Anti-U.S. tunes big hits in Iraq

FALLUJAH, Iraq — America’s next big battle may be waged in the cassette and CD players of Iraqis.

Americans have flooded the nation’s airwaves with harmless Western and Arab pop tunes, but many are drawn more to the catchy rhythms of crooners such as Sabah al-Jenabi.

“America has come and occupied Baghdad,” he sings in one popular number. “The army and people have weapons and ammunition. Let’s go fight and call out the name of God.”

U.S.-led coalition authorities have barred the media from promoting any kind of violence, but there is a hot market in the bazaars of central Iraq for cassettes by singers calling for insurrection.

“The men of Fallujah are men of hard tasks,” Mr. al-Jenabi sings in a dialect decipherable only to people in the Sunni Muslim heartland cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. “They paralyzed America with rocket-propelled grenades. May God protect them from [U.S.] airplanes.”

Though the lyrics are contemporary, the music is based on a kind of centuries-old religious music called praising, which is influenced by an ancient form of Islamic mysticism called Sufism.

Such songs have appeal even for Iraqis who generally support the U.S. presence in their country, such as driver Ahmad Hossein, who plays Mr. al-Jenabi’s songs in his car.

“I like the music and the lyrics,” said Mr. Hossein, a member of the Shi’ite majority that was oppressed under dictator Saddam Hussein. “I don’t know why. I don’t agree with what it’s saying. It just makes me feel good.”

Dan Senor, a spokesman for the coalition, told reporters recently that “any sort of public expression used in an institutionalized sense that would incite violence against the coalition or Iraqis” is banned.

Yet, CD shops and cassette stalls do brisk business selling albums by Mr. al-Jenabi and other promoters of jihad, or holy war, for about 2,000 Iraqi dinars — less than $1.25 — apiece.

At Sabah Recordings, a popular cassette shop in a Fallujah alleyway, owner Maher al-Ajrari initially denied that he sold Mr. al-Jenabi’s music. But after an hour of conversation, he admitted that the resistance tapes are best sellers.

Mr. Ajrari even carries multimedia “video” versions of the CDs, in which the anti-U.S. tunes are accompanied by footage of American troops killing and maiming Iraqis.

Mr. Ajrari said he has no anti-U.S. agenda. “We sell these just for business and for commercial profit.”

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