Bahraini Metal Guitarist Arrested For Wearing 'God's Busy' Shirt

May 2, 2009

Alistair Baptista of Gulf Daily News reports that police arrested the guitarist of Bahrain-based extreme metal band THE MUSHROOM MASSACRE (MySpace page) at a rock concert in Bahrain Thursday (April 30),bringing it to an abrupt halt and angering scores of fans.

Organizers halted the "Rage to the Extreme" show (see poster below) at the Palace hotel, Adliya, immediately after the arrest.

Sources said the Sri Lankan was apparently arrested because he was wearing a T-shirt bearing a caricature of a "devilish" figure and the slogan "God's Busy...Can I Help You?" (See image below.)

They said the guitarist was taken to a police station where he had his shirt and body piercings photographed.

"Someone just came on stage and said the show was over, after that there were two breaks for prayer," said concert-goer Yasir Shehzad.

"Everyone's angry, but we don't know what to do. Someone, we don't know who he was, got on stage and told people to wear their T-shirts inside out."

He said the organizers should have warned people against inappropriate clothing.

"I blame them because the sound was terrible and they should have told children that they couldn't wear certain kinds of clothing."

Dubai-based Bahraini Ali Ahmed, who had travelled home especially for the event, was shocked and embarrassed.

"I don't know why they stopped it.

"There was no problem. Children were just relaxing and there were bands from the UAE and Saudi on the list to play.

"This is embarrassing for us because there wasn't any reason for them to do that, there wasn't a fight or anything like that."

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