Arabs Got Talent- Tomboy finalist gets slammed for appearance

I have a confession to make: one of my guilty pleasures is America's Got Talent. I don't watch American Idol, or The Voice, but yes, I enjoy the sometimes fabulous, sometimes bizarre and sometimes altogether bad acts that strut the stage. And I love the interaction between the judges and the performers. Originating in England with Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent, it migrated across the ocean to the U.S. where it features judges Howie Mandel, Sharon Osborne, and Howard Stern who took over for Piers Morgan.  But who the heck knew there were franchises all over the world including an Arabs Got Talent.

Shot in Beirut, Lebanon for the MBC Network, it's a replica (almost) of the Brit and U.S. programmes but with Arab talent. They too have three judges, albeit kinder, gentler more patient ones: The judges are female singer Najwa Karam, Nasser Al Qasabi, and Ali Jaber. Since it's filmed in Lebanon, Najwa is not veiled and neither are most of the female talent. However, one of this season's finalists - tomboyish unveiled, 18-year-old Shamma Hamdan from the United Arab Emirates - isn't getting much support from back home because of her appearance. Her twitter account swelled to over 87,000 followers after her appearance on the TV show, but many comments have been downright mean-spirited, but not surprising given the conservative Emiratis.

Some tweets slammed her for her "un-Islamic" and "un-Emirati" appearance. Others were more cruel, making comments like "Shame on you. You don't represent anything Emirati. You should be pulled from the show." Still more made fun of her appearance. 

"It was like fire, rumours spread about my origin, that I am not 'originally' Emirati, that I am from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, even Afghanistan, cause, hey, I don't look like the typical Emirati," she said. In fact the family is from Al Raisi tribe. 

"I am not a tomboy, not a boyat, not anything. I am just a musician who is a bit sporty," she says. "I like to surf when I am not playing music." 

"Imagine I performed in an abaya and shayla while playing on a guitar? What would they say? I would be called the biggest sinner in the world."

Hamdan is one of the better ones, but there are some as lacking in talent as everywhere else, including this poor woman. The judges are definitely far more patient than the U.S. ones.

Death Fatwa For Iranian Rapper

What do 31-year-old Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi and Brit/Indian writer Salman Rushdie have in common?  They both have prices on their heads, and both death fatwas originated from Ayatollah's in Iran, that mecca of tolerance. 

Shahin, whose music is socio/political in nature, luckily now lives in Germany where he emigrated to in 2005. A social activist, he writes about everything from sexism to theocracy to censorship, but his latest song "Naghi" is what got him into deep trouble with Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani of Qom. The lyrics skewer the 10th Imam 'Naghi' (aka Naqui) and Shia Muslims take great umbrage with anyone who offends their precious dead Imams, even the lesser known ones. But Golpayegani isn't the only one calling for Najafi's death, shia-online.ir is actually offering a $100,000 reward.  And those behind a campaign to have him hanged for apostasy (initiated by an Iranian news website Asr Emrous), want all Muslims (not just Shi'ites) to search for Najafi and "send him to hell."

Rushdie was forced into hiding for years, who knows if Najafi will be forced to do the same thing, or whether he will just thumb his nose at the mullah's- his songs certainly have done that.

The youtube video causing all the furor.

Another translation of the lyrics.