Muslim Voices in America: The Making of a Modern Music Scene

By Hussein Rashid, Hofstra University

The international flow of music has also introduced Muslim musics to the American soundscape. Qawwali artist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan worked on the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ, and performed with Eddie Veder of Pearl Jam on Dead Man Walking. Bruce Springsteen, on the track “Worlds Apart,” from The Rising, includes qawwali music as a way to consciously counter misperceptions of Muslims. British band Queen, although having no Muslim members, introduced the phrase bismillah, “In the name of God,” into American rock consciousness on their track Bohemian Rhapsody. Of course, one of the emerging areas of relationship between America, Muslims, and music are the transnational flows of music. For example, the lead singer of Pakistani rock band Junoon, Salman Ahmad, credits his time in New York and exposure to various musics as a catalyst for forming the band.

Read at www.muslimvoicesfestival.org

Calgary Canada: Engaging our Youth

From Almoonir Dewji’s blog

The next meeting of the IFNC for this year will be hosted by Calgary’s Sikh Community on Wednesday, February 12th 2009 at the Sikh Society Gurdwara (Old Banff Coach Rd. & 81 St. SW) at 7:30pm.

The issue for discussion will be “Engaging our youth”

The theme for this year is: Issues Arising When Practising Your Faith in 21st Century Calgary

http://www.almoonir.blogspot.com/2009/02/upcoming-interfaith-network-of-calgary.html

A Changing Religious Landscape: Perspectives on the Muslim Experience in North America

Professor Azim Nanji

Abstract
In the last half of the twentieth century, Muslim communities in North America have been increasingly recognised as an established minority rather than a ‘mere exotic presence’. Their ‘encounters’ with their host communities have been multidimensional and consist of a diverse set of experiences. This article explores three dimensions through which Muslims have interacted with their communities of adoption: a) the establishment and creation of community space for prayer and gathering; b) addressing the normative values embodied in family life and tradition within an alternative and primarily secular context of law and rights; and c) recognising the importance of education as a tool for furthering identity and opportunity amidst assimilative national models.

Article at the source.

Local Muslim youth head up blood donation drive

By: The Citizen

Local Muslim youth head up blood donation drive

“This is a way for youth to help locally,” says Aga Khan Youth and Sports organization member Sophia Dayani. The group’s Blood and Bone Marrow Drive for American Red Cross held Sunday at the South Jamatkhana worship center on Flat Creek Trail just outside Peachtree City delivered again this year. Donors gave 55 pints of blood and were joined by 32 people that provided cheek-swabs for possible bone marrow donation. “This is giving back to the community to do whatever we can. We hope it will be beneficial,” said organization member Heena Ali. Photo/Ben Nelms.

http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/33577

Canada: Aga Khan sees hope for Muslim-West relations

Don Cayo , Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, November 24, 2008

Aga Khan, the hereditary leader of the world`s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims pictured during an interview in Toronto.

The spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims says he sees real prospects for new bridges and better relations between Muslim states and the West.

The Aga Khan, touring Canada as part of his celebration of 50 years as Ismaili Muslim leader, said despite the West’s “failure” in Iraq and ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, there are reasons for hope.

One, he said, is growing acceptance on both sides of the divide for his urgent call to combat what Harvard professor Samuel Huntington dubbed “the clash of civilizations” and the Aga Khan terms “the clash of ignorance.”

This is what led to the present situation in Iraq, he said. It was “entirely predictable.”

Education is the key to better relations, he said.

On the Muslim side, he said this involves continuing his 50-year push for acceptance of pluralism and an end to insistence that tribal or ethnic insistence always trump the greater good.

Complete at the source.
dose.ca

The words Muslim and Terrorist are not synonymous

From the Spring, 1998 issue of Media Magazine, the official publication of the Canadian Association of Journalists

Media outlets are frequently criticized for painting crude caricatures of certain groups. Nowhere is that more evident than in stories about Muslims, write Sheherazade Hirji and Noordin Nanji, who say it’s time for journalists to strive for more context when writing stories.

In Alberta, a young Muslim man was elected a member of Parliament in 1997. He is a member of the Reform Party. Also in Alberta, a Muslim man was re-elected to the legislature. He is a Progressive Conservative. In British Columbia, a Muslim woman was nominated as a federal candidate for the Liberal Party.

Pluralism of political thought is taken for granted in Canada. The fact that these candidates were Muslim was not debated during the elections and may not even have occurred to those who voted for them. And unless relevant to the issues, it is quite appropriate that the candidates’ religious beliefs or cultural affiliations were not discussed.

But the media, particularly in the West, seem to have quite a different standard when they report on issues related to what they refer to as the “Muslim world.” Uninformed readers of the Western media can, at times, be forgiven for confusing the terms “Muslim” and “terrorist.” Many of us recall the reckless search for a “Muslim-looking man” following the Oklahoma bombing for which Timothy McVeigh was convicted. Following his arrest, there was neither a retraction nor an apology to all Muslims, not to mention “Muslim-looking” men (whatever that might mean).

Islam has played a significant role in the development of Western civilizations, so one would have hoped for a better understanding in the West about the religion, its history and the evolution of the societies in which it took root. With a little appreciation for this evolution, much of what is going on in the “Muslim world” can be properly contextualized

Complete at Media Magazine – Spring 1998

Sheherazade Hirji and Noordin Nanji are lawyers. Both are volunteers with the Ismaili Council for Canada, an organization responsible for the social governance of the Ismaili Muslim Community in Canada.

Calgary’s First Muslim Art Show

The Western Muslim Magazine will be hosting its first Arts and Culture exhibition at Art Central on October 25, 2008. The Muslim Art Movement will feature a display of 50+ painting and photography pieces from local artists as well as live spoken word and musical performances ranging from traditional to jazz to electronica.

Come interact, socialize, and mingle while experiencing the work of some of the Muslim communities most promising up and coming talent.

http://www.thewesternmuslim.com/index.php/art_movement

Artist Salma Jadavji will be featured at this show. Click here to see earlier story on Salma Jadavji at Ismaili Mail.

Muslim Spaces of Worship and Gathering

There are some amazing photographs of Muslim Spaces of Worship and Gathering available at the source if you click on the picture below (including photographs of Gwadar Jamatkhana in Pakistan).

While the mosque is the site most often associated with Muslim expressions of piety, there are a range of spaces used by Muslim communities – Shi‘a and Sunni – for their worship and gathering. These range from the ashurkhana and zawiya to the khanqah and tekke. While some of these spaces are specific to particular Muslim communities, others are clustered geographically or are prominent amongst particular cultural groups. This gallery, based on fieldwork in ten countries, showcases the richness and diversity of the Muslim umma through the diversity of the spaces used for expressions of piety.

• Geographical Distribution of Images
• The Mosque
• Spaces of Personal Retreat
• Spaces to Commemorate the Martyrdom of Imam Husayn
• The Cemevi
• The Jamatkhana
• The Mevlevihane
• The Khanqah and Zawiya

Complete at the source

Photos from Partnership Day in Hoover Alabama

The Aga Khan Foundation, which is affiliated with the Ismaili Muslims, held an event at Spain Park in Hoover, Alabama Saturday October 4, 2008 in an effort fo raise awareness and money to combat hunger, illness and illiteracy in developing nations. The festival featured an interactive village which recreated life in a poor village in central Asia or east Africa, music, food and children's activities. Portraying mosquitos, Rizwan Ibrahim of Los Angeles, California and Adim Premani of Chicago, Illinois infect people with malaria. Birmingham News Staff Photo, Jeff Roberts

Click here for Slideshow

Earlier related: Partnership Day in Hoover Alabama

Aga Khan Film will premiere at the Beirut International Film Festival

As the divides between the Muslim and non-Muslim world, and within the Muslim world itself, seem to be getting worse – not better – it is time to hear the story of an Islamic spiritual leader who has persevered for fifty years to bridge them. This is the story of His Highness the Aga Khan and the community he leads, the Ismailis, told for the first time through film.

Middle East Premiere at the Beirut International Film Festival.

AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis
directed by multiple Emmy-award winning filmmaker Bill Cran

Beirut International Film Festival, Beirut, Lebanon
Oct 5th – 7:30pm * Oct 6th – 5pm * Oct 7th – 10pm
Empire Sofil – Achrafiyeh
Post-film discussion with Filmmaker/Producer Shamir Allibhai

Trailer: http://www.AgaKhanFilm.org
Blog: http://agakhanfilm.blogspot.com
Screening Schedule: Beirut International 8th Film Festival

All related posts on Tajikistan premiere

Related article: Islam as a mosaic – A look at the Aga Khan and the Ismaili people

Miscellaneous and Interesting Articles

Article # 1

The secret life of a doomed hotel: remembering Islamabad’s Marriott By Mark Corcoran of ABC’s Foreign Correspondent

It’s hard not to get emotional and very difficult to play the dispassionate journalist as I sit here, watching the Marriott Hotel burn on my computer screen courtesy of online news. Initial reports say rescuers still can’t reach the upper floors. How many colleagues, friends, acquaintances lie buried in the wreckage is unclear. [--snip--]

I write this tonight from the safety of a suburban home in Australia. The floors and attic are filled with vibrantly coloured Afghan and Pakistan rugs bought from the carpet wallahs who ran the rug shops along the Marriott’s ground floor arcade.

The real bargains lay far from the hotel, in their warehouses off in the backstreets. Most of the traders, like the owner of the Marriott, were from Islam’s Ismaili sect: astute, outstanding businessmen and great survivors. [--snip--]

Unlike me, a privileged visitor, they choose to continue living and working in Pakistan, facing the constant threat of the assassin’s bullet or bomb – over the safer, quieter life of exile. They are some of the bravest people I know. [--source--].

[--Comment: A very emotional article written by a journalist who called this Hotel his second home]

Article # 2

Discrimination against Muslims in Saudi Arabia – Though tentative steps towards tolerance have been made, the plight of Saudi Ismailis shows how far the country has to go – By Christoph Wilcke, Guardian UK

[--snip--] Saudi Arabia’s Ismailis are estimated to number up to one million, mostly living in the southwestern Najran province, a remote area which was the House of Saud’s last territorial conquest, in 1934. The Ismaili community is a subset of the country’s Muslim Shia minority, which represents 10 to 15% of the Saudi population. Discrimination against Ismailis is part of a pattern of discrimination against the wider Shia community. [--source--].

[--Comment: The article refers to Sulemani/Najrani Ismailis of Saudi Arabia, Yemeni descent. They are not Nizari Ismailis].

Article # 3

‘Ismaili Lunar Calendar’: An ideal base to unite the ‘Ummah’ – Part I – By Dr. Qazi Shaikh Abbas Borhany PhD (USA), NDI, Shahadat al A’alamiyyah (Najaf, Iraq), M.A., LLM (Shariah) Member, Ulama Council of Pakistan.

The purpose of the following dialogue is to promote tolerance and intellectual understanding among the Muslim community of the global village. The Modern World humiliates the Muslims with the fact that while astronauts have landed the Moon, and other scientists are busy in discoveries of the universe, majority of the Muslims are still following the directions of the clergy, regarding the sighting of the Moon, instead of following the scientific course, upon which religion of Islam is based. [--snip--]

It was Bani Fatimah who realized the need of the Lunar Calendar, and they introduced it to the world at large, as soon as they established their vast Empire, even spreading across Europe. This Lunar Calendar remained in practice officially for more than 225 years, in North Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean. The same calendar is in practice officially by the Ismaili Nizaries & Musta’alavis (Dawoodi, Sulaiymani, & Alavi). The notable powerful dynasty of the Sumrahs of Sindh (Pakistan) followed the Lunar Calendar from 365(A.H) to 974(A.H) for more than 609 years, and without any alteration. [--source--].

[--Comment: Seems like a good advise.]

Article # 4

His Excellency Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General 0f the Organisation 0f the Islamic conference appreciating United States Special Envoy Sada Cumber and his work in his speech at Columbia University.

[--snip--] I sincerely hope that the dedicated efforts of Special Envoy Ambassador Sada Cumber will be allowed to bear lasting fruits. That may require consideration by the next US administration of extension of this useful mechanism. I have always believed that the United States epitomizes one of the best examples of how peoples of differing faiths and ethnic backgrounds can live, work and interact within a spirit of a unified community. We are ready to do our best to cooperate to strengthen this praiseworthy character of the US society and fostering mutual understanding with the Muslim World. [--source--]

Atlanta: Muslim group feeding 1,000 homeless on Saturday

Haniyyah Abdul-Aziz (from left), Zaheerah Aleem and Khayriyyah Faiz were among women preparing vegetables in Decatur on Wednesday to feed hundreds of the homeless downtown on Saturday - Johnny Crawford - jcrawford@ajc.com

Charity during Ramadan: 200 volunteers from 36 mosques will help with downtown event

Over the last few days, Muslims from across metro Atlanta have gathered in homes and mosques to prepare food and care packages for the city’s hungry and homeless.

It’s all in preparation for a giant feast today in downtown Atlanta. Organizers are hoping to feed 1,000 people.

The local effort has brought together about 200 volunteers from the 36 mosques scattered across metro Atlanta. It’s part of the Muslim community’s focus on charity during the month of Ramadan, the religion’s most holy month and a time of spiritual reflection, daytime fasting and good deeds.

–snip–

Ismailis split from the Shia in about A.D. 765 in another dispute over leadership. Their present leader the Aga Khan, who visited Atlanta this year, is one of the world’s richest men and a leading philanthropist, overseeing 325 schools, two universities, nine hospitals and 190 clinics and operating businesses around the world.

An estimated 5,000 Ismailis make Georgia their home.

Complete at the source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

5 million US Muslims seek voice in OIC – Interview with Sada Cumber, US special envoy to OIC

Interview with Malaysian Newspaper.

America’s first ever US special envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Conference, Sada Cumber, was in Kuala Lumpur recently. He talked to NISHA SABANAYAGAM about how the Muslim world has moved from an open society to a closed one.

Q: You have visited many countries in recent times. What have you discovered about the Muslim world?

A: There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and they occupy 22 per cent of the land mass. And yet the total gross domestic product of this group is a little over seven per cent of the world.

About 70 per cent of the natural resources come from this 22 per cent land mass and yet the total exports are a little over US$800 billion (RM2.66 trillion).

I have been to over 23 countries in the last five months and have never seen or learnt so much in my life about diversity in Islam. We are still engaged in issues such as who is a better or lesser Muslim.

It is imperative that Muslims should have an intra-faith dialogue among ourselves. Only then should we be engaging in inter-faith dialogue. We, who have taken the same stand in recognising the unity of Allah, should be united. We need to work for economic strength and education.

Complete at The New Straits Times Online.

Who speaks for Islam: Part I – Gulf News

By John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
Published: September 05, 2008, 00:21

What do the world’s one billion Muslims really think? What does the silent majority of Muslims want for their lives, and in their politics? Why are the aspirations of the vast majority of Muslims in direct contrast to most of the world’s impressions of Muslims?

In this five-part series, carried every Friday during Ramadan, Gulf News publishes excerpts from the fascinating conclusions of the largest ever opinion survey of the world’s Muslims, carried out by Gallup. Who speaks for Islam by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed was published by Gallup Press.

Islam’s silenced majority

New book makes a case for democratising the debate about 9/11 and its after-effects.

…

Religiously, Muslims are Sunni (85%), who are the majority in most Muslim countries, or Shia (15%) who are a majority in Iran.

Further adding to the diversity, Shia Islam later split into three main divisions: the Zaydis, the Ismailis, whose leader today is the Harvard-educated Aga Khan; and the Ithna Ashari, who are majorities in Iran and Iraq.

Complete at the source

Ismaili Wedding – Andrew R. Slaton | Photographer

Last weekend, I traveled to Richmond, Virginia to shoot an Ismaili wedding.  Ismailis are a sect of Shia Muslims, and these folks in particular were mostly of Pakistani/ Indian origins. It was a very interesting experience. everyone was incredibly hospitable, and I really enjoyed observing a different culture.

travel updates « andrew r. slaton | photographer

images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2008

Calgary Canada: Bridges To a Common Future

From Almoonir Dewji’s blog

You are invited to join us in building a common future founded on trust and understanding. Let’s make Calgary a city that shines with hope for future generations.

Come to an evening of hospitality hosted by members of the Muslim and Christian communities in Calgary in conjunction with Initiatives of Change – where we hope to bring the lens through which we view each other into focus with the help of the film:

The Imam & the Pastor.

Sunday June 22, 2008
4 pm to 6 pm
South Calgary Community Association
3130 16 Street SW
Free Admission

More at the source

Ali to Karim – A Tribute to the Ismaili Imams

From the official website of the Ismaili Muslim Community

Using the experimental medium of visual projection, ALI TO KARIM transports viewers to 8th century Arabia, 12th century Persia and 17th century France. Spectators will lose themselves in a lyrical world that draws on legends and tales, poetry and paintings, film and historical sources.

Developed in London, the cast of ALI TO KARIM includes an ensemble of established performers from the United Kingdom, supported by a group of talented Jamati actors from the United States.

ALI TO KARIM, a Golden Jubilee International Programme, will tour the United States, premiering in Los Angeles on 19 July 2008. Hosted by the Ismaili Council for the USA, the production will travel to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Orlando and New York this summer.

Source

Timbuktu, Mali

Complete article at New York Times.

Some more relevant and informational links below

Timbuktu Hopes Ancient Texts Spark a Revival

The geography that has doomed Timbuktu to obscurity in the popular imagination for half a millennium was once the reason for its greatness. It was founded as a trading post by nomads in the 11th century and later became part of the vast Mali Empire, then ultimately came under the control of the Songhai Empire.

For centuries it flourished because it sat between the great superhighways of the era — the Sahara, with its caravan routes carrying salt, cloth, spices and other riches from the north, and the Niger River, which carried gold and slaves from the rest of West Africa.

Traders brought books and manuscripts from across the Mediterranean and Middle East, and books were bought and sold in Timbuktu — in Arabic and local languages like Songhai and Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg people.

Timbuktu was home to the University of Sankore, which at its height had 25,000 scholars. An army of scribes, gifted in calligraphy, earned their living copying the manuscripts brought by travelers. Prominent families added those copies to their own libraries. As a result, Timbuktu became a repository of an extensive and eclectic collection of manuscripts.

“Astronomy, botany, pharmacology, geometry, geography, chemistry, biology,” said Ali Imam Ben Essayouti, the descendant of a family of imams that keeps a vast library in one of the city’s mosques. “There is Islamic law, family law, women’s rights, human rights, laws regarding livestock, children’s rights. All subjects under the sun, they are represented here.”

• Video: From America To Timbuktu
• Video: A short visit to Timbuktu, Mali
• Video: High school boy travels to Timbuktu, the city in Mali, West Africa
• Video: Traveling in Mali – Niger River. This footage was taken on a 3 day trip from Mopti to Timbuktu on a cargo pinasse
• Video of Aga Khan in Mali

WEBSITE / INFORMATION /Articles/ VIDEOS / MEDIA / Other Resources

• PBU: http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_gt.htm
• Libraries of Timbuktu: http://www.sum.uio.no/timbuktu/index.html
• BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1911321.stm
• Resources/Info: http://www.timbuktufoundation.org/
• Article: http://africanhistory.about.com/od/mali/p/Timbuktu.htm
• Photos: http://www.danheller.com/timbuktu.html

The modern concept of the Hospital was introduced by Muslims

The modern concept of the hospital was introduced by Muslims.

The medicine of the medieval Islamic civilization was built primarily on Greek medicine, in particular the writings of Hippocrates and Galen. The most significant contribution of the Islamic civilization to medicine was the establishment of the hospital for the treatment of patients and for training of physicians. Hospices for the sick, poor, travelers, and orphans had existed in Byzantium and were the model for the Umayyad caliph Walid’s (reigned 705-715) charitable institution for the care of lepers, the blind, and the inform.

The first hospital however, was built in Baghdad by Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786-809). This was soon followed by several other hospitals all over the Islamic world including the Adudi hospital in Baghdad, which was founded in 982. Another great hospital, the Nasiri hospital of Cairo, was completed in 1284. It had separate wards for fever, opthalmia, surgical cases, and dysentery, and also housed a pharmacy, a mosque, and a library. It had a large administrative staff, lecture halls and attendants of both genders.

Source: A.Nanji, “Muslim Philosophy and the Sciences,”

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=106391

Florida State University welcomes author and speaker Eboo Patel

Florida State University’s College of Social Sciences, the Claude Pepper Center for Intercultural Dialogue, and the Shepard and Ruth K. Broad International Lecture Series welcomed Eboo Patel, author and activist for religious pluralism, Friday, Feb. 22 to speak to the FSU community regarding “The Faith Line: The Need for a Different Conversation on Religion.”

Patel studied on a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University, where he received a doctorate in the sociology of religion. He published the book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation in 1997.

—–

This “build, equip, cultivate” goal is fostered by what Patel calls the “shared values” approach where storytelling is utilized to ignite dialogue between factions of religions that are experiencing friction.

“There should be a continually, mutually enriching conversation, where we’re sharing stories back and forth on what inspires us to come to the great universal values of all of these world religions,” said Patel.

Patel also noted that differences between religions should not be the main topic of discussion.

“Muslims, Christians, Jews and others are just going to have to learn that they have irreconcilable theological differences, and that’s perfectly fine,” said Patel. “But why should that shape the framework of our discussion, as opposed to the ‘shared values’ framework? My Muslim stories of mercy and compassion take nothing away from your Christian stories, nothing away from your Jewish stories.”

Patel also maintains the importance of learning to mobilize the information once it has been unearthed through storytelling.

“The knowledge of how different traditions have shared value systems is only as good as the people that are putting that knowledge into action,” said Patel.

Patel stressed this transition from idea into action.

“We need to have a layer of people who know how to organize people from different religious backgrounds together to take action on those shared values,” explained Patel. “It’s not just mercy in the abstract; it’s tutoring a child. It’s not just hospitality as a theme; it’s going to build a house.”

Complete at the source.
Earlier related post.