Doing the Devil’s Work: Heavy Metal and the Threat to Public Order in the Muslim World

Abstract

The author explores how the millennia-old concept of Satan in the three Abrahamic faiths has shaped the cultural landscape in which heavy metal as a musical genre has been experienced and responded to in the Muslim world. He first surveys the evolution of Satan from the Hebrew Scriptures through the Quran, and its subsequent development in Islamic thought through the contemporary period. He then discusses the socio-economic and political environment that influenced the development of heavy metal as an art form, and why it has had such resonance in the Middle East and the larger Muslim world. Finally, he explores the largely negative reaction to the music by Muslim governments and societies, and how, in a certain sense, today’s Muslim metalheads are fulfilling a historic function of Satan in Islamic theology.