Loved this in blade runner

it amazes me that this track was deleted ffrom certain releases....it is the best one with "Regiment" coming in close behind (or in front, i can't decide! ) :)

So dark and moody. Love it!

With all due respect to Muslims, I'm glad to be able to listen to this incredible song once again. One of the best tracks, if not the best, of a fabulous album. We all lost a lot when it was taken out. Thanks a lot for posting it!

surprisingly enough, this song had quite a bit of popularity and I heard this in a taxicab in Damascus in 2006 LOL..So much for trying to "purge" this from all sources!!!

Someone needs to reissue the reissue and include this on it. had the cassette but it's gone now. I just happened to find this by accident. totally forgot about it great song! Thanks!

Thank you so much for posting this video. I too... have only an LP version of this song, as I waited a bit to purchase this album on CD, and it had already been deleted from the line-up.

Thanks, Great Album, Missed it!!

@thedesiresymposium I agree. It's one of the best tracks of the album, what a pity they censored it. I still have a tape from the original album when the track was there. I was SO disappointed when I didn't find it in the cd version. Maybe they could re-issue it, changing the lyrics? Just a thought.

@TheKenfig If you want both tracks, the Sire 6093-2 CD contains both. It was released in 1989. There is probably another edition from that time that contains this. Any other later pressing doesn't, though. The 2006 remaster adds 7 tracks, but still lacks this and doesn't even mention it on the booklet.

[09 January 2021] Sounds like the Interzone Cut-Up blues...😉

@TheKenfig "Qu'ran" was replaced by "Very Very Hungry", which was a non-LP B-side before. An LP with "Qur'an" doesn't have "Very Very Hungry" and vice-versa. Usually CD versions have the revised setlist (with "Very Very Hungry" but without "Qur'an"), but the CD I mentioned contains the original setlist adding "Very Very Hungry" as the last track

It's Byrne's humble admission that 'we know all about you and we are not bothered'. We love your sound and your people. White guys are mostly ok and like you. Reference; Byrnes saved West African music almost single-handedly.....

if you guys would like to know the story behind this song.... brian eno found a recording of a woman singing a traditional prayer and did not understand that a prayer is not technically music in that culture... it is a prayer. despite being musical. so sampling it was sacrilegious and infuriated them. they see it as using a prayer to dance to, which dance is a metaphor for sex many times. something like that. i had a class on it.

MEZMERIZING !!!

@Bow1elow Byrne sez"Way back when the record first came out, in 1981, it might have been '82, we got a request from an Islamic organization in London, and they said, 'We consider this blasphemy that you put grooves to the chanting of the Holy Book.' "...

@Vispateresa3 If you have time and patience, there's a 1989 US CD containing both "Qu'ran" and its replacement track "Very Very Hungry". There is at least another CD ediction containing this track, and also that one is non-UK edition, but it was another early ediction. Subsequents CD only contain "Very Very Hungry" (which while not as great as "Qu'ran" is another very fine track, if you ask me)

@Bow1elow "...So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to. But that's the way it was."From wikipedia.

Fantastic track from a ground breaking album,. Still not surpassed in my opinion

GANGSTA GROOVE

Musicstack or discogs should have it. I would expect it to be quite expensive. I think there is a 1982 version right around the time that the imam in London complained about the quran being set to music...now THAT would be a find.

@patimwi ... probably an old radio copy that the station censored after this track's controversy arose.

@patimwi Sabotage! I have it in FLAC or MP3 if anyone wants it

@Bow1elow "... And we thought, 'Okay, in deference to somebody's religion, we'll take it off.' You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything. Because we thought, 'We're going to get accused of all kinds of things, and so we want to cover our asses as best we can.' "...

Salaheddine, you got it wrong pal. You can sing the Quran al karim in the way called tajwid.

Like a preyer ::: ...2

You're right, Mike. Dancing leads to Fitnah for non Mahram- accompanied women under the Sunnite interpretation. It's all very touchy....

wow the lyrics are from the Al - Quran verse~

What’s the words to the song which make it offensive. The whole song kinda gets the creative juices flowing which in itself could be deemed as quasi-religious!

wait a minute,for us who didnt folloow all the way...back in the 80s it was perfectly ok ,what happened in between?was this song banned in some country /religion or something?I hope not....:)

and i have the suspicion that the record said that this was recorded in the street ,and it is a street preacher singing a traditional song .but i might be wrong ,its too long ago...

*Un orologio seiko si chiama Izul, c'è un gioco, a marzo uscirà un cartone animato, dove credete che abbiano trovato il nome, azul, azzurro, Izul luzi* O ira d'Izul

So,Is David Bryne is trying to make the muslims angry or making the muslims proud by using the quran word?

Gee I really hate to bring it up but, there was some recent buisness conducted by an entire country aimed at meddling with free speech. The unfortunate country is Pakistan, and now others I beleive. Their government decided to nationally boycot Face and others in apperant rage over 'something'. Support our intelligent friends in these counties! They must be hating it!

Aren't you forgetting the Muslims are upset at the slightest provacation so no doubt Bryne and Eno now have a Fatwa on them both!

I think it's a shame that some Muslims took offense at this incredible song...on one hand, it is adjacent to a number of songs with samples of people you would usually place firmly in the lunatic fringe, but I always felt it was their intention to bring the strange and unusual to the fore, and that the world has a lot to offer...regardless of where you were born, who your parents were, and where you went to school.

It's not a religious song, it's Quran !

we must respect all holly books ! please and be logical and creat some own stuff !

Its bad idea ! its like the end of music creation !!! to mix a holly book with this kind of music ! R I P creativity

Despite being a great song this is, in fact, a pretty big example of cultural appropriation. This is an invalidating collage of meaningful things to groups of people who had no part in making this song. It makes a lot of sense that they would be uncomfortable.