Belly Dancing Banned - in the effort to defeat the Israelis!

Sometimes, all I have to do is look over my shoulder to feel a little better about the Lebanese political class. For all their corruption, short-sightedness and egomaniacal tendencies, at least some of them refrain from crossing certain red lines.

In one of its first major, news-breaking initiatives to help the Palestinian people overcome Israeli aggression and economic hardship, Hamas has decreed that it is now illegal to belly-dance.

Bellydancing is naked women. This is not Islamic. The Egyptians come here and do it. And there are a lot of Russian belly dancers in Egypt and they come here too

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If the phenomenon of belly dancing spreads our people might react against it by killing people. We don't want our people to become like the Taliban.

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There's moral corruption. The blue films Israel sends us are quite corrupting. We have to resist them.

You know, I think we have all heard of the "religion is the opium of the masses" cliche... but when I see the "solutions" that some of these Islamist political parties propose for problems (some of which we all share), I feel like puking!

Problem: Occupation by a foreign power
Islamist Solution: ban belly dancing

Problem: High unemployment
Islamist Solution: cover women from head to toe and ban them from working

Problem: Lack of education
Islamist Solution: get kids to memorize koran front to back and in reverse

Problem: Economic Deprivation
Islamist Solution: force business to close during times of prayer

Islamic political parties are full of fluff. The only reason people vote for them is because they present themselves as honest, and they effectively articulate problems that we all know exist. When people ask them "what are your solutions"? We get: "Islam."

It will take time, but sooner or later, they will fail. True they are honest... but they are not yet in power. "Islam a solution?" Solution to what? Maybe to the problem that Islam is not as prevalent in society as they would like it to be.

My only fear is oil money. If a collection of 10-year-old kids were able to somehow control the oil money pouring into the Middle East, they could rule however incompetently they wished and buy their time in power - indefinitely.

That analysis applies to the Saudis today, and will apply to any group that manages to control the immense oil reserves in the Gulf - including Islamist groups who would take the entire region back to the 7th century.