Conservative groups seek to shut down concerts in Iraq
Iraqis fear that Islamic parties and armed religious groups are trying to impose their fundamentalist views on social and personal freedoms.
Concern is on the rise recently among Iraqis and defenders of freedom due to the heated rhetoric against concerts in Baghdad. Those concerned are expressing fear that such rhetoric may be the beginning of the imposition of a “religious guardianship on society.”
On Dec. 29, 2021, the religious Baqir al-Olum University in Baghdad issued a press statement denouncing concerts in the capital and stressing the importance of reintroducing the laws of “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.”
