Lubna Agha: Inheritance from a Loss
Visit the website of Lubna Agha, an honored Pakistani painter based in America (the link is listed towards the end of this article); you can read these lines on the Homepage: Amongst the foremost contemporary American-Pakistani artists is Lubna Agha, whose images challenge the immovable qualities of traditional Islamic art and artifacts to provide a […]
Alim’s Combat Linguistics: The Struggle for Equanimity
Dr H Samy Alim is a linguist or combat linguist, to use the apt phrase employed by Geneva Smitherman, Dr. G University Distinguished Professor of English and Director who wrote the foreword to the Roc Mic Right, Alim’s third book on the Hip-Hop. Combat linguists always search for the ruptures in the official pedagogy or […]
Reconciling Cat And Yusuf
How well I remember the sixties and the seventies, that singular musical era! Styles and genres mixed and mingled in an effervescence of creativity and non-conformism, in a search for meaning and renewal that was as singular as it could be troubling. In the London of July 1975 the songs of Cat Stevens could be […]
Edward Said and Music: Love, Text and Metaphor
Despite being a vibrant music critic, Edward Said is rarely remembered as such. His magnum Opus Orientalism has established him as an analyst of texts, which, though music is a text too, most of us associate with literature. It does not mean that Said has not written extensively about music; indeed he did. But no […]
Why Are Muslims So Boring?
For the last 25 years, my wife has been doing semi-voluntary work at a special school near where we live. It is a small school for pupils with physical disability or delicate health needs who need a structured and particularly supportive learning environment. Every year, the school holds a special assembly to celebrate the beginning […]
Modern Russian Islamic music traditions: History and relationships with Islamic regions
The relationships of Islamic music traditions in Russia and Islamic regions: Near and Middle East, Central Asia, have started from the 7th century. Since this time in the territory of Northern Caucasus has lived Arabian people, whose culture has rendered influence on local traditions.Derbent city in Dagestan has played the important role in spreading of Islamic traditions. […]
Thera hips around, We gonna hop
Wholesale destruction around someone can influence her in two ways: personally, the trauma can unsettle her; culturally she will begin venting anger to the trauma in a medium which she uses to express herself. This general statement regarding war and self-formation as well as war and creativity is eloquently expressed by YasinAlsalman, the hip-hop singer […]
Islam and Music
IT is often said that music is forbidden in Islam and this assertion is repeated by many contemporary Muslims as well as by orientalists. Yet, when one studies the Islamic world, either in its present form or during various stages of its history, one is startled by the presence of music in many of the […]
Modern University Challenged
This paper begins by reviewing the history of modern universities, noting their changes in terms of societal demands and the availability of funding and with an eye toward understanding their different roles and new outcomes. Based on this understanding, the paper then raises questions about the relevance of curricula to the needs and concerns of […]
Mappila Songs: As pendulum swings between the Past and Present
Each community does have a distinct musical sub-conscious and the task of a critic is to demarcate the distinctiveness. The musical sub-conscious will get reflected in their slang, dress, cuisine and other features. The musical sub-conscious of the Mappila community can be analyzed by dissecting the lyrics and structures of Mappila songs. Such an analysis, […]
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