GEORGE MICHAEL and Eric Clapton are to be banished from Iran’s official airwaves in the latest assault on “Westoxication” by the country’s new President.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the enactment of a ruling by the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council to ban all Western music, including classical music, from Iran’s state radio and television stations.

“Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is required,” a statement from the council, which Mr Ahmadinejad heads, said. Songs such as Clapton’s Rush and George Michael’s Careless Whisper are often used as background music on television programmes.

“This is terrible,” Babak Riahipour, an Iranian guitarist, said. “The decision shows a lack of knowledge and experience.”

The ban is likely to deepen the conviction held by many young Iranians that their president is a killjoy but it will do little to prevent their access to Western music. Bootleg CDs and DVDs of banned films are widely available on a booming black market. Most Iranians also have satellite dishes which, although illegal, are widely used and give Iran’s tech-savvy youth a window on the world.

A new wave of home-grown, officially approved pop has also flourished in recent years. Satellite dishes are likely to become even more coveted as the council has banned foreign films that promote “arrogant powers”, an apparent reference to the United States.

This month, Ali Rahbari, the conductor of Tehran’s symphony orchestra, resigned and left Iran to protest against the treatment of the music industry. Before leaving, he played Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to packed theatre houses. The performances angered some hardliners, who accused Mr Rahbari of promoting Western values.

Mr Ahmadinejad won office in August on a platform of reverting to ultraconservative principles. As Mayor of Tehran in 2003 he banned advertising hoardings of David Beckham, the first Westerner to be used in advertising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. After the revolution, the traditional clergy wanted a total ban on music. The late Ayatollah Khomeini stopped short of that, ruling that as long as music was not “ intoxicating”, it was legitimate. War hymns, traditional songs and bland instrumentals became the only legal music.

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