UPDATE 7:55PM: The people in the video have been released, which is being trumpeted by defenders of Islamic supremacism and jihad terror as evidence that concern over Iran’s harsh Sharia enforcement is unjustified. However, they have only been released on bail, and the director of the video is still being held. So celebrations of Iran’s moderation are, to say the least, unfounded.
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“Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.” — Ayatollah Khomeini
“Not so ‘Happy’: Iranians arrested over YouTube hit,” AFP, May 21, 2014:
Police said on Tuesday they had arrested six Iranians suspected of posting a version of U.S. singer Pharrell Williams’s hit song “Happy” on the Internet.
The clip shows three men and three unveiled women singing and dancing to the tune in the streets and on Tehran rooftops.
“After a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity was released in cyberspace, police decided to identify those involved in making that clip,” Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
“Following a series of intelligence and police operations and after coordinating with the judiciary, all the suspects were identified and arrested.”
ISNA said the detainees were three men and three women and that they “confessed to their criminal acts.”
Conservatives say many young Iranians are abandoning Islamic values and turning to a more Western way of life.
Under Islamic law, in force in Iran since the 1979 revolution, women must cover themselves from head to toe.
More than a decade ago a “morality police” unit was formed to verify that women scrupulously respect the dress code in public.
The Internet is also heavily filtered in Iran, with the authorities blocking access to popular social networking sites.
Civil liberties and women’s rights have returned to the forefront since President Hassan Rowhani’s election last June.
A moderate, he had campaigned for greater cultural and social freedoms in the Islamic republic, specifically urging police tolerance over the veil.
But Conservatives regularly denounce what they see as laxity on the part of the authorities on women covering up or on behavior deemed offensive to Islam.
john spielman says
Iran like most muslim countries cares more about outward appearances (like the pharisees of the Bible ) BUT CARE NOTHING FOR BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS They’re a brutish regime that murders its own citizens and terrorizes any who disagree with its fascist islamic tenets. Yet they feel they are “holy”and doing God’s work. Unfortunately for the Iranian people and the world, they do the work of Satan/Allah, their lord and master
Jeff Brown says
If these young people keep this up, they may just get converted to Christ. Muslims teach that living in drudgery is the way to holiness. They are miserable as hell, and condemn others as a subconscious means of trying to put their sins on somebody else. God gave us somebody to put our sins on. His name is JESUS!!! If they will learn to do that then they can all get happy.
SoundDoc says
Amen!
Edward Kirkhope says
Once again Islam shows it face to the world. It has several faces depending on personal interests. If you are an Iranian Mullah you care of nothing but keeping your followers and spreading hatred, if you are a Saudi Royal you insist on strict Islam for everyone else but debauch yourself as and when you wish. If you are a young man in an Islamic state you will become a blind follower of Islam because you know nothing else and you absolutely must conform.
If you are a group of young kids in Iran and you want to show your happy face to people then you will be arrested. Arrested for being happy!
Champ says
Hmm, it’s a-ok for Iran to threaten to wipe Israel off of the map, but dancing is wrong and worthy of arrest? Got it! Yeah this makes perfect sense to me / sarc
Champ says
The whole of islam doesn’t make *any* sense, for that matter …
mortimer says
Happiness is UNISLAMIC! It’s a Death Cult, get it?
It doesn’t have to make sense to make people miserable, homicidal and depressed?
Kepha says
From the resident unreconstructed Christian Puritan who is no fan of pop music:
I can only note that these kids (yes, I know they’re twenty-somethings, but I’m already a grandpa, so bear with me) are all modestly dressed and trying to move gracefully and athletically. Are we going to discover next that there were parents chaperoning in the background, or perhaps that one of the men and one of the women were legally married to each other next?
Wellington says
Two comments: 1) Islam has happiness as an inveterate enemy—-one knows this or should know it; 2) I hope these young folks in this video realize, I mean fully realize, that happiness, joy, love, a true Golden Rule for all, women’s rights, equality under the law, liberty in general and other good things along these lines are completely incompatible with Islam.
To the extent they do, good, and I wish them well. To the extent they don’t (in a kind of Irshad Manji and Zuhdi Jasser sort of way), they had better prepare for disappointment and, sorry, I can’t wish them well here because doing so would just exculpate Islam once again and my entire make-up of who I am simply disallows such a terrible option.
scallywag says
What’s interesting is how Iran‘s president Hassan Rouhani came out to tweet a message of support after the release of the individuals- which raises the interesting dilemma what can we expect going forward in Iran and will there be a softening up of the acceptance of Western culture, women not appropriating traditional values and the fact that the establishment may just fear Iran’s very heavy populated youth ….???
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2014/05/iranians-arrested-dancing-to-happy-released-what-next/
citycat says
Humour is an aspect of advanced evolution.
“hurt public chastity”
They were having a sex orgy in public?
Free love?
Islam don’t like that.
It challenges the private sexual tyranny of the misogynists-Islam that is.
Islam is sexually backward, less than caveman level.
ChangeIranNow says
Despite Iran’s attempt to persuade the world otherwise, it remains a brutal theocracy where anything, even a simple video can land you in jail if it rubs the Islamist authorities the wrong way. Rouhani, a veteran operative of the regime, is no moderate even though he is attempting to put forward a more human face to the world than his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But power—including everything having to do with the country’s nuclear project—remains in the hands of his boss, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Incidents like the arrest of the video makers are designed to chill any signs of liberalization and dissent.
Thus, far from being irrelevant to the talks that have been going on in Vienna, the “happy” dancers are a reminder that Iran isn’t the country Barack Obama would like it to be. The longer Americans cling to the delusion that Rouhani has genuine power and that he really can moderate the Islamist regime, the less chance there is that they will think clearly about the nuclear threat and a diplomatic process that seems to guarantee that it won’t be averted.
Kepha says
Iran a Theocracy? Theocracy means rule by God, and as far as anyone can tell, the word was coined by Flavius Josephus a bit after 70 A.D. to describe the sort of government the Jews had throughout their history, whether as a tribal federation, a kingdom, satrapies of other empires, or as a priestly-led commonwealth following the Maccabees. Iran is a Satanic mullah-ocracy.
I am told in the Bible that God is loving and gracious. How I would love to live under His rule! As for men of any occupation–
Put not your trust in princes (Ps. 146).
Jay Boo says
Allah saved by the imam
Reports of the Supreme One Ali Khamenei flogging himself repeatedly after catching himself accidentally smiling and tapping his foot in rhythm to the video.
The complete collapse of the Iranian regime was thus narrowly averted by the quick thinking ayatollah.
Salah says
I hope one day the Iranian people will rise again and take their country back. As I always say: Muslims are living in a huge dark prison called Islam. They want to get out (I know, some will say: why don’t they simply reject Islam and get out of this prison?), they can’t. It’s not that easy, they live in constant fear.
The good news? Things ARE changing. It may take a few years or even a few decades, but things are definitely changing. Muslims are slowly but surely rejecting Islam.
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2014/01/egyptian-muslims-tear-up-quran.html
mortimer says
Yep. A huge prison.
exsgtbrown says
““Following a series of intelligence and police operations and after coordinating with the judiciary, all the suspects were identified and arrested.”
Muslim religious police sure spend a lot of time and energy hunting down people having fun…having fun is Un-Islamic and the Muslim religious police aim to put a stop to it.
Couper says
What will happen to them? Will they be imprisoned or hanged?
Michael Eisbrener says
There is something pejorative about the word ‘conservative’ when referencing Muslims and Communists…. Need to discover/create a word, like ‘gay’ for instance, that will more accurately describe the likes of morons ruining life on this wonderful planet.