…against Lady Gaga.
The Guardian reports:
Christian groups in the Philippines have called for a ban on Lady Gaga’s Manila concerts, alleging that her song Judas is an offensive mockery of Jesus Christ.
Youths gathered at a rally outside the mayor’s office, chanting “Stop the Lady Gaga concerts”, while members of the Biblemode Youth Philippines group called her videos religiously offensive.
In the song, she calls herself a “holy fool” who is “still in love with Judas”, singing: “Jesus is my virtue/And Judas is the demon I cling to.” In the video, Gaga plays a biker chick riding behind a man wearing a crown of thorns, while longing for another biker with “Judas” emblazoned across his leather jacket.
The singer is due to play the 20,000-seat Mall of Asia tomorrow and on Tuesday, and James Imbong, a lawyer filing a petition to ban the concerts, said Christian groups would not accept a compromise as organisers in South Korea did when Seoul authorities agreed to forbid under-12s from attending instead of cancelling the concert.
“She has a song that suggests that she wants to have sex with Judas and performs it with a dance,” Imbong told the news website PhilStar. “Of course, it would be accompanied by a costume that has pornographic elements.”
Manila’s mayor has issued a statement ordering Gaga not to “exhibit any nudity or lewd conduct which may be offensive to morals and good custom”, with the stark reminder that the penal code in the primarily Roman Catholic country of 93 million can convict anyone up to six years for offending race or religion…
Indonesian activists called the cancellation of a gig in Jakarta a sign of the country’s “Talibanisation” after authorities withdrew permission for her concert on 3 June, making her the first foreign artist to be banned despite selling out a 52,000-seat venue.
Indonesian human rights activist Andreas Harsono has said the concert ban represents “the Talibanisation [of] Indonesia”, while sociologist Ida Ruwaida said it was up to the government to “facilitate different interests without allowing the cultural hegemony of one group over another”.
Police denied the singer a concert permit amid claims from hardline Islamic groups that the suggestive nature of her show and lyrics would sabotage the country’s moral codes of conduct. “During her concerts, Lady Gaga looks like a devil worshipper,” said Suryadharma Ali, the religion affairs minister of the nation of 240 million people, mainly Muslims.
“Talibanization”?
I guess so; but isn’t the gag on Gaga something believers and atheists can unite behind? I’m with Camille Paglia on this one. Don’t know–and don’t care–whether or not the Philippines or Indonesia have a First Amendment, spare me the “human rights” activists.
Before the 9/11 attacks, Dinesh D’Sousa was saying that Muslims and devout Christians might team up in a fundamentalist alliance, partially for stuff like this. Especially after 9/11 though, it turned out that they disagreed on too much other things for any alliance.
I sympathize with the protestors. Lady Gaga and other acts like her rot culture. I don’t know why Filipinos or any other people would pay to see her or listen to her.
I don’t know why Filipinos or any other people would pay to see her or listen to her.
I don’t either, but, as Yogi Berra once said, “if people don’t want to come to the ballpark, you can’t stop them.” No one, in the Phillippines or anywhere else, has to pay to see or listen to her. If she can’t make a living at what she does, too bad. It’s a very different matter to make credible threats of serious criminal punishment.