Something written not so long ago....
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Pop Star Bashing Gets Blessings and Bombs
YVONNE RIDLEY
Friday, May 26, 2006
MY e-mail inbox has been overflowing these past few weeks on a subject that seems to have gripped the Muslim world since I gave it an airing in this newspaper.
Muslims Weekly is published in New York, but its readers are around the world. I've had to switch off my cell phone and no longer answer my landline because of the volume of calls. From Melbourne to Medina, from Baghdad to Birmingham, from Fallujah to Florida, and from every major town and city where Muslims reside, I've been inundated. There's even a rap song doing the rounds, and blogs are emerging throughout the Internet on the subject. Last week I was in Qatar, and I was asked about it; and then on the weekend I went to Copenhagen in Denmark for an international conference, and it was a topic of conversation with several circles. Even an imam I met from Norway's northern city Tromso (known as "the Land of the Midnight Sun" because it is north of the Arctic Circle) had read the column.
In my 30 years of journalism, I haven't had this volume of reaction to anything I have ever written before. What made this international response even more rewarding was the fact that 98 per cent of all writers, callers, and message-droppers were in support of, or largely approved of, what I had written. The subject that riled so many was about the pop culture that I believe is growing around some so-called Nasheed artists. Of course, I used the term ‘Nasheed artists' very lightly and opted for the terms "Islamic boy bands" and "Muslim popsters" instead. I called the group Mecca2Medina a "boy band," and --boy, oh boy!-- were they rattled! The boys --oops, sorry-- the guys have now produced a rap song rapping me and insisting that they "ain't no boy band." Point taken. For the record, they are an Islamic Hip Hop and Ragga Band; I checked out their website and am still being counseled from the experience.
The pop culture article sparked a debate across the globe about music and Islam and what is haram. I mentioned that many eminent scholars throughout history had declared that music is haram, and for that I was called a "burnt-out Salafi" by one enraged individual.
My editor expects me, as a columnist, to be provocative and produce thoughtful articles; otherwise, readers would simply switch off and read something else. The article stimulated a debate across the Ummah, and that can't be bad. The article was never meant to demonize singer Sami Yusuf, who does have a beautiful voice, mash'Allah. But he was asking for it when he urged his audience to cheer loudly if they were proud to be British. As I pointed out, Britain is the third most hated country in the world. The Union Jack is drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our history is steeped in the blood of colonialism, rooted in slavery, brutality, torture, and oppression. And we haven't had a decent game of soccer since we lifted the World Cup in 1966. (With a bit of luck, that last point might change as the World Cup in Germany is fast approaching).
I asked why Sami was so proud to be British -not an unreasonable question, I thought. Someone wrote and told me that he is actually an Azeri and not born in Britain. Yet he does describe himself on his website as a British singer, and his Wikpedia entry is rather vague. He does dwell in that great Middle Eastern democracy of Egypt where he'd end up singing like a boy soprano if he freely expressed any sort of opinion against the regime there.
The debate is still raging, and scholars are now becoming embroiled in this one. I feel that, it spite of fatwas, the issue will continue unresolved. I do hope that management companies across the West think twice before trying to turn Nasheed concerts into pop events or turn their singers into pop idols. I am not a scholar, and I doubt I ever will be one, and, as a Muslim, I'm barely three years old, but one of the first things I learned is that we idolize or worship none but Allah (swt).
I am truly grateful for the stimulating debate and the genuine interest shown in the pros and cons of the growing pop culture around nasheed artists; however, I would have been much happier if I had had a similar response when I first told the world, in this column, of the atrocities going on in Abu Ghraib, or the scandal of the Ghost Detainees, or the use of chemical weapons and war crimes being carried out in Fallujah. Perhaps it is a sad indictment or even a true reflection on the state of the Ummah that we get so steamed up about boy bands, hip hop ragga-whatevers, music in Islam, etc., when there's so much more to make us angry instead.
