Heavy Metal in Baghdad

http://heavymetalinbaghdad.com/

Junoon [Pakistan]: Allah Hu live at Central Park

www.junoon.com

Harum Scarum: Elvis Presley School of Foreign Policy?

Harum Scarum: 1001 Swingin' nights

Elvis brings his Big Beat to Bagdad in a riotous rockin' rollin' adventure spoof!!!

Elvis in a land of Arabian daze and nights.

"Go East Young Man," sings show-biz star and martial arts wiz Johnny Tyrone. To hear is to obey. A clandestine group called the Assassins kidnaps Johnny and whisks him to a remote Arabian realm isolated from the world for 2,000 years.

Sheik meets desert chic...

The kidnappers want Johnny to use his finesse to kill a desert king.

Johnny a hitman?

No, he's a hit, man a top singer of songs like Kismet, Harem Holiday and nine more, all part of the jammin,' swashbucklin' fun of Harum Scarum.

Documentary: “It’s Not a Gun” [Palestine]

“It’s Not a Gun” chronicles the establishment of a music association for the children of Palestine.


Violinist Ramzi Aburedwan walks through a Palestinian refugee camp. His music association, Al Kamandjati, introduces Palestinian children to the art of live music. What does it mean for people to have music while living under military occupation? (Photo courtesy of CPFF).

It’s Not a Gun chronicles the triumphs and travails of al-Kamandjâti (the violinist), a summer music school in Ramallah for Palestinian children. Soaring spirits prevail through the film’s plentiful music, while the school’s founder, violinist Ramzi Aburedwan, and his multi-national cohorts face daily problems ranging from obstruction at checkpoints to efforts by vigilante religious extremists to shut them down.

Read more: Electronic Intifada Ramallah Online

SlingShot Hip Hop: The Palestinian Lyrical Front

SlingShot Hip Hop is a documentary film that focuses on the daily life of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel. It aims to spotlight alternative voices of resistance within the Palestinian struggle and explore the role their music plays within their social, political and personal lives. Coming Soon.

http://www.slingshothiphop.com/

Reem Kelani, UK/Palestine: Sprinting Gazelle

As Nazarene Women Crossed the Meadow(Qata'en an-Nasraawiyyaat)


Reem Kelani is a Diaspora Palestinian singer, musician and broadcaster. She was born in Manchester, raised in Kuwait and is now based in London. Her father comes from Ya’bad near Jenin in the West Bank and her mother from Nazareth in Galilee.

In her music, Kelani does not separate the personal from the collective, or the sacred from the secular. Songs of love, harvest, weddings and separation mix freely with songs of praise and meditation. She views her musical journey as both historical and political, personal and collective. She seeks to point out suffering and to highlight celebration. Her journey is a musical one through the written and oral history of a people who are proud of their collective sense of poetry, stories, music and existence.


Mawwaal (Variations on Loss)
[Mahmoud Darwish]

More audio clips and purchase the CD at:
http://www.reemkelani.com/

Islamic Punk: The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight

The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammed Knight (no relation).

[...taqwacore—a blend of the Arabic word for piety, taqwa, and "hard-core," the English word for musicians who want to be taken very seriously.]

Set in a Muslim punk-house in Buffalo, New York, this novel explores the twin identities of punk and Islam in their many varieties and degrees of orthodoxy. The story here is primarily with the characters -- such as Umar, the straight-edge Sunni; Rabeya, the burqa-clad riot grrl; Jehangir, the dope-smoking mohawked Sufi (who plays rooftop calls-to-prayer on his electric guitar) -- and their collective articulation of a heresy-friendly, pluralist Islam. Full of punk references (real and invented) and enough Arabic phrases to fully deck out your skateboard, The Taqwacores is a great introduction to the cracks in the surface of mainstream Islam with a peculiarly American face.

Brian Whittaker, for the Guardian:

I'm a bit apprehensive but I hope British Muslim organisations will be sensible about it and think twice before protesting. They complain - rightly - about being stereotyped in the media, and The Taqwacores is a powerful antidote to that (which is one good reason why it should be read and circulated as widely as possible).

The book is an easy, funny read but, at another level and without labouring the point, it's also profoundly challenging. It addresses - in a way that's shocking but ultimately positive - questions of identity that are faced, to some extent, by all young Muslims growing up in the west.

Of course, there will be people who insist that the characters in the book are not "true" Muslims. I'm guessing, but I think this is the main point Knight wanted to raise. How do you define a "true" Muslim? On what grounds? And does anyone have the right to judge?

Thanks to Ted Swedenberg

Souad Massi [Algeria]: Yemma

Souad Massi [Algeria]: Ilham

Yasmin Levy [Israel]: La Alegria

http://www.myspace.com/yasminlevy