TUNIS,
December 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Tunisian human rights activists
have blasted banning world-renowned Lebanese musician Marcel Khalifé
from entering the country after he dedicated one of his recent works to
prisoners of conscience in Arab jail.
"Preventing
Khalifé from entering Tunisia is tantamount to a ban on the freedom of
creativity and an attempt to silence the sound of freedom," Saeeda
Karami, the head of an international association for solidarity with
political prisoners, told IslamOnline.net on Friday, December 23.
The
London-based Arabi-speaking international daily Al-Hayat on
Tuesday, December 20, said the ban came after Khalifé had dedicated a
song during Carthage music festival to Palestinian detainees in Israeli
prisons as well as prisoners of conscience in Arab jail.
The
Tunisian Ministry of Culture has banned not only Khalifé's music and
songs but even the mere mentioning of his name in the country.
On
June 7, the United Nation Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESO) honored named Khalifé UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Hypocrisy
Karami
said the Tunisian government denies that they are any political
prisoners in the country and then sensors Khalifé for dedicating one of
his work to prisoners of conscience in the Arab world.
"We
will defend all creative artists like Khalifé," she vowed.
Tunisian
journalist Mohammad El-Fawarti said the Lebanese artist was also
punished for signing, along with a cohort of Arab intellectuals, a
petition in solidarity with eight Tunisian activists.
The
eight men went on a hunger strike on 18 October ahead of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis to demand respect
for freedom of expression and the release of all prisoners of
conscience.
They
only agreed to suspend the strike after a visit by Nobel peace prize
laureate Shirin Ebadi.
The
hunger strikers included Lotfi Hajji, the head of the Tunisian
Journalists Union (SJT).
UN
human rights groups have decried human rights violations and
deteriorating situation of freedom of opinion and expression in Tunisia
with rights activists describing the Arab country as "unlikely
setting" for the prestigious WSIS.
Honoring
Khalifé, UNESCO praised him as "the symbol of a whole generation,
in the Middle East and all around the world, as well as a tireless
promoter of peace and dialog between cultures through his music."
The
has toured the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States
giving solo performances on the oud (the Arabic lute).
