Arab poetry

MidEast - In the Arab version of American Idol, poet Hissa Hilal won a place in the program's finals after she recited a provocative poem in which she castigated Muslim preachers “who sit in the position of power” but are “frightening” people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and “preying like a wolf” on those seeking peace.

The audience in The Million's Poet show gave the poem loud cheers. The poet has since received death threats that have been posted on several militant Islamic web sites. "Killing a human being is so easy for them, it is always an option,” she said.

From behind her own veil, Hilal recited, “I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas, at a time when the permitted is being twisted into the forbidden." She called such edicts “a monster that emerged from its hiding place” whenever “the veil is lifted from the face of truth.”

Hilal was once a poetry editor at the Arab daily Al-Hayat.