European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday March 182007 Sta Sand strides Page n Thamer Ahmed a Salesman at Aldar Alba Idaa music store in Sulayman Yali Iraq arranges posters of popular singers thursday amid the chaos shiite and sunni Muslim extremists have grown bolder in enforcing religious strictures forcing stores Selling cd and dds to shut Down and sometimes killing employees Yahya 2 Days Only mar 1718 saturday sunday in the Foster marketplace mall at thais House of Jade store dont miss it Many unique items come out for the excitement music in the line of fire popular music comes under fire from Baghdad Muslim militants e i c sri i f the associated press Sulayman Yah Iraq Farouk has sans eyes Well up with tears As he Cranks his cars cd player and sings along with the latest hit a lament to his lost love violence torn Baghdad but it is not just the songs lyrics that encapsulate the tragedy of Baghdad bloodshed the pop Star singing the tune the Young Man listening to it and even the music shop employees who sold him the cd Are All among the thousands who have fled the iraqi capital navigating the streets of Sulay Man Yah 180 Miles North of Bagh dad Hassan who fled the Capi Tal several months ago Points out that his friends Back Home cannot even listen to music in Public fearing they will draw the at Tention of islamic militants who consider pop music a corrupt ing Force a song can wrap a person in All these emotions its really amazing said Hassan wiping away the tears from his eyes the music can truly move people who Are missing Home he added approximately 18 million iraqis have fled the country in nearly four years of violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein a similar number have left their Homes to take Refuge elsewhere in Iraq Many in Sulayman Yah and other parts of the Northern Kurdistan re Gion which has largely been spared the turmoil amid the chaos shiite and sunni Muslim extremists have grown bolder in enforcing religious strictures forcing stores Selling cd and dds to shut Down sometimes employees of those shops have been killed at Sulym Aniyah Aldar Al Maidaa music store a town 180 Miles North of Baghdad where Hassan is a regular customer one of the employees Ammar knows All too Well the dangers of the music business Ammar who would give Only his first name for fear of reprisals against his family once ran a music store in Eastern Baghdad but in september followers of Radical shiite cleric Muntada a Sadr came to his shop and told him to shut it Down you infidel and Devil Follower you deserve to die for pushing muslims to corruption and Adul Tery said the letter they left the business is not like before people Are afraid even to walk into our store fearing someone is watching them Baghdad music store manager the 21yearold Ammar said he did not take the threat seriously at first then men dressed in Black sprayed his shop with gunfire destroying it and wounding him a few Days later he left his family and College studies behind and fled to Sulayman Yah where he took up his Job at Aldar Alba Idaa arabic pop music blares from the shop in a main commercial Street of Sulaim Aniyah and its Walls Are adorned with posters of scantily Clad Arab and Western female singers elsewhere in Iraq that would have been enough to prompt attacks from extremists but Sulaim Aniyah and the rest of autonomous Kurdistan is largely secular Aldar Alba Idaa is itself some thing of a Refu gee the Chain opened a Branch in Sulay Man Yah be cause it was no longer Safe to sell music in Central and Southern Iraq said the branches manager Ahmad a Ahmad militiamen broke into the chains Baghdad Branch during the summer and demanded it be shut Down the Baghdad manager told the associated press by Tele phone he negotiated with them to keep the store open but under a strict set of conditions no hang ing pictures of female singers on the storefront and no loudspeakers playing music outside the business is not like be fore said the manager who spoke on the condition of Anonym Ity for fear of reprisals people Are afraid even to walk into our store fearing someone is watch ing them a Ahmad the Sulayman Yah Branch manager said the bestselling cd of 2006 were those evoking emotions of iraqis who had fled from violence with titles like so we dont forget Iraq and the pains of our peo ple faced with tire dangers of Pur chasing music Many Baghdad residents now turn to the inter net Anwar Getan who lives in East Ern Baghdad says he downloads songs and saves them on his to bile phone memory card exchanging them with neighbors and friends using the Mobile to listen to songs is Way safer than endanger ing ourselves by going to the music stores he said