Mick Hartley

Many of us have wondered what the point was of John Lennon's Imagine. Now, thanks to the Indonesian group Islam Defenders Front (FPI), we know. From the Jakarta Post:

In a public lecture at the FPI headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, senior FPI member and purported Islamic music “expert” Farid Budi Fahri alleged there had been concerted efforts to turn young people away from Islamic teachings through a variety of underground music.

“There has been a conspiracy. A war launched by the underground community [against mainstream Islamic teaching],” he told FPI members who came to the talk last week.

Farid traced the roots of the underground music to a Zionist movement.

He said that a group of people adhering to Zionist ideology has used the medium to conceal their objectives of world domination.

“At the end of the day, it will sow conflict among Muslims themselves,” Farid said.

He went on to speculate that the underground music community, which initially developed as a resistance towards the mainstream industry by independently producing and distributing music, has been subverted by the Zionist movement to spread ideas that would contradict Islam.

“Are these musicians carrying out a Zionist mission? I would say no. The conspiracy is within the music, the lyrics which carry messages and the ideology which would create a lifestyle and counter culture in the end,” Farid said.

He cited the lyrics of John Lennon’s song Imagine as Zionist music, although Lennon was not Jewish and was not considered an idol of the underground music community.

“People keep singing his songs without realizing the meaning behind it,” he said.

He suspected that the song — about a hypothetical state of the world where religion, state and ideology did not exist — carry a pure Zionist message.  […]

This is not the first time FPI launched a campaign against creative arts. The Bekasi branch of FPI last year called on the removal of a sculpture design by a Balinese artist titled Tiga Mojang (Three Women), alleging that it was a depiction of the Holy Trinity.