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SUFI CONCERT
Celebrating diversity through music
Concert shines a light on a Pakistani rock star, other Muslim acts
By RICHARD VARA
A Mystical Journey
What: More than 60 performing artists from six countries.
When: 2:30 p.m. March 30
Where: at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas
Tickets: $25-$100; The Ismaili: A Mystical Journey A Pakistani rock star, a choir of nine young Bosnian men, swirling dancers from Syria and a woman who performs music rooted in the Berber traditions of North Africa.
Their diversity is key to A Mystical Journey: Sufi Music and Other Expressions of Devotion from the Muslim World, a March 30 concert in Houston.
"What we want to showcase is that there is a rich diversity in the Muslim world,'' said Dr. Amirali Popatia, president of the Ismaili Council for the Southwestern United States, based in Sugar Land. "When it comes to devotional expression, there is also a rich diversity.''
The concert is the council's solution to combating a myth that Islam is a "monolith," the Pakistani-born physician said. "When you say Muslim, Americans think of Middle Eastern Arabs. But the largest Islamic country in the world is Indonesia. There is a lot of stereotyping, and we want to get rid of that stereotyping."
The nationwide tour also celebrates the golden jubilee of Prince Karim Aga Khan, spiritual leader of 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims worldwide.
"I didn't know what I was getting into on the Canadian leg of the tour (last year), but it was just incredible," said headliner Salman Ahmad, the rock star in his native Pakistan. "The music is very soulful.
"You will never have such amazing artists on the same stage on the same day ever again."
The 44-year-old composer-performer moved to the United States as a boy and by his early teens developed an interest in rock.
"In 1977, a friend of a friend had an extra ticket to go see Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden. I had no idea who Led Zeppelin was."
By the end of the concert, Ahmad was thinking of a rock career. He worked as a busboy and delivered newspapers to earn money for his first guitar. Garage bands soon followed, but his parents wanted him to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
So after high school, he returned to Pakistan for a medical degree. He quickly discovered that pop music was banned in Pakistan, and convened secret talent shows featuring his band and others. At his first show, Muslim hard-liners broke in and smashed his guitar.
"It made me realize how much music meant to me," he said.
After finishing medical school in 1988, Ahmad decided to take a year off from medicine to follow his dream and has never gone back.
His band, Junoon, has sold more than 25 million CDs in South Asia and performed their mix of rock and traditional Sufi music around the world. Ahmad, a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Pakistan in the campaign on HIV/AIDS, now lives in Tappan, N.Y., with his wife and three children."
If people come to (Mystical Journey), it touches their heart, and that for me is my life's mission," he said. "It is to play music that builds bridges between people and connects to them because culture humanizes."
Changing perceptions of Islam as evil is a key reason that Choir Hazreti Hamza singer Kenan, 26, of Bosnia joined the Mystical Journey tour. The choir, composed of nine male voices, has recorded three CDs and is popular in Bosnia, Pakistan and Turkey.
"We have one thing that connects us (with the West) and that is belief in one God," Kenan said. "For people who are not Muslims, we want to show that we are not as bad as people think."
The choir formed in a bomb shelter near Sarajevo about 15 years ago. "We got together inside of the shelter to run away from the bombs and everything and to raise our voices somehow," he said. "When you are so little, there is not much you can do to defend your country or to raise you voice."
In addition to the U.S. tour, the group has also performed in Europe, blending traditional music with contemporary sounds.
"When you hear it, it is more like Justin Timberlake than religious music," Kenan said.
Celebrating diversity through music
Concert shines a light on a Pakistani rock star, other Muslim acts
By RICHARD VARA
A Mystical Journey
What: More than 60 performing artists from six countries.
When: 2:30 p.m. March 30
Where: at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas
Tickets: $25-$100; The Ismaili: A Mystical Journey A Pakistani rock star, a choir of nine young Bosnian men, swirling dancers from Syria and a woman who performs music rooted in the Berber traditions of North Africa.
Their diversity is key to A Mystical Journey: Sufi Music and Other Expressions of Devotion from the Muslim World, a March 30 concert in Houston.
"What we want to showcase is that there is a rich diversity in the Muslim world,'' said Dr. Amirali Popatia, president of the Ismaili Council for the Southwestern United States, based in Sugar Land. "When it comes to devotional expression, there is also a rich diversity.''
The concert is the council's solution to combating a myth that Islam is a "monolith," the Pakistani-born physician said. "When you say Muslim, Americans think of Middle Eastern Arabs. But the largest Islamic country in the world is Indonesia. There is a lot of stereotyping, and we want to get rid of that stereotyping."
The nationwide tour also celebrates the golden jubilee of Prince Karim Aga Khan, spiritual leader of 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims worldwide.
"I didn't know what I was getting into on the Canadian leg of the tour (last year), but it was just incredible," said headliner Salman Ahmad, the rock star in his native Pakistan. "The music is very soulful.
"You will never have such amazing artists on the same stage on the same day ever again."
The 44-year-old composer-performer moved to the United States as a boy and by his early teens developed an interest in rock.
"In 1977, a friend of a friend had an extra ticket to go see Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden. I had no idea who Led Zeppelin was."
By the end of the concert, Ahmad was thinking of a rock career. He worked as a busboy and delivered newspapers to earn money for his first guitar. Garage bands soon followed, but his parents wanted him to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
So after high school, he returned to Pakistan for a medical degree. He quickly discovered that pop music was banned in Pakistan, and convened secret talent shows featuring his band and others. At his first show, Muslim hard-liners broke in and smashed his guitar.
"It made me realize how much music meant to me," he said.
After finishing medical school in 1988, Ahmad decided to take a year off from medicine to follow his dream and has never gone back.
His band, Junoon, has sold more than 25 million CDs in South Asia and performed their mix of rock and traditional Sufi music around the world. Ahmad, a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Pakistan in the campaign on HIV/AIDS, now lives in Tappan, N.Y., with his wife and three children."
If people come to (Mystical Journey), it touches their heart, and that for me is my life's mission," he said. "It is to play music that builds bridges between people and connects to them because culture humanizes."
Changing perceptions of Islam as evil is a key reason that Choir Hazreti Hamza singer Kenan, 26, of Bosnia joined the Mystical Journey tour. The choir, composed of nine male voices, has recorded three CDs and is popular in Bosnia, Pakistan and Turkey.
"We have one thing that connects us (with the West) and that is belief in one God," Kenan said. "For people who are not Muslims, we want to show that we are not as bad as people think."
The choir formed in a bomb shelter near Sarajevo about 15 years ago. "We got together inside of the shelter to run away from the bombs and everything and to raise our voices somehow," he said. "When you are so little, there is not much you can do to defend your country or to raise you voice."
In addition to the U.S. tour, the group has also performed in Europe, blending traditional music with contemporary sounds.
"When you hear it, it is more like Justin Timberlake than religious music," Kenan said.
