Musical Muslims

Now here's an encouraging comment from a young Muslim woman Zarqa Nawaz who says that the conservative strictures that have throttled what Muslim world for so long, by outlawing music and dancing for example, are losing their grip because of the widespread use of social media.

I hope that's true because it would be a wonderful thing for the whole world if a social revolution swept through the Muslim world, in the same way that social attitudes in western countries were changed forever (and peacefully) in the 1960s when a new generation of music was born.  

I think I'll make a point of buying a copy of Zarqa's book 'Laughing All the Way to the Mosque' because it sounds like fun. 

Today’s YouTube Muslims don’t care about cartoons 

Zarqa Nawaz - The Sunday Times

Saudi Arabia’s puritanical version of Wahhabi-based Islam, backed by oil money, is finally losing its grip. Social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter, have emboldened a new generation of fed-up Muslims who have decided to research Islam on their own.

For me, the biggest litmus test of change is music and dancing. Growing up I was taught that music with any instrument besides the drum was forbidden. And dancing, well that would inflame passions, so it was a non-starter. Then suddenly Pharrell Williams’s song Happy was being covered by Muslims all over the world, starting with the British version. Bearded men and hijab-wearing women, including Islamic scholars, were dancing and lip-synching to the lyrics.

The conservative element who felt that gyrating Muslims were fodder for hellfire was banished to the comment sections of the YouTube videos. These videos represented a symbolic rejection of the conservative strictures that have throttled the Muslim world for so long.

Muslims demonstrated in anger against Danish cartoons in 2005 depicting the prophet. But that was 10 years ago. In today’s social media age, 10 years is a millennium. Such cartoons no longer outrage most Muslims.

The men who killed the journalists badly miscalculated the feelings of their community. There are not going to be any protests against the cartoons and every mainstream Muslim group and scholar in the world has condemned the murders.

There is much talk that Muslims cannot be referred to as a monolith but it would be safe to say that Muslims are united in their abhorrence of the loss of innocent lives.

From make-up to music, to sitcoms, to stand-up comedy to cartoons, the Muslim world is creating art in genres never explored before. There has probably been more change in the past decade than in the past 100 years. That scares some Muslims who have lost their privileged position. But it’s too late. There’s no way to change the clock. People can’t stay the same. Look at me. I’ve mastered liquid eyeliner. My 14-year-old fundamentalist self would have been appalled.

Zarqa Nawaz is the author of Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, published by Virago next month