NY Event: "Common Chords" concert featuring Salman Ahmad - 5/1 - 4:30 pm

“COMMON CHORDS” CONCERT AT QUEENS COLLEGE ON MAY 1
CELEBRATES CULTURAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND JEWS

--Mohammad Salman Hamdani, Queens College Graduate Who Died a Hero
on September 11, 2001, To Be Honored--

FLUSHING, NY, April 20, 2007—“Common Chords,” a celebration of Muslim and Jewish music, will be presented at Queens College on Tuesday, May 1 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm in LeFrak Concert Hall. Featuring Salman Ahmad of Junoon, South Asia’s most popular rock band, and Yale Strom, the world’s leading Klezmer artist, the concert is the final event in a semester-long series on bridging the cultural divide between Muslims and Jews. It is part of “The Middle East and America: Clash of Civilizations or Meeting of the Minds,” Queens College History Professor Mark Rosenblum’s nationally acclaimed project to promote understanding and informed discussion about the Middle East conflict on campus, in high schools, and in the larger community. This project is an initiative of the Michael Harrington Center at Queens College and the Taft Institute.

The evening will also include “Shared Traditions,” an on-screen photographic essay on the common aspects of Islam and Judaism. This will be presented by Gul Rukh Rahman and Ari Alexander, co-directors of the international online organization Children of Abraham. Begun in 2004 by Alexander, an American Jewish man, and Maria Ali-Adib, a Syrian Muslim woman, the organization strives for a deeper understanding between the two faiths through a photographic exploration of similarities in their rituals and customs.

Queens College alumnus Mohammad Salman Hamdani will also be honored at the Common Chords event. A Pakistani Muslim American who died saving lives on September 11, 2001, Hamdani was at first unfairly suspected of abetting the attack on the World Trade Center. His mother, Talat Hamdani, will be presented with an inscribed plaque commemorating her son’s heroism. A reception featuring Halal and Kosher cuisine will close the evening.

This event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Office of the President, the Michael Harrington Center and the Taft Institute. Funding is provided, in part, by the Ford Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. For further information, call (718) 997-3070. For directions to Queens College, visit http://www.qc.cuny.edu/about/directions.php.

Brooklyn Qawwali Party: Humanity's best bridge-builder

Right in line with my passion and zeal for anything BQP, i've pasted an article below which I wrote this past weekend after attending their CD release party. Happy reading!

New York Diary | Humanity’s best bridge-builder

Despite all the smear tactics and propaganda that we encounter through the world’s mass media outlets regarding Pakistan, the country has still been fortunate enough to be home to millions of hospitable, compassionate people who strive to make this world a safer, better place for all. I could go on and on with the names of Pakistanis from the world of finance to art, from architecture to science, from fashion to films, who have certainly made a marked difference in the lives of their fellow citizens, but more importantly, whose impact can be felt by people across borders, in faraway lands.

It is in such times that I cannot help but be saddened by the absence of the great singer, late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It may have been 10 years since his untimely death, but for those of us who were enraptured by his musical genius, it seems just like yesterday. Thankfully, his memory has been kept alive by countless musicians and non-musicians alike, and it is these people to whom we owe much gratitude. In this day and age, music can do, and has done, a great service to the cause of peace, unity and harmony. But it is indeed a pleasant surprise when the ones who carry the torch forward do not understand the language the song is sung in.

This is what enthralled me most the first time I went to see the Brooklyn Qawwali Party (BQP) perform in late 2005. None of the 14 or so band members understood Urdu, or for that matter, the taal and raags being used, yet they still managed to keep the essence of Nusrat’s music alive as they played their string, percussion and wind instruments with fervour and enthusiasm that night many months ago.

BQP has since come full circle now, having released their first CD consisting of four songs: Mustt mustt, Mann kunto Maula, Beh haad ramza dhasdha, and Allah hoo. Needless to say, the songs energise and captivate the listener, but what continues to amaze me is how experiential their concerts can be, much like when Nusrat performed. None of the band members has seen him live or in person, yet each performs with the same gusto and zest that a Sufi soul performer would.

As I sat in the audience and listened to trumpeter Jesse Neuman introduce the group at their CD release party a few nights ago, I was humbled and elated. Here were some regular, all-American folks who happened to listen to his music and have now become not only diehard fans, but also propagators of Nusrat’s noble message. “We are honoured to be able to bring Nusrat’s music to you; music that is centuries old and that, we hope, will live on for centuries to come,” Jesse said to a crowd full of people.

Nusrat sang of love for God, for the beloved and for humanity around us. He has touched the lives of millions all over the world. I remember growing up listening to his music and watching countless foreigners, who could not understand a word of what he sang, yet they were in a deep trance and understood that something so compelling could only take one to a higher plane of existence. The words meant nothing, the experience everything.

As BQP’s music makes its way into the hearts of thousands of New Yorkers, one can only marvel at the fantastic job the group is doing to bring the richness of Sufism and Pakistani music to mainstream America. We in South Asia are quite familiar with this heritage, but what to say of those who are only familiar with images of terror suspects? I am honoured that in a post-9/11 world where Pakistanis aim to build alliances and relationships with the rest of the US, they have allies and partners that are doing just as good a job as any ambassador can.

Whoever said building bridges was an engineer’s job?