RAWI, The Radius of Arab American Writers, is distressed by the assault on the right of artistic expression exemplified in the attack on one of our National Advisory Board members, the renowned composer and musician Marcel Khalife, and the leading Bahraini poet, Qassim Haddad. As we express our support of these two accomplished and deeply engaged and responsible artists, we are apprehensive about the potential negative consequences the Bahraini Parliament's investigation will have on freedom of expression in Bahrain and in the rest of the Arab World.

International conventions secure musicians, composers and writers the right to create, perform and act without interference from governments or religious groups. The attack by the Bahraini parliamentarians is a violation of freedom of speech as it applies to musicians.

We urge the Bahraini Parliament to scrap its investigation of the two artists and their work and instead to stand on the side of freedom, intellectual independence and creativity.

We urge the Bahraini Parliament to ensure that the UN Declaration on Human Rights are preserved in the country, and to avoid all measures that will in any way muffle artistic and intellectual expression.

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