MUSIC FOR PEACE

Published: 03 Dec 2012 - 08:20 am | Last Updated: 16 Feb 2022 - 12:15 am

I try not to give a religious name to my music

by Azmat Haroon

“An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions,” says Sami Yusuf, a celebrity Muslim British singer and composer, who rose to fame some 10 years ago with his first album Al Mua’llim at the age of 23. After the success of his three albums, Yusuf has come to Qatar for the official launch of his fourth album Salaam, where he is also set to perform a live concert at the Katara Amphitheatre on December 6.

Prior to the concert, the musician spoke to The Peninsula to discuss his projects and his personal outlook on what’s happening in the world.

• Tell us about your work with Silatech as its global ambassador?

My role is mostly symbolic, in that I transmit, relay across the messages and I’m doing that generally through social media and interviews. They have gatherings every year, I try to visit. But I would like to see them a little bit more busy. It’s a very beautiful initiative. I wish I could do more. I’d like to be more involved.

• Which other organisations are you currently involved with?

I’m a global celebrity partner along with Shania Twain and Sean Penn for the United Nations World Food Programme; we did a campaign with them a little while ago called Live Feed Africa. It’s a joint programme, to raise money for the Horn of Africa. We did a song called Forgotten Promises, which is very successful. All the funds that came through it were sent to the World Food Programme. We had almost two and half million views on YouTube. Everything from scratch was voluntary, which is why it was a very blessed project. Now we are thinking of maybe one in Pakistan, Afghanistan.

• Have you been to Africa yourself?

I was in Darfur in 2007. We saw some ‘Janjaweed’ guys, and the BBC reporters were with us. They were wearing these bullet proof vests, didn’t make me feel very comfortable. It’s a very difficult thing to see – this inequality and imbalance in this world. It’s a serious problem and it’s not getting any better. The causes are much, much deeper, and philosophical.

• Are you an avid student of philosophy?

I like to read a little bit in my spare time. I have always been interested in serious issues even when I was young. My dad is like that also. We are predisposed to spirituality, reading and philosophy. But I’m an amateur at it.

• Earlier in the press conference, you were speaking about a blend of modernity and traditional values. Given the profession that you’re in, where do you draw the line?

One of the things about modernity is that much of it has to do with numbers, quantity and demand. You know capitalism. Where you have to draw the line is that one has to have principles. You have to know your limit; you do not sell your soul. I see many young people who go to America, with the dream of making it. What do they mean by ‘making it’? He’s basically becoming rich!

The reality is that when we say modern, usually it denotes rootless. It’s not connected to the sacred, it’s profane. One has to be grounded, not only humble, but grounded in your tradition.

• Which reality TV Shows have you been approached by so far?

I’ve been approached by many reality shows in the Arab world. Just ten days ago, we were offered to perform with a singer for a tour in America- an RnB singer. Now, mainstream singers would jump at the opportunity. Honestly, for me, it gives me cringes. It makes me feel awkward because the last thing I want is to be in that environment.

I think many people don’t connect with what they see on TV. And that’s one of the reasons why Al Mua’llim was so successful in 2003. I remember, in an article, they had put my picture and that of another Arab singer, and said one of them makes--- it was a bad word, and the other one makes ‘music with a purpose’.

• But a lot of people in the Arab world also speak against the kind of music you do, because they say apart from Daff, you use percussions, and there’s guitar etc, which they consider Haram.

One of the things about modernism today is that young people are much more religious but they are less tolerant than your grandfather.

There’s westernisation and they react to it in this way. They are only looking at one aspect of religion. In Islamic societies, of course you have music; you have gatherings of Ghazal, Qawalli and other musical traditions.

But I wouldn’t say the entire Arab world is like that- otherwise we wouldn’t have sold 15 million albums in the region.

• What would you say to these people?

The most respectful thing to say is thank you very much for your advice. God bless you.

But it is a very interesting and I think it has to do with the breakdown or rather eclipse of the intellectual tradition in Islam. It needs to be revived. Unfortunately, at the moment, the overwhelming influence is on the outward. Every religion has an outward and an inward dimension. Islamic tradition has so much to do with the inward dimension of faith. Shariah or rules alone cannot create the ambiance.

For instance, the Catholic Church has very deep spiritual tradition. Some of their saints like Saint Thomas, Saint Aquinas, Saint Augustine, they are like the Rumis of the Christian world. They say these metaphysical truths correspond to all the religions. But where is that today? The intellectual tradition of Christianity was eclipsed due to modernity.

And in the Muslim world, to a certain degree, this is also taking place. There is some inferiority (complex), and so we submit, partly because intellectually we are not able to respond. When you sit with an atheist, sometimes you don’t know how to respond, so you scream like a child and respond sentimentally.

• Do you follow a particular teacher or Sheikh?

No I don’t have a particular Sheikh. I’ve various teachers, people I listen to and I read their books.

• Some people call you the ‘biggest Rock Star’ of the Islamic world. How do you respond to that?

It’s an oxymoron. It’s weird but they are only trying to complement me. I think there is a big demand for the kind of music we do. The sounds of our music have been a part of the Islamic tradition, we only added English to it and we added different languages.

There is music that is inspired by faith. For my music, I try not to give it a religious name because then you limit yourself. I’m very happy if a Christian person wants to become more Christian through my music. The world is not suffering because of religion; the world is suffering because of a lack of religion.

• What can you tell us about your recent animated video project?

“It’s a Game” was released a month ago. It has got 600,000 views by the grace of God. It’s basically a response to the controversial Danish caricature of the Prophet (PBUH) back in 2007. It also happened to coincide with the anti-Islam film that came out recently. The best thing I thought I could do was respond to satire with satire. In the video I’m there with members of all other religions. I’ve got the Jewish Rabbi, Christian Priest, Buddhist Monk, and this unity of religions is very important. An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions.

• Tell us about your new album.

The album is dedicated to peace. I focused on different themes, which are more or less always connected to the Sacred. It’s a very personal album. There is a lot of trouble in the world and the theme song Salaam basically talks about coming together.

The Peninsula