"Khamenei's comments came in response to a request for a ruling by a 21-year-old follower of his, who was thinking of starting music lessons, but wanted to know if they were acceptable according to Islam, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music," he said.
"Khamenei has rarely expressed his views on music publicly, but he is believed have played a key role in the crackdown on Iran's music scene following the revolution ..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/iran-supreme-leader-music-islam
Yep, sounds like he's on quite the warpath.
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:44 PM, Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> wrote:
One suspects very strongly that this is a factoid, to
> put it mildly. It seems highly unlikely that Khamenei
> really wants to do away with all music altogether. A
> detached quotelet via Hamid Dabashi -- well. One will wait
> for fuller information.
>
> Snippets of Khamenei's remarks seen elsewhere
> on the web suggest that he thinks music is kosher -- erm,
> halal -- but thinks young people would be better off
> studying other things.
>
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."