Lawmaker warns minister over music in schools

A Kuwaiti lawmaker has threatened to take action against Dr Moudhi Al Humoud, the education and higher studies minister, if she "imposed" music classes in schools.

"I warn the minister of education and higher studies from the consequences of the fitna (tumult) she will cause in the nation by imposing music courses on students. Her westernized ways have gone beyond the values of the Western countries which have made the courses optional. If the minister insists on music courses, the matter will not pass peacefully either for her or for the prime minister," MP Mohammad Hayef Al Mutairi said.

"We will not allow the minister to turn our schools into centres for the formation of dancers and dance troupes. The minister and the government should be ashamed of themselves because of the ominous deterioration of our education levels if music becomes a core course and an integral part of the curriculum and parents are forced to buy music instruments for their children," said the 45-year-old MP.

Such instruments are banned in Islam and parents should not be made to purchase them, Al Mutairi, a former teacher, said.

"I urge parents not to heed the call for music lessons and instruments because they would be violating the precepts and teachings of Islam. No human being should be forced to disobey the word of God, and we should all have enough patience and fortitude until this fitna is over," he said.

Al Mutairi was among nine Islamist MPs who in May 2008 walked out of the opening session of the parliament to protest against the appointment of two female ministers, Nuryia Al Subeih as minister of education and higher studies in 2007, and Moudhi Al Humoud as minister for housing and administrative planning.

Al Mutari said that the boycott was decided because the two female ministers failed to abide by Sharia (Islamic law) and did not wear cover their heads.

Kuwait, like most countries in the Gulf, has seen intense debates over the pace of social and educational changes in a tug of war between conservatives and liberals.

Ideas and experiences brought by globalisations, thousands of Kuwaitis who travel or study abroad and by hundreds of thousands of Westerners living in Kuwait have often clashed with local traditionalists who have been resisting much of the change.