In Somalia, Islamists Ban Music on Radio
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Islamic militants who closed down a Somali radio station have allowed it back on the air so long as it does not play music or love songs, the station’s director said yesterday. Radio Jowhar can only broadcast news bulletins and readings from the Koran and other Islamic lectures, according to the director of Jowhar’s only radio station, Said Hagaa Ahmed.
As a result, the station will broadcast only 13 hours a day, instead of the current 15, he said. Mr. Ahmed said he held talks Sunday night with officials from the Islamic militia in Jowhar, some 55 miles from Mogadishu, and secured their approval to get his station back on the air.
“We miss the Somali and Western songs,” a 17-year-old resident of Jowhar, Madey Nur, told the Associated Press. Radio Jowhar was ordered closed Sunday because its programs were un-Islamic, an official with the Islamic militia said.
The Islamic group has imposed religious rule after taking control in June of much of southern Somalia, including the capital. It is credited with bringing a semblance of order to the country, but the strict rules have sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style regime.
Islamists in the capital have banned movie-viewing, publicly lashed drug users, and broken up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing.