Justin Bieber fans in Norway will do just about anything to get a concert ticket—and that includes converting to Islam.
Last year the Norwegian authorities were almost forced to declare a state of emergency when Oslo was inundated with thousands of youngsters, there for a free Justin Bieber concert. This year some Norwegian schools even went as far as rescheduling their midterm examinations to accommodate the needs of students with tickets to see the teen star perform. Bieber has a huge fan-base in Norway, but there are only so many tickets available and it would seem that some fans who missed out on a ticket will stop at nothing to get one. A recent stunt, organized by the Norwegian Comedy show 'Anne-Kat', proves this, but the stunt has angered many religious leaders.
The show is hosted by comedienne Anne-Katrine Hegna Haerland, who wanted to find out how far Beliebers would be willing to go to get a ticket, so free tickets were offered to Bieber fans in exchange for their converting to Islam. The girls had to remove their make-up, don hijabs, and recite what was reportedly and Islamic statement of belief. The Norwegian news website, Dagen, also reports the Beliebers were forced to insult their hero by saying, "Justin Bieber is unclean and probably gay."
The show has been heavily criticized for trivializing people's faith and Halyor Northug, Bishop of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, told Dagen that the stunt 'testifies to Hærland’s lack of understanding of how much faith means to a lot of people . . . . This is an example of an idea where irony and lack of respect turns into something tragic.'
Bieber's name has been in the news a lot lately, and after his controversial visit to Anne Frank's House, and his monkey troubles in Germany, he probably could have done without a stunt like this, but at least this time nobody can say it is his fault.
