Late QUEEN Singer FREDDIE MERCURY Slammed By Some Muslims

August 31, 2006

Launch Radio Networks reports: Freddie Mercury would have been 60 years old next Tuesday (September 5),but there's some dispute in his homeland about whether he should be celebrated. The late QUEEN frontman was born Farrokh Bulsara on the East African island of Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania, and some conservative Muslims want to block any official recognition of the man or the day. Abdallah Said Ali, who is the leader of the group The Association For Islamic Mobilization And Propagation, wrote to the local culture ministry and said that because the singer was gay and died of AIDS, "Associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam." Ali also wrote, "Allowing such a function for a person known outside Zanzibar as a homosexual tarnishes the name of Zanzibar... Let us protect our good culture."

Not everyone agrees, however. Simai Mohamed Saidi, who owns a theme restaurant called "Mercury's," is moving forward with a party on Saturday (September 2),and he told the AFP news service, "I plan to ask the authorities to advocate Mercury because he was an artist who advertised Zanzibar abroad."

There's been no official response from the government either for or against honoring Mercury.

According to AFP, Zanzibar is almost 99 percent Muslim, though most are thought to be moderate, and the local government works hard to balance the desires of observant Muslims with the tourism industry and people who lead more secular lives.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).