Last month they detained him. Yesterday, Saudi religious scholars have condemned an Arab television “Star Academy” competition as a crime against Islam and urged the Saudi Arabian pop singer who triumphed last month to repent. More than 60 sheikhs rounded on the fresh-faced Hisham Abdulrahman, whose victory in the Star Academy reality show triggered the closest thing to pop hysteria seen in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. In a statement posted on the Saudi news Web site Al-Wifaq (www.al-wifaq.net), they also criticized the “depraved” Lebanese television station which broadcast the show.

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