A Muslim musician living in Britain said on Wednesday that two directors at his record label had threatened to resign if he released a new album describing suicide bombers and the West's immorality.
The threat means Aki Nawaz, who was born in Pakistan but moved to Britain aged three, would have to distribute "All is War (The Benefits of G-Had)" independently, causing delays of around two weeks. "It won't get released on July 17th because of the other directors. I have to move it back two weeks," he told Reuters.
"The point is that these guys - the directors - who I admire, they're scared about what England is turning out to be in the sense that you can't speak. And they are scared for me."
The two directors could not immediately be reached for comment at Nation Records, the label, which Nawaz helped to set up and which had been expected to release All is War.
The album was not the first time Nawaz has written politically charged songs. According to the Nation Records Web site (www.nationrecords.co.uk), the independent label which had planned to distribute All is War, Nawaz's group Fun-Da-Mental has released records including "Erotic Terrorism" (1998) and "Why America Will Go to Hell" (1999).
The difference now, he said, was a climate of fear in Britain, where the events of September 11, 2001 and the suicide attacks in London on July 7, 2005 had rendered open discussion of Muslims' place in society impossible. Nawaz, whose influences include punk, rap and South Asian song, aims to release the album "by hook or by crook".
On his band's Web site (www.fun-da-mental.co.uk), All is War is described as "13 tracks of provocation and law breaking". While the lyrics are not available, a "manifesto" describes the ideas behind each of the songs. Of the track "786 All is War", Nawaz says: "Since 9/11 it (the United States) has displayed all the evidence necessary to find it guilty of genocide and mass murder".
In "Che Bin" he compares al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary leader. In an extract from "Cookbook DIY" quoted in a British paper, he includes the lines: "I'm strapped up cross my chest bomb belt attached/Deeply satisfied with the plan I hatched". While accepting that his lyrics and ideas were controversial, Nawaz defended his right to express them and added that he did not condone suicide attacks. "They are part of the reality, a tragic reality. Everyone is to blame."
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