viewpoint: ben cohen

Dancing in Moonlight: A song of Paris

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Scene from "Dancing in the Moonlight"

One of the most memorable scenes in the 2010 film “Four Lions,” a dark British comedy about a group of the most incompetent jihadis imaginable, takes place as the aspiring martyrs climb into a van for the long nighttime drive down to London, where their plan is to bomb the annual marathon.

As they set off in the dark, the four jihadis are silent and pensive, listening to a somber recording of chanted verses from the Qu’ran. But as dawn breaks on the outskirts of London, they swap out the Qu’ran for the irrepressibly joyful song “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest. Bouncing in their seats, they belt out a chorus that violates everything that the cause of jihad represents: “Dancing in the moonlight/Everybody’s feeling warm and bright/It’s such a fine and natural sight/Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight!”

What strikes me more is the realization that the four lions are living between two worlds that cannot be reconciled. One involves an austere, repressive, and deeply violent interpretation of a faith that frowns on anything deemed “haram,” or forbidden by Islam. The other conjures up images of DJs and dance floors, sandy beaches bathed in the light of the moon, flowing cocktails, and endless processions of pretty girls—all the ingredients of a hedonistic, image-obsessed, yet critically free society. And as the jihadis sing “Dancing in the Moonlight” at the tops of their voices, the viewer can’t help but wonder whether what they are about do, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is kill the very thing that they love.

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