Historic Cities Restoration Program

What Does Islamic Music Have to do With Blues, Jazz, and Surf Rock? More Than You Think. | FrontRow. What do Bruce Springsteen, Mahalia Jackson, and John Coltrane all have in common? Well according to Dr. Hussein Rashid of Hofstra University  each bear witness to the Islamic Contribution to American Music. This was the title of his lecture at my law school alma mater, Southern Methodist University.

The Ismaili: Video: The Islamic impact on American arts. Dr Hussein Rashid delivered a lecture titled Everyday Art: An Islamic Impact on American Art on 13 February 2011 at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In the talk, Dr Rashid highlights Islamic influences on popular art in America — from architecture and popular media to poetry and writing — by the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his From Persian of Hafiz II, to Toni Morrison’s portrayal of Muslim characters in her novel Beloved. The lecture followed two exhibitions on Islamic calligraphy at the museum.