Over the Soul of Islam

By Huma Yusuf, " The Lahore blast and Taliban ideology " Dawn.com Blog - Karachi, Pakistan
Friday, June 12, 2009

The fight against the Taliban on ideological battlegrounds poses a grave challenge

Scan newspapers and blogs in recent months and you’ll see that the fight against the Taliban in north-west Pakistan has been framed as a ‘war against terror’ or an ‘information war’ over the ‘hearts and minds’ of residents of the Frontier province.

Op-eds have argued that the Pakistan Army is fighting the Taliban to restore territorial integrity, safeguard human rights, ensure good governance and establish the writ of the Pakistani state. Books and articles point out that Taliban foot soldiers are young men, lured to militancy by hefty cash dole-outs in the absence of other job opportunities. Indeed, one aspect of the fight against the Taliban has almost been forgotten in recent months – its ideological underpinnings.

The suicide bombing at the Jamia Naeemia mosque in Lahore on Friday, in which the head cleric Dr Sarfraz Naeemi lost his life, is an urgent reminder that the fight against the Taliban is nothing less than a battle for the future of Islam and how the religion is to be practiced and interpreted in Pakistan.

Events in recent months – such as the fiasco of the passage of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation and increased focus on the Taliban’s funding sources – have made many Pakistanis cynical about their motives. In some quarters, the militants are viewed as money- and power-hungry warlords, hell-bent on claiming territory and control (and revelling in the wealth that Swat’s emerald mines have to offer). But Friday’s blast confirms that Pakistan’s militants are primarily on a broad ideological mission to impose, consolidate and spread their preferred interpretation of Islam.

Dr. Naeemi was not targeted by suicide bombers because he could offer them cash, territory, new recruits, communications technology or weapons. He was targeted because he opposed the Taliban ideology, consistently and brazenly. Earlier this month, he led a rally in Lahore condemning the Taliban. Members of two dozen parties comprising a Sunni alliance known as Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz gathered behind Dr. Naeemi as he criticised the Taliban, demanded the eradication of militancy and expressed vociferous support for the military operation in Swat.

For opposing the Taliban ideology – and having the clerical clout that makes his opposition significant – Dr. Naeemi was killed by a suicide bomber in his own office on the premises of the Jamia Naeemi mosque.

He isn’t the first cleric who shuns extremist Islamic views to be assassinated, and he won’t be the last.

In fact, the practice of targeting influential clerics with contradicting ideas has been flourishing among Afghan Taliban for several years now. Clerics of the Ulema Shura, a body comprising two thousand religious leaders that opposed the Taliban ‘jihad’, were regularly killed by militants in Afghanistan. Their support for Hamid Karzai’s government and a softer interpretation of Islam ‘displeased’ Taliban commanders who would ‘kill them’ to ‘obtain silence’.

For good or for bad, it’s time Pakistanis realised that once the dust settles in the wake of the Rah-e-Rast operation, the war against the Taliban will continue on ideological battlegrounds. And Friday’s blast reaffirms that these are not metaphorical battlegrounds, confined to the column inches of scholarly journals or the lecture halls of universities. These battlegrounds will take the form of mosques and madrassahs. They have already taken the form of Sufi shrines.

Recently, analysts have criticised the fact that politicians and political parties defer to religious councils to support their secular stance against the Taliban. For example, the MQM, despite its secular credentials, convened an ulema convention to speak out against Taliban infiltration. Similarly, the Pakistan government recently created a seven-member Sufi Advisory Council aimed at combating Talibanisation by spreading Sufi teachings instead. These efforts have been maligned because they “add yet another layer of religious governance to a country wracked by religious conflict” and further entangle religion and the state.

No doubt, having the Pakistan government champion and concretise one interpretation of Islam as the ‘correct’ one in an effort to stamp out extremist interpretations is a dangerous idea. But those who genuinely want to see the eradication of the Pakistani Taliban – liberals, moderates, and those who advocate for the separation of the church and state included – cannot now shy away from an ideological battle.

It is increasingly apparent that the struggle for a Pakistan free of militancy is conflated with a struggle over the soul of Islam. For that reason, in addition to military operations that target Taliban methodology (bombings, attacks, killings), the government – and the people of Pakistan – will have to jointly engage in ijtehad to devise a way to quash Taliban ideology.

The only Option

By Nauman Tasleem, " Anti-Taliban views cost Mufti Naeemi his life " - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan
Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lahore: The military must eliminate Taliban once and for all and Sufi Muhammad should wear bangles if he is hiding like a woman, Mufti Sarfraz Naeemi had expressed these views in a convention a couple of days ago.

Mufti Naeemi was strictly against the Taliban and their self-imposed sharia. He had time and again condemned the US but was clearly against suicide attacks. He also gave a fatwa (edict) against suicide bombings.

“Those who commit suicide attacks for attaining paradise will go to hell, as they kill many innocent people,” Naeemi had said. Unfortunately, Naeemi also fell victim to one such suicide attack.

Naeemi had several rallies to condemn the Taliban-style sharia. He favoured the military action in Swat. In a rally taken out by Tahafuz Namus-e-Risalat Mahaz (TNRM) on June 2, Naeemi had said, “Taliban have caused an irreparable loss to Islam and those who speak about stopping the operation in Swat are not true patriots.”

He had also said Sufi Muhammad, Fazlullah and Baitullah Mehsud were traitors and enemies of Pakistan and the army operation was the only option to save the country from them. Naeemi had said if Taliban were not eradicated they would capture the entire country. He had vowed to protect the country if the army failed.

“The Ahle Sunnat clerics should come forward and protect Islam and Pakistan,” he had said.

He also criticised those religious leaders who opposed the military action and said they were siding with Taliban.

“They (religious leaders defending Taliban) deliberately remained silent when the schools were closed, property was destroyed, the bodies were hanged, the shrines were bombed, women were raped and the allies of Pir Saifur Rehman were killed,” he had said.

I Bring what I Love

Elizabeth O'Neill, " HuffPost Review: Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love " - The Huffington Post - New York, NY, USA
Friday, June 12, 2009

High noon in Touba, Senegal at the country's most holy Islamic site and the air is thick and hot.

Through it, the thousands of bodies bent in prayer flicker as the Imam projects a melodic chant over the loudspeaker.

It's almost impossible to picture Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi with a cinematographer pinched between this sea of religious pilgrims to capture rare footage of "the grand magal," a rite of deep religious importance in Senegal and an event that provides some of the most striking imagery for her latest, first feature-length documentary, Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love.

The difficulty viewers may have in picturing anyone behind a camera throughout the film speaks to the intimate and illuminating glimpses Vasarhelyi offers into her subject's life.

The film finds N'Dour, the devout Senegalese Sufi artist, at a trying moment in his musical career: the release of his Grammy-award-winning album Egypt (2004). Vasarhelyi follows N'Dour through West Africa, Europe, the US, Egypt, Morocco and Singapore as he performs the new material. While his hypnotic fusion of traditional Senegalese syncopation and the reeds, strings and flutes from Cairo's Fathy Salam Orchestra are revered abroad, his recordings and advertisements are buried at home.

Suspicion and outrage break out in the Senegalese community over the religious content of Egypt and many scoff at N'Dour's attempt to deconstruct the boundary between popular culture and the sacred messages of Islam. But in a post-9/11 world, when mainstream media promotes such a distorted and violent image of the Islamic faith, N'Dour insists that his mission could not have come at a more crucial time.

The film begins as a biography. We get a brief background of N'Dour through interviews with his family, friends and fellow musicians. He comes from a long line of mystic griot Sufi storytellers (on his mother's side) who preserve cultural history through song.

N'Dour, with his distinctively electrifying voice, proved early on his gift to inspire through music. He was influenced not only by his own Sufi roots, but also by urban Senegalese dance rhythms known as mblax, American jazz, soul and rock.

By his early twenties, Youssou formed the band Super Etoile de Dakar (Super Star of Dakar), and it was through their irresistible blend of traditional and new sounds that N'Dour gained international attention. He went on to collaborate with artists like Peter Gabriel, Sting and Bruce Springsteen.

But the soul of Vasarhelyi's documentary lies not in its biography, but in its provoking exploration of the conflicts N'Dour faces as he is praised abroad and reproached at home. Traveling with just one cinematographer, Vasarhelyi captures some deeply personal features of N'Dour's life, including several poignant scenes with his ailing griot grandmother, and his strict father who initially discouraged his aspirations to become a singer.

I Bring What I Love challenges the notion that contemporary pop culture is a sexualized arena that corrupts values and disgraces religion, and presents it instead as a powerfully positive force with the ability to unify and influence people across the globe.

Vasarhelyi's production is both visually and acoustically stimulating, including exhilarating concert footage from N'Dour's Egypt tour and an original score composed by Emmy winner Martin Davich (Trinity), six-time Academy Award nominee James Newton Howard (Blood Diamond) and N'Dour's musical collaborator, French composer and musician Jean Phillipe Rykiel.

This vibrant presentation of Youssou N'Dour's journey affirms the power of music to transcend political and religious war and, perhaps more importantly, exposes an eclectic and mystical face of Islam in a time when the world may need it most.

[Visit the Film official website: http://www.ibringwhatilove.com/]

What I Felt Was Love

By Cenk Erdem, " Loreena McKennitt bringing ‘An Ancient Muse' to Turkey, northern Cyprus " - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Friday, June 12, 2009

Turkish music lovers have as of late been feeling that Loreena McKennitt is getting closer to them through references to Turkish culture in her songs.

In her 2006 CD, “An Ancient Muse,” the Canadian singer-songwriter, known for her unique style, which combines Celtic music and Eastern melodies, looks through “the gates of İstanbul” and makes references to important figures from this land, such as Sultan Mehmed II and Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. The Turkish musical instruments ud and kanun were also used in the album.

Now, around three years after the release of “An Ancient Muse,” McKennitt is preparing to salute her Turkish fans in three concerts this weekend as part of her ongoing Mediterranean tour.

Her first appearance, coming some 13 years after she last performed here at the İstanbul Jazz Festival, is set for Saturday evening at İstanbul's Cemil Topuzlu Open-air Theater. McKennitt's İstanbul appearance, a joint effort by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (İKSV) and artist management company Pasion Turca, will be followed by a Bursa gig on Sunday evening. McKennitt will perform as part of the 48th International Bursa Festival at the Kültürpark Open-air Theater. And early next week, on Tuesday, McKennitt will appear at northern Cyprus' 13th Gazimağusa (Famagusta) Culture and Art Festival at the ancient Salamis theater.

McKennitt spoke in a warm and sincere interview with Today's Zaman ahead of her Turkey concerts.

In 1985, you formed your own recording company and recorded a nine-song cassette of your own, which you then sold through your own efforts. Were you able to dream of such success in those days?
Definitely not. Actually, there is a dangerous aspect to being known by everyone. People might think I'm really extraordinary, or just incredible, when actually there are all sorts of people who are truly extraordinary, but who are not known by everyone. I just use my songs as a way of expressing myself, and I am an ordinary person, like anyone else. And I am not trying here for humility, because actually I am very happy when people enjoy my songs.

Many of your songs make interesting references to past times in life. For example, in the song “Bonny Portmore,” there is a description of how it used to be that British people would mourn for lost groves of oak trees, which turns into a kind of call to save the forests of today. When picking your songs, do you choose songs that include messages that relate to today's world?
I am not an authority on these matters, but I love to learn and discover the various aspects of history. My own personal interest in history helps me to discover the relationship between the past and the present, so first I try to learn and then I rely on what I have learned. The wars, religions and politics of the past serve as a guide to our lives today.

Your musical projects have you traveling about like a professional travel writer, but you seem to be especially interested in the Celtic roots present in the places you visit. What is the magic in Celtic music that motivates you so strongly?
Actually, I never imagined being a singer, but when I started to discover traditional music, I fell under its trance. I was so influenced when I encountered an international exhibition of traditional Celtic crafts in 1991 in Venice. When I saw there that in fact Celtic roots stretched all the way to Central and Eastern Europe, this really had a strong influence on me. Celtic music is just so strong and has such a powerful psychological effect. I suppose I could say I was entranced by Celtic music.

In addition to the presence of Celtic music at the heart of your style, there are also various Eastern influences in your songs. How would you describe your own style?
Well, it's very difficult to describe. Sadly, the propensity to categorize music is one of the unfortunate necessities of the music industry. I think definitions are quite relative, but I guess I could say my music is filled with Irish and Celtic melodies, and in a way, I also fill my music with Eastern melodies and phenomena. The Eastern dimension to my music is tied to history and is really based on my own impressions.

What is it that feeds your creativity?
Situations I face sometimes inspire me. Sometimes a very powerful book will influence me, or it could also be a story I hear someone tell. One such powerful book for me was Thomas Cahill's “How the Irish Saved Civilization.” I was powerfully influenced by the story I heard of a street girl in Dublin in 1982, and in 1989, I made an album from this. I am quite moved by the stories I hear about street children.

There are Greek musicians who play in your most recent studio album, and in fact, in addition to the lyra, which is much like the Turkish kemençe, there is also the ud and the kanun. All these different instruments give listeners the feeling and sense of İstanbul. In your own words, how would you describe İstanbul?
Well, it's wonderful if my album does give the feeling of İstanbul; after all, I had specifically aimed for this in my song “The Gates of İstanbul.” I love the various differences and the combination of these differences that you feel in İstanbul. The unity of it all existing at one time, the past and all this tradition existing at the same time as nightlife and night clubs where music is played and there is every sort of technology. And of course, the Celtic dimensions that exist in İstanbul's own past draw me, too.

In your song “The Gates of İstanbul,” you put the focus on the era of Sultan Mehmed II. What exactly is it that you want to describe in this song?
I am not an academic, so the aspects of this period that I can talk about are limited, but I suppose I can work as a catalyst in encouraging others to learn more about this period. With this song, I just try to express through music what I know about that era. The era of Sultan Mehmet II was a kind of renaissance period for art and music, and I wanted to recognize that era.

Also, your song “Sacred Shabbat” contains a very recognizable melody from the Turkish song “Katibim” (also known as “Üsküdar'a Giderken”). What is the story behind this beautiful song?
The original version of this song may be quite different, but I heard it for the first time in Athens, and then I heard the same melody in Spain. This song may be linked with Spanish Jews, and many of them came to Ottoman lands. As a whole, this song reminded me of the Mediterranean, and while this song may be connected to different stories and different historical relationships on these lands, I still wanted to use this melody, known all over the Mediterranean, to illuminate a different era in history. What this all meant in the end was the emergence of a song which remembered the final eras of the Ottoman Empire.

Some of the songs on your album also make reference to Mevlana; as a songwriter, how are you affected by Sufism?
Just as I fell under the influence of Celtic music, it's as though instinctively I was ready to be influenced by Mevlana and Sufism: pure and full of love. What I felt was love. I can't describe it any other way.

How does the work you do help your own self-awareness? Are you reflected entirely in your albums, or are you still searching for yourself?
There are mysteries which are never revealed to us. What we have to do is accept all the treasures and mysteries of this world. All I do is use the tools provided by the mortal world to reflect back on people that which already exists. I discover my own personal methods to share these things with people, and I continue to discover. There are mysteries that exist beyond our comprehension.

Will there be any surprises during your concerts in Turkey and northern Cyprus?
The songs in these concerts will mostly be from “An Ancient Muse.” I want to invite some surprise Turkish musician guests on stage with me at my concerts. I am not making any promises, but we are talking currently, and I am hoping for that sort of surprise. You will hear some songs that are very close to your heart, and there will be some very different musicians all in one place. My guitarist, Brian Hughes, is actually a jazz musician. There will be a Greek musician playing the lyra, which, as you said, is very close to the Turkish kemençe. Hugh Marsh is a great violinist. I am expecting and dreaming of wonderful concerts in Turkey.

In Religious Terms

By Ali Eteraz, " State-Sponsored Sufism " - Foreign Policy - USA
Thursday, June 11, 2009

(Ed. note: See Sufi News, June 13, for a brief Dawn.com article by Ahmad Hassan about the setting up of the Sufi Advisory Council [SAC] "Government to set up Sufi Advisory Council." This previously published article does not have the pessimistic opinion of the SAC that Ali Eteraz expresses in his article below.)

Why are U.S. think tanks pushing for state-sponsored Islam in Pakistan?

Once certain ideas go mainstream, it often takes a pretty big flop to disprove them. The United States was supposed to be hailed as the liberator of Iraq, just as it was going to be easy to turn Afghanistan into a democracy.

Well now, according to commentators from the BBC to the Economist to the Boston Globe, Sufism, being defined as Islam's moderate or mystical side, is apparently just the thing we need to deal with violent Muslim extremists. Sufis are the best allies to the West, these authors say; support them, and countries as diverse as Pakistan and Somalia could turn around.

The Sufi theory has a lot of variations, but at its core, it's pretty simple: Violent Muslim extremism, rather than having material and political bases, is caused by certain belligerent readings of Islam usually associated with Salafism, a movement that attempts to resurrect the Islam of the prophet Mohammed's time, and Wahhabism, a similarly conservative branch. If Muslims can be indoctrinated with another, softer, interpretation of Islam, then the militants, insurgents, and guerrilla fighters will melt away.

Well, these pundits have gotten their wish. Pakistan just announced the creation of a seven-member Sufi Advisory Council (SAC) that is meant to combat the Taliban insurgency by spreading Sufi "thoughts and teachings." The SAC's predecessor was a Musharraf-era PR stunt called the National Sufi Council that was headed by a rather feudal Punjabi politician -- the group did little more than print a few calendars and hold a musical gala in Lahore.

It is not yet clear whether the seven-member SAC, which met for the first time June 9, will be independent of the country's Council of Islamic Ideology, a body outlined in Pakistan's 1973 Constitution that advises whether laws are consistent with sharia. But if the SAC does become an official organ, it will add yet another layer of religious governance to a country wracked by religious conflict.

The creation of the SAC is not good news. It signals an increase in the politicization of Islam in Pakistan -- if a higher level is even possible. Now, even the pietist and welfare-oriented groups that have traditionally abstained from overindulging in government affairs will be tempted to become mouthpieces for corrupt political actors. For evidence, look no further than the SAC's new head, a former minister from the regime of ultra-Wahhabi dictator Zia ul-Haq, whose promotion probably has nothing to do with mysticism and more to do with the fact that he has called for Sufi Mohammed of Swat to be tried on charges of mutiny. It is exactly the sort of politicization of religion that has led to so many problems in Pakistan since independence in 1947.

The usual response by supporters of the Sufi solution is that thanks to the extremists, Islam has already been politicized, and therefore propagandist measures promoting Sufism are the only way to fight back.

But that's precisely the problem: Propaganda is inherently discrediting. Besides, state-sponsored Sufism (which the SAC is) gets everything backward: In an environment where demagogues are using religion to conceal their true political and material ambitions, establishing another official, "preferred" theological ideology won't roll back their influence. Minimizing the role of all religion in government would be a better idea. Only then could people begin to speak about rights and liberty.

The opposite is now happening in Pakistan, fomenting an ongoing religious civil war. The SAC will undoubtedly embolden extremists by giving them ideological motivation: They now have evidence to provide young recruits and foot soldiers that the "war" they are fighting is, in fact, about the integrity of Islam. Far from reducing extremists' influence, the SAC is doing them a favor.

This is quite apparent in the types of cases -- or rather, spats -- that the Sufi Advisory Council will now adjudicate. Take for example a recent accusation by Syed Munawar Hassan, the head of the fundamentalist organization Jamat-e-Islami, that Sufi Mohammed, the man behind the recent imposition of sharia law in Swat, is "a little infidel." Substance is hardly at the heart of this debate.

It's not that Sufism in and of itself can't help. In the private sphere, it is welcome, laudable, and indeed quite beautiful to behold. But the SAC did not spring out of an internal debate among religious scholars in Pakistan. It came instead from American think tanks -- like Rand and Heritage Foundation -- intent on exploiting sectarian divisions in various Muslim countries, because they insist on addressing the war on terror in religious terms.

Interestingly enough, another early advocate of this approach was none other than Benazir Bhutto. Despite having a Shiite heritage, she became a member of a traditionally Sufi -- and Sunni -- Pakistani organization called Minhaj ul-Quran (check out this YouTube video of her meeting with Minhaj leaders, in which she doesn't have enough cash on her to cover the fees). I believe that her reasons for joining Minhaj were part of a larger plan -- laid out in her book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West -- to use religious forces to her political advantage.

After all, that impulse is precisely what led Bhutto to give the stamp of approval to the Taliban in the mid-1990s -- and led her father to declare Islam the state religion of Pakistan in 1973. Today is no different.

As Ayesha Siddiqa, a leading Pakistani commentator, has presciently noted, beginning a "faith war" between Sufi and Salafi in Pakistan would simply drive more youth toward fundamentalism.

In short, after years of bemoaning official Saudi sponsorship of Wahhabism, and condemning official Iranian sponsorship of milleniarian Islam, we are now being asked to celebrate a state-sponsored brand of Islam in Pakistan. We are asked to believe this is "different" from those other cases solely because it's a version of the religion that looks benign.

But not only is this unprincipled -- it is going to backfire, leaving Sufism discredited and more religious resentment among the numerous peaceful Salafis in the world.

Picture: The power to salve? Bringing Sufism into the political fold will create radicals as often as it contains them. Photo: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Spiritual Mix

By Janani Krishnaswamy, " Shalom, salaam, namaste " - The Hindu Business Line - Chennai, India
Friday, June 12, 2009

The sounds of qawwali rendered in Hebrew and in companionship with Rajasthani folk and jazz riffs..

The initial sounds were familiar — of harmonium, tabla, morsing and dholak, followed by a melodious flute recital by Israeli composer Shye Ben-Tzur. What followed then on sounded like a spiritual mix of Hebrew poetry set to Sufi melodies, combined with full-throated soulful Rajasthani music.

Along with the traditional sounds of khartals, bhapang (single-stringed talking drum) and dhol, played by Rajasthani musicians, Ben-Tzur made use of Israeli bassist Eyal Mazig and flamenco guitarist Fernando Pervez from Spain for the gypsy jazz sounds.

The world music field is crowded with singers trying to fuse their native traditions with Western pop. Ben-Tzur’s live performance from his upcoming album, Shoshan (meaning Rose in Hebrew), stood out that evening as his band of musicians unleashed lush harmonies, and fused Hebrew-Qawwali and Rajasthani folk.

They quickly built a loyal following among those who had come to witness the third edition of the EarthSync festival in Chennai recently.

Drawn from his understanding of the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, Ben-Tzur’s lyrics reflected the Sufi philosophy of unity, peace and brotherhood. Barring a few songs in Hindi and Urdu, the rest were in Hebrew. To reach out to his Indian audience, Ben-Tzur translated the essence/message of each song in English. One of the hymns was about total surrender to divine will and another about profound love for the divine.

The performance flowed finely from one genre of music to another. If you had entered the hall when, say, the Rajasthani vocalist Munshi Khan was producing sonic hymns from the depths of his throat, or when multi-instrumentalist Kutla Khan was playing the dholak, you may have thought you were at an Indian music festival. The very next moment, though, you’d have heard Ben-Tzur play his flute and sing in Hebrew. But if you happened to enter when the Spanish guitarist was in action, you’d have been forgiven for thinking this was a nod to the land of Floyd.

The evening proved to be a cross-cultural mix of emotions, realities, styles, languages and irresistible grooves. The lighting design by Tel Aviv-based Adi Shimrony added powerfully to the overall mood.

Hebrew Sufi
A former member of rock band Sword of Damocles, Ben-Tzur is the ‘Hebrew-Sufi’ living in Jaipur, for over a decade now, with wife Sajida, who hails from Ajmer.

He became interested in Indian music after attending a Zakir Hussain concert in Israel and this led him to Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia; he has since been collaborating with Qawwali musicians of Ajmer.

Asserting that he couldn’t find the power of classical recitals anywhere other than in India, he says this set him off on his Indo-Israeli journey of music.

Refuge in music
Ben-Tzur’s concert was preceded by an electro-folk performance by Kartick (Patrick Sebag, Israeli music producer) and Gotam (Yotam Agam, sound designer). Under the canopy of a banyan tree, the duo with adoptive Indian names blended classical notes, Rajasthani folk music, fisherfolk music, temple music and south Indian devotional music with contemporary electronic music.

Their cast included vocalist Mahesh Vinayakram (son of famous ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram), Navin Iyer on the flute, Israeli Eyal Mazig on the trumpet, vocalist Anuradha Viswanathan and Bharathanatyam dancer Meera Seshadri.

Together they presented a live performance from their newly released album, Business Class Refugees.

The album’s name was inspired by a real-life incident. For over four years, Sebag and Agam travelled through Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia, recording indigenous music forms. While travelling to Aceh, a village in Indonesia, they found themselves in business class luxury, thanks to an overbooked flight and unexpected luck.

But luck deserted them soon after that, and due to a curious set of events they were left stranded at the airport.

For three days they waited as ‘business class refugees,’ without passport or any identity, sometimes worried, sometimes homesick, but mostly making music on their laptops.

The duo have partnered musically for 15 years now and Agam’s (CTO of EarthSync) successful ventures include the Laya project; Binago — an album based on a south Indian raga produced in collaboration dargah musicians and Sufi singers; and Maha Geetha — a compilation of Myanmar’s ancient classical songs sung in praise of kings and queens.

At EarthSync, the Chennai-based world music record label, CEO Sonya Mazumdar is living her dream of reviving folk music. She believes that music and dance underpin the cultures of different countries and fusion music unites them.

Don’t Turn Away

By Holland Cotter, " The Many Voices of Enlightenment " - The New York Times - New York, NY, USA

Thursday, June 11, 2009

“What’s in your head — throw it away! What’s in your hand — give it up! Whatever happens — don’t turn away from it.”

That’s how a 10th-century Persian spiritual master — Abu Said ibn Abil-Khair was his name — defined the Islamic devotional practice known as Sufism. Countless other definitions have been proposed since, almost as many as for Islam itself.

Religions and spiritual movements are complicated things, and accurate descriptions of them are bound to be contradictory. Sufism, like Islam, is both mystical and practical, embracing and exclusionary, pacific and assertive, ascetic and sensual, free form and discipline bound. Such oppositions aren’t a problem. They generate the unifying friction that makes culture tick.

But complexity also makes us nervous. We have an itch to neaten it up, flatten it out. So we do. The West tends to see all Islam as fundamentalist, bellicose and puritanical, and Sufism as a sexy, proto-New Agey, un-Islamic departure. At the same time a fundamentalist Muslim minority rejects Sufism, with its world-touring dervishes, tippler poets and pop stars, as a Western-pandering perversion of Islamic tradition.

Clearly neither side is prepared to take the let-go-and-change option that Abu Said suggests is the Sufi way. But art, by default, does take it.

Taken piece by piece, art can be ideologically arm-twisting. But collectively it is disordered enough to give equal time to many voices. And many voices is what you find in a tiny, exquisite show called “Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam” in the newly reinstalled Islamic galleries at the Brooklyn Museum.

While global politics has made Islam part of our consciousness, we hear little about Sufism and its long history. The term “sufi” probably derives from an Arabic word for wool, referring to the rough garments once worn by Middle Eastern ascetics. Certain followers of Sufism were called “dervishes,” a term related to a Persian word for poor.

It seems likely that Sufism initially developed a few centuries after the prophet Mohammad’s death in 632 A.D. as a back-to-basics alternative to the extravagance of the early Islamic imperial courts.

In response to it a group of like-minded Muslims set materialist moderation, if not outright renunciation, as a goal. They advocated turning away from the world and toward spiritual illumination.

Muhammad, enraptured by God, was their role model, and a passage from the Koran known as “Light Verse” was a primary text:

“Allah is the light of the heavens and earth. His light may be compared to a niche that enshrines a lamp, the lamp within a crystal of starlike brilliance. Light upon light; Allah guides to his light whom He will.”

A Koran page handwritten in light — that is, in gold and silver inks on a sheet of parchment dyed deep blue — is the exhibition’s oldest work, dating from the 10th or 11th century. Seen by candlelight, the words, which describe the rewards of Paradise, would have glinted against the dark ground like constellations in a night sky.

Luxury versions of glass lamps found in homes were created for mosques. A 14th-century Egyptian example, enameled, gilded and inscribed with quotations from the “Light Verse,” is in the show, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum. So is a 16th-century brass candlestick inscribed with lines in Persian about the attraction of moths to a flame, a metaphor for a soul’s ego-extinguishing passion for God.

And as often as not, spiritual yearning is expressed in terms of erotic attraction. One of the grand romances of popular Arabic literature was the Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Majnun and Layla, who fell in love. When Layla’s father married her off to some else, Majnun lost his mind. Delirious with ardor and despair, he refused to eat or sleep, and wandered the countryside for years like a wild man.

In some versions of the story Layla dies in a distant country, and he pines away in grief. In other accounts, like the one illustrated in a 17th-century Indian painting in the show, the two are reunited, at which point, exhausted with privations, Majnun dies in his beloved’s arms. In both cases he is a prototype of the Sufi who has gone the whole, extreme way to become, in the words of the poet Farid al-Din Attar, “a dead body, a nonexistent heart and a soul scorched away,” an ego reduced by love to an ash on the arm of God.

Not everything about Sufism was so unworldly. For some adherents poverty was more a spiritual than a physical condition, and tokens of it could be sumptuous: a beggar’s bowl cast in silver and inlaid with jewels; Korans in gilded bindings; light-reflecting lusterware tiles to decorate tombs.

The air of ordinary life permeates Sufi writing. The verses of the great 13th-century poet Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi are sprinkled with kitchen references, off-color jokes, gossipy banter and market talk: “With God, you get the best deal; he buys your dirty fortune and gives you in exchange light of the soul.”

Institutional Sufism today has corporate dimensions. What began as a reformist spiritual impulse had become an economic and political force. One of the outstanding pieces in Brooklyn’s Islamic gallery reinstallation — organized, like the Sufi show, by Ladan Akbarnia, the museum’s associate curator of Islamic art — is a large 19th- or early-20th-century painting depicting the Battle of Karbala, a violent episode in the dispute between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam, and one in which Husayn ibn Ali, a pious grandson of the prophet, died a martyr’s death.

The relationship of Shiism and Sufism, two powerful minorities, has been troubled, even hostile, particularly under orthodox Shiite-dominated governments in Iran, where Sufi mysticism was officially disdained. At the same time certain Sufi orders have closely associated themselves with Shiism. In doing so, Sufism puts into practice a principle of universal spiritual embrace and also shows itself adept in navigating the ways of the world.

But that worldliness, while real, is also circumscribed. Sufi literature tells us that 70,000 veils of light and darkness separate people from God. The Sufi’s task is to find a way through those veils. That’s a full-time job and a confounding and fearful one when light and darkness become the same.

Some Sufis have spoken of Black Light, the light of bewilderment, a light so bright that it has the effect of a blackout: everything familiar disappears, “like the flame of the candle in the presence of the sun,” as Rumi puts it. The idea is that God is now so blindingly near that all else becomes invisible. He is a vision of everything and nothing, and the devotee is immersed in it. The moth becomes one with the flame.

Few practitioners attain so radical a state of absorption. But the desire to find lightness of heart — to have old spirit-killing depressions and anxiety-causing attachments melted away — continues. Sufism is very much part of any full definition of Islam today. And today is where “Light of the Sufis” leaves us, with two contemporary works.

One, called “Prayer Stone 5,” is by Pouran Jinchi, an artist who was born in Iran and now lives in New York City. It consists of overlaid rubbings that Ms. Jinchi took of two carved stones in a Shia shrine in the holy city of Mashhad in Iran. One stone was inscribed with the name of Allah, the other with prayers for peace directed to a revered leader in the Shia line of spiritual succession.

In and around the lacelike patterns left by the rubbings, Ms. Jinchi has added something of her own: words from Muslim daily prayers written over and over in a minute calligraphic hand, their repetition being the physical equivalent of the Sufi practice of constantly reciting the names of God.

The second work, called “Fragments of Light 2,” is by Kelly Driscoll, who lives in Brooklyn. It is made up of verses by Rumi etched onto sheets of clear glass that have been bound into a book. The volume, transparent from first page to last, forms a natural link to the Koran page that opens the show. And it gives the final word to a great Sufi singer of spiritual passion, who also happens to be a best-selling poet in the United States and who once summed up his entire life in three short, ardent laser-beam phrases:

“I burned, and burned, and burned.”

“Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam” remains on view through Sept. 6 in the newly reinstalled Islamic galleries at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718) 638-5000, http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/.

[Picture: A bowl of reflections from Iran from the early 13th century. Click on the title of this article to the original article and the Slide Show]

Thinking Beyond

UCSB, " Religious Studies Scholar Publishes Volume on Islam " - University of California Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Santa Barbara: Juan E. Campo, associate professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, has published the "Encyclopedia of Islam" (Facts on File, 2009). It is part of a six-volume set titled "Encyclopedia of World Religions."

The series explores the major religions of the world, emphasizing the living faiths and their historical and social backgrounds. Other volumes cover Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Protestantism.

"The challenge was to figure out what to include in a single-volume work," Campo said of the project. "An encyclopedia is based on the ideal of comprehensiveness, but you have to draw lines about what to include even if you have a multi-volume project in mind."

Equally challenging, he noted, was the task of thinking beyond academic contexts and cultures and imagining what a reader who does not have significant background in Islam would find interesting. While he wrote the majority of the articles, he did solicit contributions from a number of faculty and advanced graduate students involved with Middle Eastern studies at UCSB.

The series is designed to appeal to high school and community college students, as well as to the general public, and each volume includes approximately 600 entries that explore the theological concepts, personalities, historical events, institutions, and movements that helped shape the history of each religion and the way it is practiced today.

In the volume on Islam, Campo covers topics as varied as Akbar, anti-Semitism, colonialism, fatwa, Malcolm X, Sufism, and women. He has separated his study into four areas: Islam as the religion of Muslims; Islam as it relates to other religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism; Islam as a civilization; and Islam and the contemporary world.

"I selected topics that examine key concepts and doctrines, historical figures, beliefs, and practices that come to the fore in terms of any study of Islam," said Campo. "Then I wanted to include articles that deal with Islam as an Abrahamic religion. Several feature articles explore Muslim beliefs about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mary, and other figures from the Bible.

"The book deals with those kinds of intersections as well as how Islamic societies of the past recognized and benefitted from the presence of different religions and nationalities. Indeed, the Sharia, or Islamic law, specifically recognized the ‘protected' status of Jews, Christians, and others as People of the Book, as long as they did not seek to challenge the authority of rulers or convert Muslims," he said.

The section on Islam as a civilization focuses not on concepts directly connected to the religion, but on phenomena and events that go beyond the bounds of religious belief and practice. Among these are articles on art, architecture, agriculture, cities, food and drink, Middle Eastern languages, and literacy among Muslim populations today.

"More broadly in terms of culture, I have an article on Iranian, Indian, and Arab cinema. And then I did sort of a bridging between those different aspects and talked about representations of Islam in American cinema," Campo said. "Readers can get a good overview of how Muslims and their religion have been represented in such modern media."

To cover Islam in the contemporary world and politics, Campo included articles on individual Muslim-majority countries. These highlight when the countries were created, facts about their history and demography, how their governments are organized, and the role of religion in each one. The encyclopedia also features articles on Islam in the United States and Latin America, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, the Gulf Wars, Usama bin Laden, and al-Qaida.

"To keep the articles succinct yet comprehensive proved to be quite a challenge," said Campo, who spent five years producing the encyclopedia. "Some articles, such as those on philosophy, soul, and spirit also proved challenging in terms of making them accessible to general readers."

Experiential Knowing

By Brian Bethel, " Center for Contemplation to begin meeting next week " - Reporter News - Abilene, TX, USA
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Retired McMurry University professor Russ Meier knows some in Abilene won't react as favorably as others to a new group with a goal of learning from the world's great spiritual and mystical thought.

"There will be, realistically speaking, some that will be very opposed," he said. "But maybe by the grace of God, we can be tolerant ... and coexist."

Meier said he hopes his plans for what will become the Center for Contemplation will allow those who want to share religious and spiritual ideas to do so in an open and accepting environment, while learning about the role of mystical experience, a component of systems as diverse as Hinduism, Buddhism and Sufism, a mystical variant of Islam.

Christianity, too, has a strong mystical tradition, he said, seen through figures such as Dominican preacher, theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart and St. John of the Cross.

Although Abilene is undoubtedly a "bastion of conservative Christianity," Meier said he sees that the city has more spiritual diversity than some may give it credit for.

"I've had people from all walks of life that have shown an interest," he said.

And he hopes that, drawing from works such as Aldous Huxley's "The Perennial Philosophy," the group, which begins meeting next week, will help participants find a common core to those seemingly wide-ranging spiritual and religious traditions.

"There will never be peace on earth, so to speak, until all the major religious traditions come together, admit that they have a common core, and remove 'us versus them,'" he said. "Without that happening, we are doomed to perpetual conflict and misery."

Though Abilene has a reputation as a city marked by Christian fundamentalism, the city is becoming more diverse, said Shirley Crawford, program director/co-coordinator of Abilene's Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Dyess Air Force Base, in particular, brings in people from all over the United States, she said.
"In Abilene there are Hindus, Baha'is, Muslims, Jewish people, Buddhists and others in addition to the mainstream Christians that are here," Crawford said.

Crawford said that wide-ranging diversity means something like the center has a place in the community.

"I had a good friend that said many years ago (that) there is truth in all beliefs, but no one belief has all the truth," she said.

Many are interested in learning more, knowing more and experiencing more of the teachings of other cultures, she said.

"All the great religions of the world have meditation and contemplation practices," she said.

"This center will give the people of the Abilene area a place to learn more about these mystical paths to spiritual enlightenment and a place to practice them and perhaps make them a part of our own spiritual journeys."

Meier, raised a United Methodist, became a Methodist minister in 1963. He left that career in 1967 to pursue another in sociology, eventually retiring from teaching at McMurry University in 2008.

For about 35 years, he has studied the world's major religious and spiritual traditions, he said, focusing on the core teachings within each. "This came out of my own experience, my own journey," he said of the idea for the center.

Though the group has no permanent facility yet, Meier would like to eventually see one, as well as possibly a nonprofit status.

Mark Waters, assistant professor of servant leadership at McMurry University, said the center was important for Abilene because it potentially can remind participants "that knowing God is deeper and richer than having beliefs about God.

"Contemplation is the gift of God's presence," he said. "The practice of contemplation includes a rich tradition of prayer practices that help us to become aware of the gift of God's presence on an experiential level. This experiential knowing, deeper than words and beliefs, is the foundation of unconditional love, love that emanates through us from the very heart of God."

Center for Contemplation
7 p.m. June 18
Location: Furr Welcome Center, McMurry University, South 14th and Sayles Blvd.
Topic: "The Inner Path to Enlightenment"
Speaker: Dr. Russ Meier

[Picture: Dr. Russ Meier. Photo from http://www.mcm.edu/newsite/web/]

To Know Each Other

Agencies, " School in sufi saint’s hometown signs up for ‘Face to Faith’ " - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

London, UK: Nearly three hundred years after the sufi saint of Bhit Shah unveiled his message of peace, tolerance and religious harmony, a school from Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s hometown has signed up with ‘Face to Faith’, a project that aims to get schoolchildren of different religions and countries talking to each other using the latest in video-conferencing technology.

Backed by the former British prime minister’s Tony Blair Faith Foundation, the project will involve more than 1,000 secondary school students in Asia, Europe and North America who will discuss their views on global affairs.

Among the participating schools is The City School in Bhit Shah.

A small town on the main national highway that links Karachi with Peshawar, Bhit Shah’s claim to fame is the final resting place of renowned sufi poet and mystic Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

Teachers said the issues they hoped to tackle varied from the need to steer children away from militant influences in Pakistan to preventing Islamophobia in British schools.

Head teacher Danish Jatoi said he wanted his students to understand there were parts of the world where many people had no religion at all. “The real problem is not fanaticism ... (but getting) to know each other,” he said.

Other countries with schools taking part in the scheme are Lebanon, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Canada, India and the United States. Organisers hope schools in India and Pakistan could hook up via the project in the coming months — and even Israeli and Palestinian students.

Blair, who became a Roman Catholic in 2007 after stepping down as prime minister of the UK, said in a statement: “It is only by discussing different cultural and religious perspectives that young people can build their awareness of the role of faith in today’s world.”

Britain’s pilot school for the initiative, Westhoughton Technology College in Bolton, northern England, has a broad mix of religions and many non-practising or non-believing children.

“The kids will come up with phrases which generalise about all Muslims. Islamophobia exists at our school but it exists at loads of schools at a low level,” said the school’s religious education teacher, Jo Malone.

[Picture from Face to Faith website. Visit Face to Faith at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation]

For Improving Relations

TMB, " In Egypt, Leaders Of Sufi Orders Organizing Conference for Response To Obama Speech " - The Memri Blog - Washington, DC, USA
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Sheikhs who head Sufi orders in Egypt are preparing a conference, set for June 13, on "The Muslims' Message to America," which will include a speech responding to U.S. President Barack Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo.

The invitees include senior clerics, and Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdi Zaqazouq, Egyptian Mufti Ali Gum'ah, and Al-Azhar University president Dr. Ahmad Al-Taeb have already confirmed that they will be attending.

The sheikh of the Al-'Azmiya order said that Obama's speech had provoked a storm, but that there has of yet been no practical response to it.

He said that during the conference, a Muslim agenda would be presented, along with a program for improving relations between the Muslims and the U.S.

Muslim Brotherhood representatives were not invited to the conference.

Source: Al-Masri Al-Yawm, Egypt, June 10, 2009

A Circular Rhythm

By Manish Gaekwad, " Striking a Chord " Planet Radiocity - Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

In Sufi devotion, Zikr represents both a solemn ritual and a spiritual fervour, in which the devotee seeks to realise the presence of God.

When you have A R Rehman reaching out to Allah in the first track of the album, all you need to do is get up and do the step that Hrithik Roshan did in Jodhaa Akbar, where his court singers break into the spirit of ‘Khwaja Mere Khwaja.’ It’s absolutely hypnotic and will have a trance effect on your feet.

Sonu Niigaam comes next in line with ‘Tujh Sang Bandhi Dor’, no less devout. There is a circular rhythm maintained throughout a Sufi number, essential to the whirling dervish form of appeal. Even his voice takes on an unusual scale where he wraps up the lyrics in a wavy timbre to give it a more rounded resonance. You might be haunted by the image of a lone semazen spinning on the wheel of his faith inside an empty stupa.

Abida Parveen’s ‘Raanjhan’ shimmers with the brilliance of her divine voice, and because her accompaniments are few – just the tabla and the harmonium perfectly strung within the clasp of a manjeera – the effect is mesmerising. Her ‘Bulleh Nu Samjhavan’ is equally captivating. ‘Ab Lagan Lagi’ scores too. The appeal of her songs lies in how her voice constantly in search of a prayer rises above its musical frame that is kept minimal to elevate her clarion call.

The Wadali Brothers, Sufi music’s most robust exponents, come in quite effectively with ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aaye’, in which the sarangi needling through their thick, rustic voices is a far set ode to the shifting dunes of memory. I’m guessing you’ll return back to this number a few times, to reset your own tuneful memory. They pack in two other gems as well.

Shubha Mudgal contributes to this wonderfully gifted album with ‘Main Sutti Rahiyan’. This song was part of an earlier album she had cut, and it was also included in a Buddha Bar compilation some years ago. I have only one word for this song: heaven! I suppose when you reach the gates, this is what is played by the angels to welcome you; that they have been sleeping in your absence.

Roop Kumar Rathod’s number, ‘Allahu’ sounds oddly out of place for trying to create a unique blend of tablas and electronic guitar work on a bass rhythm.

Asha Bhonsle appears in another version of the song, not particularly impressive.

The thing to notice, and which I will not have to stress on is that this album is not a compilation of Sufi suffused songs as much as it is an assembly of some of the finest voices peacefully invoking an audience with God.

You are free to participate, as long as your method is music to the ears.

Whirling Sufis
Artist: A R Rehman, Sonu Nigam, Abida Parveen, Wadali Brothers, Shubha Mudgal, Roop Kumar Rathod, Asha Bhonsle
Lyricist: Various
Label: Times
Music Genre: Sufi

Bazm-e-Khwaja

Staff Report, " Paying tribute to a Sufi " - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan
Monday, June 8, 2009

Karachi: In this age of religious extremism, out there are many people who follow the guidelines of saints who preached peaceful co-existence and religious harmony, asking their followers to get rid of religious hatred and to respect people on the basis of humanity.

Khanqah-e-Ilahia, arranged a programme “Bazm-e-Khwaja” to pay tribute to Khawaja Ajmeer Sharif, a legendary Sufi of the Indian sub continent.

The event was attended by a large number of followers who gathered to pay tribute. As one entered the YMCA ground, one could feel as if he has entered the shrine of Khwaja Moeen-uddin Chishti in Ajmeer Sharif, India.

The set, designed by Tanveer Abbas, was a carbon copy of the shrine of Khwaja Moeen-Uddin Chishti. The white tombs, pigeons, khadims and followers, all were there. There was also a langar where participants were provided with food.

The followers of the saint were pleased to find Sarwar Chishti, the present Sajjada Nasheen, who had traveled from India to grace the gathering.

In his address, he asked all the people to respect humanity and preach their religion through peaceful means. “We should learn lessons from the teachings of our ancestors and must condemn the killings of innocent people. Islam is a religion of peace and our ancestors have proved this point,” he went on to say.

Later, the Qawals began their performance, singing the Sufi verses with passion and joy, making it the highlight of the night.

A Chance To Flourish

By Ahmad Hassan, " Government to set up Sufi Advisory Council " - Dawn.com - Karachi, Pakistan
Sunday, 07 Jun, 2009

Islamabad: The government on Sunday announced setting up of a 7-member ‘Sufi Advisory Council’ (SAC) with an aim to combating extremism and fanaticism by spreading Sufism in the country.

Interestingly, the SAC replaces an earlier such exercise when the PML-Q government had notified constitution of a ‘National Sufi Council’ with party president Chaudhry Shujaat as its president and taking some progressive intellectuals on it to give Sufism a chance to flourish.

The said NSC however became dormant after holding a ‘Sufi gala’ — a semi-music festival — in Lahore’s Qala and printing calendars in the name of council.

According to an official handout Haji Muhammad Tayyab who heads one of several factions of Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) will be the chairman of the SAC which will be holding its first meeting at the ministry of religious affairs on Tuesday June 9.

Other members of the SAC include Sahibzada Sajidur Rahman, Maulana Syed Charaghuddin Shah, Rawalpindi, Dr. Ghazanfar Mehdi Islamabad, Hafiz Muhammad Tufail Islamabad, Iranmullah Jan, Director General Ministry of Religious Affairs and Abdul Ahad Haqqani Deputy Director R&S) MORA.

While two last named persons were ministry’s officials Dr. Ghazanfar Mehdi is a retired government official, Sajidur Rahman is a close relative of Raja Zafarul Haq (PML-N) and Charaghuddin Shah is a member of PML-Q’s Ulema Mashaikh wing.

Haji Hanif Tayyab remained part of former military dictator Ziaul Haq’s regime in various capacities including a minister.

It is not clear whether another religious body could be set up in presence of Council of Islamic Ideology which is a constitutional body.

Picture: A larger number of Ulema and Mashaikh attending the National Ulema and Mashaikh Convention by Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) at the Convention Centre in Islamabad. Photo: APP Photo/Javed Quershi

His Grace In Everything

By R. K. Gupta, " The evolutionary journey of a wayfarer " - The Times Of India -
Monday, June 8, 2009

Sufis believe in evolution of the individual into a complete person through experience and understanding. Their spirituality is reflected in their conduct and behaviour; it is not something external, but is part and parcel of their being. The individual is God's highest creation, having knowledge and bliss, yet he is not perfect. Sufis make a conscious effort to evolve as perfect beings.

The essence of Sufism lies in keeping to the right path and achieving perfection. Conforming to the outer form of religion is important only to the extent that it does not inhibit spiritual progress the real objective being to grow beyond religion, to understand the real meaning of religion and to realise the Truth by experience. Sufis consider spiritual training as a journey and the seeker as a wayfarer, passing through various stages and experiences. Although different Sufi Orders or Tariqats state them differently, most of them agree on the basic tenets.

The first step for the wayfarer to prepare himself for higher stages of spirituality is Tauba, to repent for his past sins and resolving not to repeat those mistakes. This is awakening from a state of unconsciousness. The wayfarer becomes alert and keeps an eye on his actions. However, if he is not committed to repenting for past sins and resolving to take care not to repeat them in the future, then he is not a true repentant.

The next step after Tauba is renunciation of worldly possessions i.e. living in poverty. The real meaning of poverty is lack of desire for worldly possessions. The sense of possession is to be given up. Everything originates from God and He alone is the real owner of whatever exists. If he possesses something, he thinks himself to be the caretaker of that thing which is to be used for the benefit of all. In reality living a life of simplicity and contentment is living a life of poverty.

After renunciation comes abstinence i.e. to control one's mind and to restrain it from indulging in sensuous pleasures against the dictates of scriptures. To do so people often adopt practices like observing fast, silence and solitude. Sufis, however, lay stress on the evolution of the inner-self and consider it more important than physical restraints. True repentance, Satsang, company of one's Master or other realised souls and receiving grace of the Master or Tavajjoh are considered more helpful. In the company of the Master, the seeker starts feeling that the knots of sensual pleasure hitherto tying his mind are loosening and their place is being taken over by the love for the Master or God.

After this the wayfarer reaches the state of Tawakkul, the state of complete trust in God, and then to Raza, to live as God desires. Trust in God means complete dependence on God. As the Sufi saint Rabia has said it does not befit a devotee to look towards anyone else except God. One should have firm faith in Him. All that happens, happens according to His desire.

With this firm faith, the seeker now learns to be thankful to the Almighty in whatever condition He keeps him. He learns to live according to the desire of the Almighty. Both sorrows and joys are considered to be His blessings.

Reactions become dull and one starts accepting things as they are. Fully content the seeker now sees His grace in everything. The ego vanishes and the seeker now moves to the state of 'fana' or annihilation, which is considered to be the end of the journey.

Sufismo e Massoneria

[From the Italian language press]:

Sufismo e Massoneria : Nel nuovo libro di Morris Ghezzi l'incontro di due importanti correnti Tradizionali

Red., " Sufismo e Massoneria " - ParvapoliS - Latina, Lazio, Italy; mercoledì 3 giugno 2009

Sufism and Freemasonry: in the new book of Morris Ghezzi the encounter between two important Traditional streams.

On Saturday, July 4th at 7:30 pm, in the Park of Villa il Vascello in Rome will be presented the book of poems by Morris L. Ghezzi *Le lacrime di Hiram. Autobiografia incompleta di un Libero Muratore* (The tears of Hiram. Incomplete Autobiography of a Free Mason), published in 2008 by the Jerrahi Halveti Sufi Brotherhood.

The twelve illustrations on the theme of the compass are the work of Gabriele Mandel, Vicar of the Italian branch of the Jerrahi-Halveti Sufi Brotherhood.

The Honorary Grand Master Morris L. Ghezzi (University of Milan), Gabriele Mandel (General Vicar for Italy of the Jerrahi-Halveti Sufi Brotherhood), Fakhraddin Gafarov (Concert artist who will perform Sufi music's pieces), Daniele Guizzo (Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Bologna and of Iranian Linguistics and History of the Persian Language at the University of Venice Ca' Foscari), Bernardino Fioravanti (Chairman of the Library Service) and the Grand Master Gustavo Raffi will take part in the encounter.

[Visit Fakhraddin Gafarov website.

The Path of Peace

By Afshan S. Khan, " Sufi heritage ‘can bring back " - The News International - Karachi, Pakistan
Thursday, June 04, 2009

Rawalpindi: The anarchy and lawlessness currently prevalent in the country has its roots in the ignorance of peace and harmony that has always been a priority of our Sufis through ages.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi while speaking as chief guest at the ‘International Conference on Sufi Heritage of Punjab’ here Wednesday at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agricultural University, Rawalpindi (AAUR) organised by its Directorate of Students Affairs.

The minister said our Sufis always stressed on religious harmony and brotherhood among people - two major factors in uniting a society and making it prosperous.

“We cannot undermine the contributions made by our Sufis, who always advocated the path of peace and asked people to avoid rift and bloodshed. Sufis practiced what they preached, therefore, there is a need to revive their teachings and incorporate them in our daily lives,” he said.

Kazmi said the Ministry of Religious Affairs has also planned to organise an international conference that would invite scholars from all around the world to present their papers on Sufism.

Earlier, Vice Chancellor AAUR Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood said there is a need to reinvent the role of Sufis and the way they brought cultural harmony in the caste system, as cultural differences in our society are growing by the day.

“Sufis in Punjab such as Baba Bulleh Shah, Pir Mehr Ali Shah and Barri Imam to name a few have made remarkable contributions for the benefit of Islam, peace and brotherhood, and were ambassadors of peace. Punjab and Sufism are inter-related, inter-woven and inseparable from each other,” he said and added that the conference would be helpful in promoting cultural activities of various Punjabi traditions, culture, poetry, history and language.

Various speakers gave in-depth analysis on Sufi Heritage in the moot sessions, while in the concluding ceremony, a Punjabi Mushaira was held in which Anwar Masood, Dr Inam-ul-Haq Javed, Abdul Waheed Qasim, Anjum Muradabadi, Prof Saadat Ali Saquib, Dr Asmatullah Zahid, Dr Syed Akhtar Hussain Akhtar, Dr Naveed Shehzad, Dr Mohammad Riaz Shahid, Dr Saeeda Bano Rasham, Prof Dr Riaz Majeed and Taqi Jawad participated.

[Visit AAUR website http://www.uaar.edu.pk/index.php]

Global Transformations

By Paul Goble, " 'Why are Ethnic Russians Converting to Islam?' " - Georgian Daily - New York, NY, USA

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The conversion of historically Orthodox Christian ethnic Russians to Islam is one of the most politically sensitive issues in the Russian Federation, with journalists and commentators frequently offering wildly different numbers and explanations for a trend many find a matter of deep concern.

Now, Andrey Ignatyev, a specialist on the sociology of religion at the Russian State Humanitarian University, seeks to answer the question “why do ethnic Russians convert to Islam?” without the exaggerations and apocalyptic language in which such religious shifts are usually cast (www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=13815).

In a heavily footnoted article posted on the Portal-Credo.ru site yesterday, Ignatyev argues that most earlier discussions of this issue have failed because they have offered a single explanation of what is an enormously complicated social phenomenon. In fact, people have extraordinarily varied reasons for converting. For his part, Ignatyev offers four.

First, the Moscow sociologist says, the largest number of converts are those who convert because of marriage, a group which includes both those who accept Islam before they marry and those who become Muslims once they enter into a marriage with one of the faithful. “As a rule,” these are women, and the groom’s parents make conversion a precondition of marriage.
Although such women elicit “particular hatred from Islamophobes like the members of the Movement Against Illegal Immigration,” Ignatyev says, most of them know “very little” about their new faith and seldom show up in any mosque after their formal conversion, although a few of them do over time become active Muslims.

Second, he continues, there are Russians are attracted by the mysticism of Sufism, a pattern found around the world where such “god-seeking” often leads people to “convert” to various forms of Hinduism or Buddhism. But generally, Ignatyev says, such people “show no interest in communion with ethnic Muslims or strive to be part of a Muslim milieu.
Indeed, there is some question as to just how much these people deserve to be called Muslims. He gives as an example a Russian who having joined a Sufi order “gave a promise to accept Islam,” even though that was “not required,” and who said that “in the Moscow section of the order, ‘there are Muslims but no Eastern peoples.’”

Third, Ignatyev says, there are those who “consciousness accept Islam as a religion in its concretely historical, ethnographic and cultural manifestation.” They are “more serious than the neophytes of the first and second groups,” and some of them study languages of Muslim nationalities and even travel abroad for instruction in Islam.
Most of these people associate themselves with one of the historical divisions of Islam such as the Hanafi rite of Sunni Islam, the Salafites, or the Twelver Shiia and are devoutly religious, publicly thanking Allah that he has brought them to the true faith. And many of them choose to live according to the shariat or adat.

And fourth, Ignatyev says, is “the most surprising group” of converts of all, a group that he calls “white Muslims” on the basis of an analogy with Louis Farrakhan’s “Black Muslims” in the United States. “Representatives of this group,” he continues, “combine Islam either with Russian nationalism, neo-paganism and racism or with left-radical doctrines.”
Many of the relatively small number of people in this group were part of NORM, the National Organization of Russian Muslims, which viewed Islam as “a path to the rebirth of the Russian nation” or as “a means to the world-wide liberation of the oppressed” but which had little interest in historically Muslim groups.

In fact, oftentimes such “White Muslims,” Ignatyev continues, have been openly hostile to Muslims from abroad, with some of them taking the side of ethnic Russians over Muslim immigrants in the case of conflicts like the one that broke out two years ago in the Karelian city of Kondopoga, despite sharp criticism from traditional Muslim leaders of their position.

Ignatyev does not offer any numbers for these groups – they probably amount in total to fewer than 50,000 – but he does sharply criticize those like the writer Elena Chudinova and the Orthodox activist Roman Silantyev who have written alarmist tracts about “Russian Muslims” and the threat they supposedly represent to Russia’s future.

According to the sociologist of religion, there is no reason for that: “If there are Orthodox Arabs or Japanese, then why cannot Russian Muslims exist as well?” More than that, he says, this trend is likely to grow in a world of “global transformations in which what was “impossible in the past” is now “an everyday phenomenon.”

“The processes which are taking place in the contemporary world and which are connected with the rapid development of many countries in Asia and the increase of migration flows are leading to a notable heightening of the eastern factor in the life of Russia,” Ignatyev says, something one need not fear if one understands its nature.

[Visit the Russian State University for the Humanities http://rggu.com/]

Taste, Soul and Feeling

RPS Inc., " The Divine is All Around - Rare Elements: Omar Faruk Tekbilek " - All About Jazz - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Inspired Turkish Master Omar Faruk Tekbilek Remixed for Rare Elements

The divine is everywhere, in the breath of a reed flute, the clank and hum of machines, or the slammin' beats of an electronic track. This is Turkish virtuoso Omar Faruk Tekbileks message, and he hears it everywhere.

When Tekbilek came to the USA to build upon his successful music career back home, he was faced with the task of supporting his family in a country where he did not know the customs or language. For 17 years, he operated a loud and hot steam press in a clothing factory. At first depressed by this fact, one day Tekbilek had a revelation: if he had to put his dreams to the side and work this difficult job, he would make the best of it. The next day he heard a symphony in the factory machines. Suddenly the steam press sounded like a saxophone. “The hum was so loud around me, there was music around me. I had never heard it before because my mind had been away, not there where I was, where I had been for months. When I accepted the situation, I cried for joy," Tekbilek recalls.

Tekbilek found a new delight in the factory, a revelatory remix of everyday sounds. Now new sides of Tekbilek's Sufi-inspired songs and compositions jump out on Rare Elements: Omar Faruk Tekbilek (5 Points Records; June 9, 2009), the second installment in the Rare Elements series of musical meetings between global master musicians and the world's most creative remixers: Junior Sanchez, Tommie Sunshine, Flosstradamus, Amon Tobin, Albert Castillo, Nickodemus and Zeb, Kodomo, Joe Claussell, Cheb i Sabbah, and Jordan Lieb.

For Tekbilek, music has four corners: the mystical, inspired by his deep Sufi faith; the folkloric; the romantic and personal; and the contemporary that unites all the other elements with modern instruments and current sounds to form a new palette. These elements reflect facets of lovelove of the creator, adoration of a lover, or the rootsy joie de vivre of a traditional Turkish tunein songs like “Sufi," about the name of God sounding in every breath, or “Selemet," an Arabic tune transformed into a loving ode to Tekbileks wife.

A prodigy, Tekbilek's talent lay beyond his innate skill as a musician. It flowed from his spirit. One hot summer day in his native town of Adana, “my mother opened the door and jumped when she saw me inside playing my flute. She felt sorry for me, as I was inside, and told me to go out and play," Tekbilek smiles. “I told her not to worry, that I was having fun. I was deep in trance. I was also going to school to become a cleric, an imam. I realized then that, when I was playing, I was in the same state of mind as when I was praying."

Tekbilek soon mastered the nay, the traditional end-blown bamboo flute whose seven holes mirror the heads seven orifices, the baglama lute, and a bevy of percussion instruments. “The great joy of my life is to play all instruments on a song," Tekbilek laughs. As a young man, he moved to Istanbul, explored Western styles, became a popular studio musician, and picked up knowledge and wisdom from the head nay player of the Mevlevi Sufi order, before eventually landing in upstate New York, where he worked in a clothing factory as he rebuilt his musical career from scratch.

Now an established performer regularly touring the world, the once skeptical Tekbilek began to embrace the remix project as a way of reaching out “to a different dimension, a different mentality," and offering new listeners “a taste of the timbre, a taste of the melody" that would leave them longing for more. It might seem an uneasy union: A Turkish musician who plumbed the sacred nature sound, entranced by a homemade flute at the tender age of 12, and a posse of producers with laptops who hail from New York to Algeria to Brazil.

But behind Tekbelik's nimble nay, Sufi chants, or Turkish folk melodies is a pulse that unites his work with the best of dancefloor grooves. “Whatever instrument you are playing, you are percussionist in a sense," Tekbilek explains. “Because in all spiritualities, it is the same. If there is no stroke, there is no sound. The breath hits bamboo, the bow hits the violin, and the pick hits the bouzouki." Or the needle hits the record, the beat kicks in, and people begin to move.

Corners of the club scene have always reveled in the close connection between dance and trance, between rhythm and transcendence, something which Sufi poet Rumi discovered in a marketplace as he spun to the sound of a goldsmith's hammer, and the whirling dervishes have explored ever since. “When you spin, suddenly you are everywhere," Tekbilek reflects. “Your body-mind connection becomes very apparent. It goes out of control and your awareness of mind becomes more dominant. You become more aware of the breath. It's an act of meditation."

DJs are always hungry for new and exotic sounds, eager to toss them into the mix, but Tekbilek insisted that the melodies and timbres of his music be more than just world music window dressing. Instead, he dialogued with remixers to keep the spirit of his work alive. When he first heard the remix for “Whirling," a medley of traditional Sufi songs, he was surprised that the DJs had decided to leave out the nay part and asked that they reincorporate it into the track. “Without the nay, there is no soul," Tekbilek explains. The producers kindly obliged.

Despite the occasional bumps in the remix road, Tekbilek is bemused, appreciating the chance to get his message out in dancefloor-friendly form. “This is an opportunity to offer the younger generation phrases, words, rather than whole thing all at once. This is still good. It's a connection with music lovers," Tekbilek exclaims. “I am after taste, soul, and feeling. One note, but with feeling."

[Picture from O. F. Tekbilek's website http://www.omarfaruktekbilek.com/home.html]

Openness

By Tad Hendrickson, " Youssou N'Dour Headlines BAM's Ambitious, Overdue 'Muslim Voices' Festival " - The Village Voice - New York, NY, USA
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Dick Cheney is having a hard time letting go, but cowboy diplomacy is on the wane here in the United States—ask President Obama.

Nevertheless, the Muslim culture and faith remains misunderstood, at best, and demonized, at worst, by many Americans, so to counter some of those uncertainties and misperceptions, BAM, the Asia Society, and NYU's Center for Dialogues are presenting "Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas," an extensive festival running June 5 to 14.

The program includes music, film, and theater by more than 100 Muslim artists from as far away as Indonesia and as nearby as Brooklyn. Highlights include a live performance by Senegal's Youssou N'Dour (arguably Africa's biggest music star), who'll be represented by a new, award-winning documentary as well.

There will also be Sufi music from Moroco's Aissawa Ensemble and France's Al Taybah Ensemble, Persian classical from Iranian singer Parissa, and maqam from Palestinian singer Kamilya Jubran.

"Muslim Voices" will also provide a litmus test as to how things have changed within a government bureaucracy now serving an administration more interested in dialogue with its global neighbors.

In the past, the Office of Homeland Security has been particularly stingy in granting performance visas to male artists from the Middle East, Africa, and Cuba. As of press time, though, all artists for this fest have been cleared. "My inviting these artists to New York City, there has been nothing but positive-ness," says BAM executive producer Joseph V. Melillo. "It's amazing how it's gone in the opposite direction so quickly—from the extraordinary negativity in the Bush administration to this openness and positive-ness about what is possible through art and culture."

Artists feel that transformation, too. In 2003, N'Dour cancelled a U.S. tour in protest over the Iraq invasion. "At that time, canceling the tour was the only thing in my head to protest," N'Dour explains, recently speaking on the phone from Senegal. "This war was not good for the United States or the rest of the world. What I appreciate is that, since then, people are now more open and more appreciative."

While N'Dour (who's toured the States since) is famous for his highly danceable brand of music called mbalax, his 2004 album Egypt paired lyrics addressing his Sufi strain of the Muslim faith with the sounds of a distinctly Arabic orchestra. His Senegalese fans were not happy about their biggest pop star talking about the Koran and celebrating religious figures, but the album was universally acclaimed abroad and won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album, a predicament and success story explored in Chai Vasarhelyi's excellent new film I Bring What I Love, which will be screened as part of "Muslim Voices."

"The time is now to show the face of everything, but really the face of Islam," says N'Dour, hoping the film shows audiences who he is as both a Muslim and an artist. "A long time ago, I thought something like that wasn't going to happen in the United States, but in the last six years, I was thinking that we need to use what we have to promote something that is really important."

The concept of intercultural dialogue is further tested on June 13, when Qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz and his ensemble join Craig Adams & the Voices of New Orleans on BAM's stage for a touring project called the Gospel Qawwali Creation.

"I think it's going to be controversial, because whenever you deal with two religions together, it's going to be controversial," says Adams. "But music is something that everybody understands. Whether its Qawwali or gospel, it's geared toward touching people with peace, joy, love, and happiness."

It's altogether appropriate that this festival is happening in a city once victimized by terrorism. We've seen the worst from the extremists; now it's time to experience the best from the artists.

"The depth of the artistry and their own personal aesthetic is going to be a great discovery to New York City," promises Melillo. "This is one of the great cultural reservoirs that has not been researched."

For a complete 'Muslim Voices' schedule and other info, visit muslimvoicesfestival.org

Picture: Youssou N'Dour, back in the U.S.A. Photo: Courtesy Muslim Voices Festival.