Music Hath Charms

Stewart Bell profiles one of the delightful denizens of our multiculti Trudeaupia, a former rock guitarist who now bloviates to receptive crowds about the dangers of music:

Bilal Philips was once a guitar god. Now he is trying to convince Muslims that God doesn't want them listening to guitars.

A Saudi-trained Canadian, Mr. Philips is among a small group of lecturers who preach against most forms of music -- a controversial prohibition that surfaced in Manitoba recently, where a dozen Muslim families want to pull their children from music class.

"A heart filled with music will not have room for God's words," he writes in his bookContemporary Issues, which also defends child marriages, wife beating, polygamy and killing apostates while calling homosexuality "evil and dangerous."

While Mr. Philips argues that Islam does not prohibit all music, he says it only allows adult male singers and "folk songs with acceptable content sung by males or females under the age of puberty accompanied by a hand drum."

"Wind and stringed instruments have been banned because of their captivating power," he continues. "Their notes and chords evoke strong emotional attachments. For many, music becomes a source of solace and hope instead of God. When they are down, music brings them up temporarily, like a drug. The Koran, the words of God filled with guidance, should play that role."...

Major brainwave: maybe we should pipe in, say, Supertramp, Justin Bieber and the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens to Ayatallohville/The Magic Wahhabi Kingdom and try to, you know, break the Koran's spell (because, after all, you have to be cruel to be kind).