[size=18][b]Post Script to Pop Culture in the Name of Islam [/b][/size]
YVONNE RIDLEY
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

I WANT you to know just how much I agonised over this particular column ... even before I tapped out the first words on my keyboard.

The reason for this personal angst is that I just know I am going to open a can of worms. This is the same can of worms which I opened when I first wrote an article expressing my concern over the pop culture around nasheed artists.

It really caused so much division in the Ummah and threatened to turn some chatrooms, blogging sites and other Internet corners into war zones.

However, I think it would be very remiss of me if I did not revisit this issue just once more time in the light of an amazing feature in the latest issue of Time Magazine.

Time journalist Lindsay Wise gives me a right pasting in the final paragraphs of the article but I'm pretty much immune to the verbal and written batterings I get these days.

But what really caught my eye was the title of the article "Meet Islam's Biggest Rock Star" with the subheading which read: "His song of peace elicit Beatle-sized frenzy in countries where even dancing is forbidden. Now devout Muslim and singing sensation Sami Yusuf brings his message to the US."

It's an interesting article about a forthcoming tour by Sami Yusuf which you can read in full on http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1220754,00.html and then make your own judgment.

But essentially the story confirms all my fears about the pop mania surrounding Nasheed concerts, the behavior of concert goers and the comparison to Beatlemania. Furthermore, it appears the journalist had the full co-operation of 'rock star' Sami Yusuf during a cosey interview in a Humvee ... and the content of the feature tends to contradict what the talented brother said in his 2,000 word response to my original article. Oops Sami, bit of an own goal matey!

For instance the article opens with the words: The concert hall is charged with anticipation. The 5,000 Arabs in the audience break into deafening cheers, stomp their feet, clap their hands and chant "Sa-mi! Sa-mi!" until at last the lights go down. The orchestra swells and Sami Yusuf, 26, emerges through billows of smoke, dressed in a chic black suit and white open-collar shirt. Catching sight of him, the crowd goes crazy, screaming and whistling as though Elvis just entered the building.
The article reveals at one stage: In Yusuf's home base of Cairo, he can no longer walk down the street unmolested. "The attachment people have to Sami is beyond celebrity," observes Sharif Hasan al-Banna, co-founder of the singer's Awakening Records music label.

This is exactly the sort of behavior that I raised my concerns about in the first place ... not Sami Yusuf's singing, his lyrics or his personal life.

If he wants this sort of adulation then that's fine but why doesn't he just admit it in the first place instead of responding with a 2,000+ word response on his website (gosh, doesn't he have a lot of pictures of himself on display?)

Look upon this item as a sort of PS or postscript to my original article. As far as I am concerned that is my final word on the whole music and nasheeds issue which I believe is now being heavily debated by those who know much better than the likes of me.

I am of course referring to learned Muslim scholars across the world.

Now let me get on with the more serious issues of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Chechnya, Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Sudan ... I could go on and no doubt I will in my next article.

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