May
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Week 12: Sufi Rock
May 3, 2016 | Comments Off on Week 12: Sufi Rock
For this week, I chose to focus on one fascinating aspect of the way Islam is portrayed in the world today: Sufi rock. In addition to being simply a form of entertainment, Sufi rock music has been utilized in programs to alter the way in which Islam is presented. In Rebel Music, Hisham D. Aidi discusses a 2004 conference on the potential role of Sufism in American foreign policy: “The participants–academics, policy wonks, and representatives of various government agencies–praised Sufism’s tolerance, talked about Salafi hostility to Sufism, and pondered how the U.S. could ally with Sufi brotherhoods” (70). Sufism itself was seen as an appealing portion of Islam, and one that fit more closely with American “values” than the popular perception of the religion. One of the major ways in which the Western world experienced Sufism throughout this period was through music. Additionally, he writes, “For Sufi activists, music was a way to proclaim their difference from Salafis, win over public opinion, and touch ‘at-risk’ youth” (75).
In this work, I included a number of pictures that are traditionally associated with Islam–mosques, calligraphy, and whirling dervishes. They are seen in pieces through the silhouette of an electric guitar, representing one “lens” through which Islam is seen. The collage also emphasizes the juxtaposition between the traditional and the modern: mosques and rock music. Although these two don’t seem to go together at all at first glance, in this picture the more traditional images together make up the image of the new element.
The medium of the collage is appropriate for this particular topic because just as listening to Sufi rock only offers glimpses of one perspective on Islam, the picture only shows fragments of the individual pictures of elements of Muslim culture. However, it does show those fragments, offering some form of lens into the religion through the medium of music.