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In this climate of intra-Muslim mudslinging, it seems that only secular institutions can get away with putting Sufi, Shi’a and Sunni on one celebratory platform. |
In considering a festival calling itself Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas I found myself isolating the word "Muslim", and questioning issues of intra-Muslim (in)tolerances and sectarianisms. It is perhaps not an accident, I thought, that the three partner organisers –Asia Society, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the NYU Center for Dialogues – are secular institutions. Their goal is clear – "to offer New York audiences the opportunity to experience the cultural diversity and multiple perspectives that represent the Muslim world".
I retreated from my defensive stance and chose to compose myself differently, turning away from intra-Muslim differences to find a platform from which Muslims of all inclinations can gather and celebrate in unity.
The seemingly simple raison d’être of this festival belies the depth of its implications not so much for its goal of bridging "… the profound lack of understanding between Western and Islamic societies," as stated by Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai, but more so, perhaps, as an opportunity to further positive initiatives on intra-Muslim dialogue, understanding, co-existence, and tolerance.
How It Starts
Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas originated in conversations between Mustapha Tlili (NYU Center for Dialogues Founder and Director) and Karen Brooks Hopkins (President of BAM). In celebrating the festival, the Empire State Building and Brooklyn Borough Hall were lit green from June 5—7, while the festival, from June 5 -14, took place not only at the organizers’ venues, but also at various locations across New York City including American Museum of Natural History, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The New York Public Library.
Involving more than 100 artists and speakers from around the world, the stage was set for an unprecedented festival. The epicenter of the 9/11 tragedies and the consequent "war on terror" now becomes the platform for a massive celebration of the cultural diversity of the Muslim world.
Grammy award-winning West African Griot devout Sufi Youssou NDour headlined the festival. When in the holy month of Ramadan in 2005 he performed and released the album Egypt, an album that is at once deeply personal and religiously expressive, his fellow Senegalese labeled it blasphemous. Along with his one-night gig that opened the festival on June 5, the film I Bring What I Love is "a testament to his Muslim faith and an impassioned plea for a more tolerant view of Islam." There is no doubt the documentary that follows his journey over two years in the wake of the controversies surrounding Egypt is a more vehement plea to Muslims than it is to non-Muslims.
| Where the organizers seek to address the profound lack of understanding between Western and Muslim societies, we are reminded that a festival such as Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas is an opportunity to further positive initiatives on intra-Muslim dialogue, understanding, co-existence, and tolerance. |
Music...always Questionable?
Difference of opinion among Muslims about the (un)acceptability of music (and any other art forms for that matter) and the activities surrounding the performance, and attending of music concerts has always been vociferously enunciated by the "unacceptable" camp. If you trawl the archives of IslamOnline.net’s Ask the Scholar section, and the comments that follow certain articles, you find that the loudest voices belong to those who deem music and concerts haram, and that these begin the slippery slope, consequently leading Muslims to even more haram activities. A lot of these voices may perhaps deem nasheeds to be acceptable, and then there are those who debate on what types of musical instruments are Islamic or not.
I asked Dr Andrea Stanton of the NYU Center for Dialogues about the center's stand on this. She said, "At the center we do not make value judgments about what - art or otherwise - is or is not "Islamic" or "Muslim". However, we do recognize - as scholars and as people engaged on personal and professional levels with various Muslim communities here in the city and elsewhere - that certain art forms, like calligraphy, are often seen as more acceptable or at least more closely entwined with religious practice, while others, like dance, are seen as less acceptable or at least further from religious practice. We recognize that the faithful and the learned of many religions wrestle with the question of the value of various art forms, but we do not see our role as one of issuing either moral or aesthetic judgments.
"With Muslim Voices we are focussing on celebrating the rich interplay between individual expression, cultural influence, and religious faith that goes into the arts of today's Muslim world." she added.
Art as a Solution?
In this climate of intra-Muslim mudslinging, it seems that only secular institutions can get away with putting Sufi, Shi’a and Sunni on one celebratory platform.
Could the arts be used as a possible platform? Dr Stanton continued, "We see art as a very powerful means of creating connections between individuals, and of challenging broad stereotypes by providing experiential moments of beauty, of paradox, of complexity, and of intellectual, spiritual, and/or emotional power."
"With regards to Muslim Voices, we feel that the artists who will be performing and/or participating in the conference have a singular ability to communicate with audiences through their work."
The organisers of the festival speak of connecting Muslims and non-Muslims, but I suspect Muslim interest and involvement in such festivals, be they as artists, passive or active participants, can contribute to positive connections between Muslims as well. Indeed, fundamentally in terms of belief, we as individual Muslims have more in common than we have in difference. Perhaps we would do well to stand firm on this common ground and look beyond it to learn and celebrate the differences in our colours, nations, tribes and tongues.
In the course of the festival perhaps some Muslims might feel inclined to clap in appreciation of Kamilya Jubran’s haunting vocals and tap directly into the struggles of a Palestinian, move to Faiz Ali Faiz’s qawwali and question why Taliban militants target artists in Pakistan, be inspired to retrace the steps of Ibn Battuta after the film Journey to Mecca and re-discover Islam’s golden heritage, travel to Avignon to make contact with the growing Muslim community in France.
Perhaps these will be the Muslims who will work from a position of diverse knowledge and perspective, strengthen Muslim bonds and build a unity in diversity in the face of international inter-religious relations. And perhaps there will be Muslims who will castigate and continue to judge fellow Muslims, look disdainfully on the arts, and the festival. But perhaps if you choose to do so, then remember as Muslims, that Muslim "…blood, honor, and property are inviolable", that variance in opinion is "a mercy", that at the last Allah alone judges, and that He made us as different as we are similar.
Where the organizers seek to address the profound lack of understanding between Western and Muslim societies, we are reminded that a festival such as Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas is an opportunity to further positive initiatives on intra-Muslim dialogue, understanding, co-existence, and tolerance.
Perhaps the state of the world will benefit from more of such platforms that bring Muslims of all inclinations to gather and celebrate in unity.
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