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Monday, October 29, 2012

Egyptian Shiites upset over belly dancing to religious song

From Al Arabiya:
A belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Imam Ali, highly venerated in Shiite Islam, who called for banning the movie to screen in theaters.

Baha Anwar Mohammed, spokesman of Egyptian Shiites, has condemned belly dancer Dina for her performance in the film “Abdo Mouta” to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.

Baha was quoted by Egypt’s al-Sabah newspaper as saying that the country’s Shiites will file a complaint to the general prosecutor against the film demanding to ban it from screening as it insults prominent Islamic figures.

Shiites believe Imam Ali and the rest of Ahl al-Bayt as prophet’s successors. Baha called on Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic School and its Grand Mufti to condemn “such abuse” to the prophet’s family.

Dina, the belly dancer, denied her performance in the movie was meant to offend Islamic prominent figures.

She responded, "I am a Muslim and no one can say that I abused the people of the Prophet, God forbid. It's just a song, and the dance was not tacky at all"

Although the song “Virtuous Mother of Hasan and Husain” praises Fatima, the fact that a belly dancer dances to it was seen as highly inappropriate.
Here is Dina performing. May be NSFW.