging in terrifying ways. Does music play a part in all of this? Remember that one can condemn the actions of Israel as a political power without being antisemitic, but as soon as you condemn the actions of Israel as a JEWISH political power you have become antisemitic, and antisemitism kills innocent people. There are many Jews who condemn the actions of Israel.

The suppression of Judaism, and the many pogroms which meant death for many Jews, have been going on for centuries and its most horrific manifestation was the Holocaust. Should pro-Holocaust antisemitic lyrics be banned as hate speech? Do antisemitic lyrics incite violence towards Jews? Some recent examples of antisemitic lyrics:

  1. Michael Jackson’s song THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US contains the lyric: “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, Kike me, don’t you black or white me”. He later apologized and removed the offending words, but the American band Saliva and the European band Beast in Black both covered the song leaving the words in. The origins of the word ‘Kike’ are complicated ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kike ).
  2. Jay-Z’s song STORY OF O.J. includes these lyrics: “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit / You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICmI82aB1LA&ab_channel=PublicEnemyVEVO
  3. Rapper Lupe Fiasco, in his 2016 song N.E.R.D., includes these words: “Artists getting robbed for their publishing by dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms for the covenant” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13BHVkQUX_s&ab_channel=Guti
  4. As recently as 2022 the K-pop group EPEX released the song ANTHEM OF TEEN SPIRIT which uses the phrase “Crystal Night” which is a reference to the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht and in the video accompanying the song the members of the group are dressed in Nazi style uniforms. Kristallnacht occurred on November 10, 1938, and overnight 267 synagogues and over 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and 30 000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
  5. The artist Payday Monsanto (Payze Duezz) released the song GOY BOY which includes the lyrics: “Prove to me the Holocaust ain’t a fraud / And I’ll give you a six million dollar reward”. Approximately six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
  6. David Irving is a Holocaust denier. A kippah is a brimless cloth cap traditionally worn by Jewish males. POTUS, of course, stands for President Of The United States. Take a listen to the following by rapper B.o.B., the song is Flatline, and note the lyrics on the screen at the 1 minute 35 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UONq1fYWYO0&ab_channel=RealHipHopLyrics .
  7. White supremacist neo-Nazi death metal punk bands on the rise in Europe have come up with some pretty nasty antisemitic rhetoric of their own. Some of their songs are original, and some are hate-filled parodies of existing songs. Here are nine examples out of hundreds out there:
  • White Hot Takes – LAMPSHADE CASE – a parody of Green Day’s song Basketcase (When Karl-Otto Koch was commandant at the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp there were many stories about the sadism towards prisoners exhibited by his wife Ilse Koch. One often repeated story was that she had tattooed prisoners killed so that she could make lampshades out of their tattooed skin. It was later found that the stories could not be substantiated with evidence).
  • White American Youth – WHITE POWER
  • Morrakiu – IN THE JUNGLE – a parody of the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight
  • Evil Skins – ZYKLON ARMY (Zyklon B is the cyanide-based gas used in the extermination camps in Nazi Germany).
  • Hannah Pearl Davis – WHY CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT THE JEWS? (This song is dedicated to white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes is a well known Holocaust denier who has called for a holy war against the Jews, and he was also a dinner guest of Donald Trump.)
  • IronMensch – BOMBS OVER ISRAEL
  • White American Youth – AMERIKKKA FOR ME
  • Daimon – ESOTERIC HITLERISM
  • White Hot Takes – OVENS OF AUSCHWITZ (Auschwitz was a complex of over forty concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Poland. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. 960 000 of those were Jews. Many were killed in the crematoria).

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Islamophobia has been on the rise since the beginning of the recent Israel-Gaza War. Please take a look at the following lyrics:

  • Those who cast an evil eye on our religion (i.e. on Hinduism), we gun them down
  • India is for the Hindus, mullahs [Muslims] go to Pakistan
  • Why don’t you go and die! Make your mosque somewhere else, this place is for Ram
  • Leave India you tricksters

These are from a current genre of music in India known as Hindutva music which has recently become incredibly popular with millions of followers. It is Islamophobic music and it has facilitated actual physical violence perpetrated by Hindu gangs against the Muslim minority. The lyrics spread hate-filled misinformation about Islam. There is a rise in Hindu nationalism and right wing Hindu activists actively oppose what they call a ‘love jihad’, that is, they physically prevent Hindu women from having relationships or marrying Muslim men and the government ignores the Hindu nationalists, refusing to enforce laws which prohibit their Islamophobic behaviour.

Things are heating up. About a month ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened a new Hindu temple (Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir) in Ayodhya (the birthplace of Rama, a principal Hindu deity). Seven thousand politicians and celebrities from across India participated in festivities. But that temple was built on the Babri Masjid which was a mosque which right wing Hindu nationalists destroyed in 1992, killing 2000 Muslims in the process. Islamophobia kills. On the day of the opening of the new Hindu temple Muslims were advised not to wear clothing that identified them as Muslim, not to travel by car alone, not to travel by train, and so on. After permission was granted to build the new Hindu temple calls went out demanding that other mosques across India be destroyed. To make things more complicated the Babri Masjid, built back in 1528, was built on the site of a Hindu temple which had been destroyed by Muslims. The Hindutva ideology (India for Hindus not Muslims) is spreading, and Modi has an election coming up soon that he wants to win. Coincidence? Hindutva music is playing an incendiary role in this spread of hatred against the 200 000 000 Muslims in India.

White supremacist bands are often neo-Nazi Christian nationalists and their main non-Christian targets are Jewish people, but they are also Islamophobic. Two examples of Islamophobic white supremacist band tracks are Islam is Dead (from the band Cold Cry / Mogh) and Jihad (from the band The Kovenant). Seeds of Iblis have recorded several Islamophobic songs, including From Mecca to Johannam, Behind the Horns of Allah, Islamophobia, and Sura 9 (a sura is like a chapter in the Qur’an).

Frank Ocean’s song Bad Religion uses religion as a metaphor for unrequited love and some Muslims have said that the song’s lyrics are Islamophobic, for example: “He said ‘Allahu akbar’, I told him ‘Don’t curse me . . . If it brings me to my knees it’s a bad religion” (Allahu akbar means ‘God is most great’). When RM (real name: Kim Namjoon) of BTS recommended the song he was rebuked for being anti-Muslim but he is Muslim himself. You can decide for yourself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Fbnp4Kilk&ab_channel=Iambaldsowhat%3F

Fortunately there have also been songs critical of Islamophobic culture. The music album Philia released by the organization Artists Rise Against Islamophobia contains 20 tracks attempting to combat Islamophobia in a civilized way. The band Genocide has also released the song Islamophobia – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzUxpaLrJ9s&ab_channel=GenocideRap , and Lowkey released this softly sad defence against Islamophobic music, a song entitled Islamophobic Lullabies – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LN4dq8YnYk&ab_channel=GRMDaily

The Islamic culture has a smaller footprint in North America than it does in the Middle East. I also do not speak the languages which dominate that region. It would seem to me that there are probably many other Islamophobic songs that I, as a comfortable Canadian senior citizen, am unaware of.

In the one month period, from October 7, 2023 to November 7, 2023, the first month of the Gaza-Israeli War, there have been 1283 incidents of Islamophobia in the United States, an enormous increase over previous months, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations. One six year old child was savagely stabbed to death because he was a Muslim child. Christopher Hitchens has remarked that religion poisons everything. Was he correct?

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