A singer is murdered for his music

A singer is murdered for his music

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norman lebrecht

June 22, 2016

The Sufi vocalist Amjad Sabri, one of the foremost singers in Pakistan, was shot down today on the streets of Karachi.

The Taliban boasted they did it, denouncing his music as blasphemous.

How can music blaspheme?

How?

 

AMJAD-SABRI-QAWAL-PAKISTAN-640x427

Bhar Do Jholi Meri Ya MUHAMMAD – Amjad Sabri… by islaamonline

Comments

  • Eric Shanes says:

    “How can music blaspheme?”

    To the profoundly fascist mind all human creativity feels threatening.

  • Neil van der Linden says:

    He was one of the outstanding masters of Sufi music, the Pakistani variety, named Qawwali. Sufism is a centuries old form of Islam, some say the original comprehensive form of Islam, fiercely battled however by the Salafist Wahhabist movement of which the one originating in what is now Saudi-Arabia is the most influential. The Saudi form of Islam was spread around since the beginning of the twentieth century, first when the Saud family conquered most of the Arab peninsula, leading to the state of Saudi-Arabia, and secondly when that royal family found out that it had oil under their feet in the newly conquered territories. So petrodollars paid for proselytising for this strict, puritanic in fact newly constructed form of Islam. All this by he way with tacit consent by the US, after the so called Bitter Lake meeting between the US and Saudi-Arabia. See for this the magnificent 2015 BBC documentary Bitter Lake by Adam Curtis, all on you.

    • John Borstlap says:

      The West needed the oil, that’s why.

      One just tries to figure-out what goes on in these crazy heads: would they want to extinguish every person who does not agree with their idea of ‘truth’? Probably, yes.

      The Pakistani Quawallis are beautiful ballades of great poetry…. their performances are half-religious gatherings, with approving murmurings after each well-delivered phrase, in an atmosphere of timeless devotion. Very touching.

  • Ellingtonia says:

    Norman
    A recent visit by the OFSTED school inspectors to an Islamic school here in the UK found that leaflets had been left out for the students indicating that “music, singing and dancing were the works of the devil” and are haram (forbidden) in islam. We have got these hard line islamic nutters in the UK also, usually hidden away in mosques where they preach their message of hatred for non-muslims. Talk about the “enemy within”…………

    • Neil van der Linden says:

      Absolutely. And all this comes because the Saudi’s were permitted to proselytise among the Muslims in the world in exchange for smooth oil delivery.
      Now this also backfires against the Saudi’s, but still they have this double approach.

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