In conversation with Pakistan’s leading rock star, Salman Ahmad, from rock band Junoon

With James Crabtree, Managing Editor of Prospect magazine

Wednesday 19 May, 2010, at 1pm

Central London location, TBC

Pakistan has a history of rich cultural expression that is articulated and bolstered through a lively youth scene – over 60% of the population is under 25 years old. Unfortunately, in this historically music-loving country, this cultural legacy has been under-utilized as a means for countering Islamist extremism.  Instead, Pakistani culture is increasingly threatened by extremists who denounce cultural practices as ‘haram’ in an attempt to destroy this rich heritage, while seeking to impose their rigid interpretation of shari’ah. Nor are British Muslims from a Pakistani background immune to such negative influences.

Into this relative void, Salman Ahmad is an individual who has made a brave and inspiring stand against extremism and is testimony to the potential role that ‘soft’ approaches can play. Ahmad and his rock band Junoon have, for decades, been South Asia’s biggest and most successful rock musicians. With Junoon’s latest album due to be released next month and Ahmad’s autobiography, Rock and Roll Jihad: a Muslim Rock Star’s Revolution (2010), Ahmad, who currently lives in the U.S., has risked his life to provide a powerful and expressive new challenge to the stifling dictations of the extremists.

This discussion, that launches a number of appearances at UK universities, intends to highlight the important role that a ‘soft’ approach can play in countering extremism, and promote the need for more popular voices to come out on the side of pluralist Islam in Pakistan and Britain. The topics that will be discussed include

–          The current trends and concerns among Pakistani youth

–          The role that soft approaches like music and art can play in countering extreme ideologies

–          How to bridge the ever-growing divide between Pakistan and ‘the West’

An article about Salman Ahmad’s upcoming visit to the UK was published in The Sunday Times yesterday. The article can be viewed here.

Salman Ahmad

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, and having initially trained as a doctor, Salman Ahmad is now one of South Asia’s most influential cultural figures. He has popularized a blend of western rock and Islamic music called ‘Sufi rock’ that has been hailed as a cultural bridge within South Asia and between the ‘East’ and ‘West’.

In 1990 he founded Junoon, South Asia’s most successful rock band. They faced death threats and harassment from religious extremists and government forces in their early years, but are now referred to as ‘the U2 of South Asia’. Junoon have sold over 25 million albums worldwide and have shared the stage with artists such as Melissa Etheridge, Alicia Keys, Sting, Earth Wind and Fire, and Wyclef Jean. They have performed at the U.N. General Assembly Hall in 2001, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo in 2007 and defied death threats from militants to perform in 2008 in the valley of Kashmir – the first rock concert to be held in Srinagar.

At the same time, Ahmad is a United Nations goodwill ambassador for HIV/Aids and, with his wife Samina, has his own NGO called the Salman & Samina Global Wellness Initiative, which focuses on interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, global health and wellness, and music education.

Ahmad is currently living in New York and has just released his memoirs called Rock and Roll Jihad: a Muslim Rock Star’s Revolution (2010). Junoon’s latest album Rock and Roll Jihad is due to be launched on 1 June 2010. He is working as a professor at Queens College (CUNY) where he teaches music and poetry from Muslim culture.

James Crabtree

James is an editor and essayist at Prospect, Britain’s leading monthly magazine of politics and ideas. At Prospect he has written a number of articles on Pakistan, including one specifically examining the importance of music and television during the 2008/9 protest movements. Before returning to journalism, James most recently worked in the British government (as a policy advisor at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit) and before that as a director at the think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. As a writer, James has also worked at the Economist, while his articles have appeared in Wired, The Financial Times, The Guardian, American Prospect, and others.

Spaces are limited. To reserve a place please email events@quilliamfoundation.org. Please aim to arrive at around 12:45pm so that the event can start promptly at 1pm. It will draw to a close soon after 2pm. A light lunch will be served.