Walkout, (religious) mobile ringtone row disrupt Iraq assembly

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060510/wl_nm/iraq_parliament_dc

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A sectarian scuffle in the lobby of Iraq's parliament -- over a religious mobile phone ringtone -- prompted an angry walkout by some legislators on Wednesday.

Meeting for only the second full day of normal business after five months of sectarian stalemate over a new government, parliament was briefly adjourned after the Sunni speaker refused to let a Shi'ite woman member lodge a complaint about the melee.

Gufran al-Saidi, from the Islamist movement of fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, stormed out and told reporters that a bodyguard for speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani had attacked one of her aides on Monday because her phone played a Shi'ite chant.

Other members joined the walkout and complained that the speaker had acted improperly by switching off Saidi's microphone and ordering television cameras to be switched off.

Saidi, appearing veiled in a traditional black robe, said her aide was holding her phone for her in the lobby when it rang -- with a Shi'ite religious harmony. A bodyguard for speaker Mashhadani came over and told him to switch it off, she said.

[keopeli]

1. It's a brave new world.

[CJCRANE]

2. Religious ringtones

is a definite potential growth market.

I wonder if there are "call to prayer" ringtones timed to go off at prayer time?

Maybe christians could have church bell ring tones...

[knitter4democracy]

4. We have hymn versions.

In Greece at Easter, a lot of people switch their ring tone to the hymn "Christos Anesti."

[wakeme2008]

3. The article did not answer an important question

Were cell phones banded at the point the guard was told to turn it off?? If they are, then she is wrong.

[sabra]

5. kick

:kick:

[snooper2]

6. example # 45,909,876,230,007

why religion is stupid...