Related Posts

Mahound Vicious

Moslems do punk! They listen to music. They are human. They participate in American culture. It’s true. I saw it here. In case you don’t catch it, the part I hate the most, in an otherwise decent article, is: Admittedly, these Muslim punks aren’t especially devout, at least in the tradition-al sense. None goes to Friday prayers regularly, but they all say they’re deeply spiritual. To them, Islam begins and ends with one’s personal relationship with God. After a recent show at a Manhattan bar, Waqar felt the urge to pray. “I went into the men’s room, got down on…

Hasidic Reggae

Yes Virginia, it’s true. Take a look at this site, just to read comments like this: “He can really rip,” agrees hip-hop producer and bassist Yossi Fine (David Bowie, Me’Shell Ndege-Ocello), who is himself part Israeli and Afro-Jamaican Jew. “He’s extremely fierce, jumping around the stage. The only difference between him and a Jamaican rapper is that he takes the lyrics from the Bible instead of from Rasta. He changes ‘Jah’ to ‘Hashem’ [Hebrew for God].” I intend to buy an album. Seems very cool. Also, here.

Contemporary Pakistani Music

It’s not all about Junoon anymore, if it ever was. CNN ran this article several months ago about heavy metal in Pakistan, including some type of hip-hop dancing thing. Videos below: Compare this view of music to what the Kominas deal with in their expression of punk (h/t Sepia Mutiny): Of course, both sources have distinct narratives they need to tell. The truth of the popularity and acceptability of such music in Pakistan is somewhere in the middle. Although Junoon did lay the ground work, the increase in Islamist activity and thinking means that performing music remains problematic. I’m not…