Yoga contains religious aspects of Hinduism which are forbidden to Muslims
From Reuters
Arabs and Muslims give Obama benefit of doubt
Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:18pm EST
By Jonathan Wright
CAIRO (Reuters) - Arabs and Muslims gave the benefit of some doubt on Wednesday to U.S. President Barack Obama's offer of "a new way forward" with the Muslim world, but many said it would take deeds rather than words to convince them.
After eight years of President George W. Bush, who invaded two Muslim countries and gave strong support to Israel, Arabs and Muslims watched Obama's inaugural speech on Tuesday closely for any sign that U.S. policy toward them will change.
With some exceptions on the fringes, a clear majority said they welcomed a new tone from Obama, who promised relations based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
"This is a speech that reflected a new spirit of dialogue, reaching out and working together. This is a new direction that is certainly not what the Bush administration has been pursuing," said former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University of Beirut, noted Obama's reference to Muslims as a significant part of the patchwork of the United States, an attitude not common in U.S. political discourse.
"The fact that he mentioned Muslims means a lot. This is a symbolic gesture to the Muslim world that they are part of the world. He's inclusive," he said.
In Britain, the umbrella Muslim Council of Britain welcomed Obama's offer of new relations with the Muslim world.
"His intentions are noble. I hope it ends the rift between the United States and the Muslim world, which has grown further and further in the last eight years," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the organization.
ARAB DEMOCRACY
Even in Sudan, which has had poor relations with the United States for years because of disagreements over the conflict in Darfur, the government said it was positive about Obama.
"We are very optimistic... This is based on the background of what (President Obama) has been saying, about a change in foreign policy, about moving away from Iraq," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig.
In Egypt the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which has borne the brunt of repression by a government backed by the United States, said it too saw hope in Obama's words.
"I was happy when I heard him saying the relationship with the Arab and Muslim world should be based on respect," said Essam el-Erian, head of the Brotherhood's political committee.
"We need mutual respect. If this attitude persists, I think it will transform relations between the United States and Arabs," he added.
Gameela Ismail, whose politician husband Ayman Nour has been in jail for three years after challenging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in elections, noted Obama's words on leaders who cling to power through "deceit and the silencing of dissent."
Obama told such leaders that they were "on the wrong side of history." "We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," the U.S. president added.
"This is very strong... The words make anyone feel optimistic about the future, but I hope it will develop into real actions and real policies and strategies," Ismail added.
The George W. Bush administration also promised to make democracy in the Arab world a priority but analysts say it lost interest when Islamists made electoral gains in the region. Arab liberals and democrats felt abandoned and deceived.
SILENT ON GAZA
Many ordinary people were more skeptical that Obama will match his rhetoric with real changes in U.S. policy.
Zoubeir Ben Sassi, a 40-year-old technician in Tunis, said: "We thought that Obama would be different and we hoped that his policy in the Middle East would be fair. But it seemed that he is like his predecessors.
"He was silent over the Gaza massacre... When Israel stopped the war he spoke about a new start with the Muslim world. They are just words and nothing will be done on the ground."
Obama's reluctance to comment during three weeks of Israeli attacks on Gaza reduced expectations in the Arab world that he will adjust the U.S. policy of support for Israel -- the main Arab and Muslim grievance against successive U.S. presidents.
"All of this talk won't result in anything. He's just the same as Bush," said Zahi Abdo, a Lebanese man.
Adil Gatae, 42, a guard at a government building in Baghdad, said: "The West doesn't seek to benefit Islam. Islam for them is a religion of terror. I don't think there will be big change in the course of U.S. policy. These are false promises."
Lebanese political commentator Sateh Noureddin said: "It is change in the language (addressing) the Muslim world but I don't think there will be any change in the essence of the relationship with the Muslim world."
In Morocco Abdelilah Benkirane, chief of the main Islamist opposition party, said he liked Obama's words but doubts he has sufficient freedom of movement to put them into practice.
"We are waiting for action, for deeds. Barack Obama's words are nice but we want to see action. He does not rule America alone. He leads the U.S. on behalf of global companies including the ones that make and sell weapons," he said.
(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux in Beirut, Tunis, Rabat, Cairo, Baghdad, Tehran, Khartoum, Ankara, London and Kuwait; Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
LONDON (Reuters) - British Islamic groups gave a cautious welcome to new U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge to reach out to the Muslim world, saying his policies needed to match his words.
In his inauguration address on Tuesday, Obama promised a "new way forward" based on "mutual interest and mutual respect" following tensions that followed the September 11 attacks, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. support for Israel.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the new president's intentions were "noble."
"I hope it ends the rift between the US and the Muslim world which has grown further and further in the last eight years," Bari said.
"As a first step, I hope the president will address the tragedy in Gaza. The strength of feeling against what the Israelis have done should not be underestimated."
Former President George W. Bush's foreign policy led to much anger among Muslims and is regarded by many commentators as acting as a recruiting sergeant for extremists in Britain.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, said the fact that Obama spent time as a child in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, would help Muslims warm to him.
But he said what Obama did would be more important than his words.
"He will be judged on his actions not based on his rhetoric, not based on soundbites," he said.
He said they wanted to see equal treatment of Palestinians in the Middle East and an end "to the occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation the government threatened to ban after the July 7, 2005 London bomb attacks, said "a makeover" did not amount to the "remaking" of America Obama promised.
"America is not one man, it is its institutions," a spokesman said.
"Moreover, many Muslims will feel that Obama's poetic rhetoric and criticism of Bush's failings can't hide the fact that he has threatened to bomb Pakistan, vowed to escalate the Afghanistan war, expressed unreserved support for Israel and will likely continue the long-standing US policy of supporting oppressive dictators in the Muslim world."
(Reporting by Michael Holden)
From Reuters
Indonesia Islamic body to mull ban on smoking and yoga
Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:19am GMT
By Olivia Rondonuwu
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's top Islamic body meets at the weekend
for what looks set to be a hot theological debate on a range of issues
including whether Muslims should be allowed to smoke, abstain from
voting or even do yoga.
Officially secular, Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim
population, accounting for roughly 85 percent of the country's 226
million people. Most follow a moderate form of Islam, although there
is vocal radical fringe.
About 700 people, including Muslim clerics and theological experts,
are due in West Sumatra for the National Edict Commission meeting,
which has the power to issue fatwas.
"There will be debate before we reach conclusions. We need to listen
to the pros and cons and it's likely to be a hot debate," said Ma'ruf
Amin, a chairman of the Ulema Council, known as MUI.
The MUI has carved a key role for itself in Indonesia and its
pronouncements on everything from Islamic banking to halal food can
have a big influence on Southeast Asia's top economy.
The fatwas are not legally binding but place pressure on Muslims to
adhere to them and can influence government policy.
A call from some ulema, or religious councils, for a ban on smoking
will be discussed at the meeting in Padang Panjang, around 870 km (540
miles) north west of the capital Jakarta.
The motion has also ready met opposition from councils in parts of
east and central Java, where the tobacco industry is a key part of the
economy.
Indonesia is the world's No. 5 tobacco market and at around $1 (73
pence) a pack, cigarettes are among the cheapest in the world.
Some cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, have banned smoking in
public places, but the rules are widely flouted.
The Ulema Council was established in 1975 under the influence of
former autocratic president Suharto, backing his policy of trying to
restrict families to having just two children despite opposition from
some Muslims.
It has since reinvented itself in the post-Suharto era, with some
members pushing a more radical agenda, including pressing the
government to restrict some Muslim sects or liberal groups.
The weekend meeting will also debate whether Muslims should avoid yoga
because of the view it uses Hindu prayers that could erode Muslims'
faith.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi intervened last year to
say that Muslims could carry on doing yoga minus chanting after its
National Fatwa Council had issued a ban.
The Sumatra meeting will also debate whether abstaining from voting is
"haram," or not allowed. Indonesia holds legislative and presidential
elections in April and July, respectively.
Abdurrahman Wahid, a former president and leader of Indonesia's
biggest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, has advised his supporters not
to vote amid dissatisfaction with politics.
Underage marriage will also be debated after an Islamic cleric last
year incited uproar when he married a 12-year old girl with her
parents consent.
Under Indonesian law, men can marry at 19 and women at 16, although
under some Islamic laws there is no age limit.
| From Voice of America Muslim Nations React to Obama Inaugural Speech | |
| Washington 22 January 2009 | |
Many Muslim nations are welcoming Barack Obama as the new president of the United States - yet there are also expressions of caution over whether much will really change in U.S. relations with the Muslim world.
 |
| President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol, 20 Jan 2009 |
"I could expect something better because he said that he will deal with the Muslim world, the Islamic world in a new way, Daraghmeh said."
In Iraq, the government expressed its hope to have the U.S. withdraw its troops even before the end of 2011 - the departure date agreed to by former President Bush.
"Iraqis were worried from the premature withdrawal of the troops, but with the vision which has been clarified from the new administration, as well as the improvement in the security situation in Iraq, the Iraqi government is willing," said Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman.
In Afghanistan, former Taliban official Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef denounced Mr. Obama's plan to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Others in the country argue the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan will bring more insecurity.
But some members of parliament are more optimistic about the intentions of the new American president.
"Last night, Obama's speech was very crystal clear," said Shukria Barakzai, a member of the Afghan parliament. He says that mutual understanding, mutual respect, this is what Muslims want.
Following President Obama's inauguration, there were also mixed feelings in Tehran.
The Iranian government says it is waiting to see what practical steps President Obama will take toward Tehran - which has been at odds with the United States over its nuclear program.
But a Tehran resident was optimistic.
"I think it is the best opportunity for Iran to improve its relations with the U.S. because this absence of ties with America has imposed a pressure on us from all countries, and this way we can reduce the pressure," the man said.
In Indian Kashmir, some expect a different U.S. policy because there were reports Mr. Obama may appoint a special envoy to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
"The foreign policy of the United States would be the same as earlier but would be a little different since they have come with a different agenda and a different background," says Khursheed-Ul-Islam, a political expert.
In Kenya, at the school named after President Obama, the sentiments were personal.
"Obama became something and we believe that he will inspire our students and that they will work hard," said Lamek Awinyo, who teaches at the school. "And they will become something in the society."
President Obama made history Tuesday as the first African-American president to be inaugurated. He is riding a wave of hope in the United States and in the rest of the world as he prepares to set out a new course in U.S. relations with Muslim nations.
From the International Herald Tribune
Egypt persecutes Muslim moderates
By Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Friday, January 23, 2009
Many Americans do not realize that there is a war being waged in Egypt against Muslim reformers. These reformers call themselves "Koranists" because they focus solely on the Koran and advocate a modern interpretation of Islam that rejects Shariah law.
These self-declared leaders of the "Islamic Reformation" number in the thousands and are connected globally through the Internet. For nearly a decade, as this movement has gained momentum, they have come under increased attack from the Egyptian government for their religious ideas. Al Azhar University, which is based in Cairo and is the leading center for conservative Sunni learning in the world, has rejected the views of the Koranists and has sought to systematically dismantle the movement.
To curry favor with this influential religious establishment, the Egyptian government has brutally cracked down on members of the Koranist movement, leading to the imprisonment and torture of over 20 members and the exile of many more. This unique collaboration between the government and Islamic traditionalists refutes current claims by the state that Egypt is secular and that it is working to fight extremism and terrorism.
In the latest effort to destroy this fledgling reform movement, a young Koranist blogger named Reda Abdel Rahman was arrested on Oct. 27 and charged with "insulting Islam." Rahman's popular blog criticizes the religious establishment - largely based on his training at Al Azhar. His blog calls for widespread religious and political reform in Egypt and the larger Muslim world. According to Rahman's lawyers, his arrest was requested by the head of Al Azhar after Rahman refused to suspend his blog. He was then detained and tortured in an unknown location for over a month until international pressure forced the government to disclose his whereabouts.
"The Egyptian security position against Reda is incomprehensible" said Heba Abdel Rahman, Reda's sister. "They allow visits to the families of Muslim Brotherhood detainees, but they would not allow us the same rights. When we protested they pointed their guns at us, threatened to open fire, and threw us out of the police station."
Six local human rights organizations have volunteered to defend Reda and sent lawyers to his interrogation. "It was like an inquisition from the Middle Ages," said Ahmed Samih, head of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies. "The Egyptian general prosecutor was asking Reda whether he prays or not, how he prays, and why he denies some of the Sunni traditions."
Prominent Egyptian activists like Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim blame the Egyptian Emergency Law for the human rights abuses characterized by Rahman's arrest. The law, which was enacted after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, effectively suspended the Constitution and allowed the government unprecedented powers. While the government insists that the law is important in the fight against terrorism, Ibrahim asserts that it is being used instead to limit the freedom of reformers.
"The government promised to use emergency laws only in terrorism cases," he said. "The irony is that the Emergency Law is now being used against bloggers who use the Internet to fight terrorism!"
In a surprising twist, the Egyptian High National Security Court has ordered Rahman's release. Despite this ruling - and the unprecedented statement by the court that "arresting people solely on the basis of their religious beliefs is not acceptable" - Rahman remains in prison.
This refusal by the state to execute the court's order is clear evidence of the collaboration between Egypt's security establishment and the religious institutions against any reform.
Islamic reformers in Egypt face severe political obstacles in their efforts to confront religious extremists. It is important that the United States and the international community reaffirm their support for Reda and his fellow Muslim reformers in order to ensure that those fighting for an "Islamic Reformation" are successful.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour is president of the International Quranic Center in Washington.
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS), which has mounted protests against the United States over its support of Israel, said that concertgoers would also contribute to an outflow of local currency to the United States.
"Whether Rihanna realises it or not, we know that the taxes she has paid also contributed to the war in Gaza," Kamaruzaman Mohamad, a PAS youth wing leader, told the Star daily.
Kamaruzaman said that the show planned for February 13, part of Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad" tour, would be an insult to Asian values as she often performed suggestively and wore skimpy outfits.
The event was "akin to insulting Eastern culture, belittling local artistes, internationally causing losses to the country's economy and supporting Israel's war policy, which is supported by America," he said.
Kamaruzaman urged authorities who issued concert permits in Muslim-majority Malaysia to reject the organiser's application.
The concert's sponsor told the daily that Rihanna has agreed to follow local regulations for her performance but did not give details.
US singer Beyoncé scrapped a planned concert in Malaysia last year due to fears of protests, while Gwen Stefani went ahead with a performance but was forced to cover up after complaints about her outfits.
PAS also mounted protests against Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne's concert last year after failing to have it banned, saying her performance would weaken the younger generation "morally and mentally".
(New York, January 13, 2009) - Drs Kamiar and Arash Alaei, Iranian brothers who are known worldwide for their work as HIV/AIDS physicians, are among the four Iranian citizens cited today by Iranian authorities as attempting to overthrow the state, Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have learned from reliable sources.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iranian Judiciary spokesperson Ali-Reza Jamshidi told a news conference today that four Iranian citizens had been arrested and brought to the court on charges of "communications with an enemy government" and seeking to overthrow the Iranian government under article 508 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code. Speaking at a press conference, Jamshidi claimed: "They were linked to the CIA, backed by the US government and State Department... They recruited and trained people to work with different espionage networks to launch a velvet overthrow of the Iranian government." Jamshidi added that further details of the case would be forthcoming in the next two days.
PHR, HRW, and ICHRI believe the charge of plotting a coup is being brought unfairly, without the brothers being given the chance to adequately defend themselves. Their trial was marked by clear violations of due process. The Alaeis' human rights have been violated and their commitment to public health worldwide has been misrepresented by the Iranian Government as a threat to their regime.
"To all appearances, the arrest and now the trial of these two prominent and widely-traveled AIDS doctors seem to be an effort to shut the door on medical and public health collaboration on global health crises - a policy that is dangerous for the well-being of the Iranian people and for global health," said Frank Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights.
Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have spoken out repeatedly about their concern that these serious charges had been levied without due process. The verdict in the case of the Drs. Alaei is expected this week, following a one-day trial in Tehran's Revolutionary Court on December 31, 2008, on charges of communicating with an "enemy government." At the trial, the Iranian prosecutor also informed the court of additional, secret evidence which the brothers' attorney had no opportunity to refute, because the prosecutor did not disclose them.
"Their prosecution is truly a witch hunt, and it is completely unacceptable to bring such charges against the Alaei brothers," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "Everything they did was transparent with full knowledge and permission of the Iranian government, including participation in an exchange program on public health in November 2006 in the United States."
Over the last week, more than 2,000 people from around the globe contacted the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York City, demanding the Alaeis' release. In addition, 3,100 doctors, nurses, and public health workers from 85 countries have signed an online petition demanding their release, which can be viewed at IranFreeTheDocs.org. Leading physicians and public health specialists and numerous medical and scientific organizations have publicly called for the brothers' release, including HIV/AIDS and health experts, including: Global Fund Executive Director Professor Michel Kazatchkine; Partners in Health co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer; 2008 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH; Hossam E. Fadel, MD, of the Islamic Medical Association of North America; 1993 Nobel Laureate in Medicine Sir Richard Roberts PhD, FRS; and Ugandan AIDS pioneer Dr. Peter Mugyenyi.
"This case is just one more example of how under President Ahmadinejad's administration, Iran's human rights record has reached new lows," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Ahmadinejad's presidency has created an intense atmosphere of fear and intimidation felt even by those working on the expansion of HIV/AIDS services."
Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health in Albany, New York and was expected to resume his studies there this fall. In 2007, he received a Master of Science degree in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
Dr. Arash Alaei is the former director of the International Education and Research Cooperation of the Iranian National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Since 1998, the Drs. Alaei have been carrying out HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs, particularly focused on harm reduction for injecting drug users.
In addition to their work in Iran, the Alaei brothers have held training courses for Afghan and Tajik medical workers and have worked to encourage regional cooperation among 12 Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. Their efforts expanded the expertise of doctors in the region, advanced the progress of medical science, and earned Iran recognition as a model of best practice by the World Health Organization.
For more information visit HRW's action alert on this case.
 | ||
| Nigerian hip hop artist Naziru Ahmed Hausawa |
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Broke and with time on his hands, Naziru Hausawa, an unemployed biology graduate, decided to introduce his own blend of rap and hip hop to the most conservative city in Nigeria's Muslim north, Kano, where authorities wage war against immoral western culture.
That was six years ago. Now Hausawa, 28, is the proud owner of the Golden Goose recording studio, thus named because of the amount of money it brings in.
Some 60 studios, recording home-made rap and hip hop, have sprung up since 2002 in Kano, Nigeria's northern commercial capital, and have turned out 50 albums and hundreds of singles.
"Young people the world over are attracted to western music on the Internet, but here, because of unemployment they decided to record their own music and use it to make a living," said Abdallah Uba Adamu, an anthropology professor at Kano's Bayero University who does research on local rap and hip hop.
But in this conservative Muslim city, the sex and drugs that predominate in the lyrics of much imported rap music have given way to social issues such as poverty and corruption.
"We make songs to make money and we have to respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of our fans who frown at drugs, violence, sex and anything vulgar," local musician Ibrahim Bello, alias Billy-O, told AFP as a muezzin's call to prayer rang out from a mosque behind his studio.
Some of the musicians are attired in traditional style in loose cotton trousers and matching tunics; others have adopted western styles.
Hausawa said employment is getting ever harder to find in Kano. Out of the 500 factories in the city 15 years ago, some 400 have now closed, mainly due to power shortages.
"It is unemployment that has pushed young men with talent to domesticate rap and hip hop as a way of being productive and as a means to financial independence," Hausawa told AFP in his studio.
Recent official figures show that more than half of youths in Kano are unemployed -- a statistic Bello bemoans in his track entitled 'Bamayi'.
"We have finished school, we have no jobs while the son of a big man drives past us in big cars looking down upon us with disdain, while we can't have even three square meals and our parents look at us hopelessly, therefore we rebel", he sings in the local Hausa.
Although Kano is the home of the music industry, the songs are popular throughout the north. And the Kano state authorities are determined that no elements of the global rap culture of drugs and violence should "contaminate" music in northern Nigeria.
"We fear the musicians will copy the lyrics of American rap musicians and imbibe the rap culture of violence and drugs," said Bala Muhammad, head of the Social Reorientation Directorate, a state government agency tasked with improving morals.
Muhammad concedes that "it has not happened so far."
"But moral corruption sets in gradually and if things get out of hand society will be the worse for it," he warned.
"The government wants us to be didactic, singing religious songs and not songs on love and romance which they feel is western and a manifestation of waywardness and moral bankruptcy, but I see their attitude as fanaticism," complained Hausawa as he fiddled with a keyboard.
With a permanent population of nine million and another one million traders who flood into the city everyday from neighbouring towns and countries, Kano is the ideal market for this new music industry. CDs recorded here are found on every street corner and in every traffic jam as young hawkers weave their way among cars.
Yet however worthy their lyrics, the musicians of Kano remain under constant threat of a clampdown from the government and from radical Muslim clerics.
"If the situation degenerates, we will use the same rules we used in sanitizing the film industry," warns Bala Muhammad or the Reorientation Directorate.
In 2007 the Kano government clamped down on the local movie industry, saying it led to immorality. Authorities slapped a six-month ban on film production in so-called "Kannywood" after a sex video shot by a cellphone, but involving a popular local actress, made the rounds in the state.
Around the same time -- proof that its threats against the music industry were not idle -- it jailed hip hop musician Adam Zango for three months for producing a video musical album it considered obscene.
The video showed females in skimpy skirts and jean shorts dancing seductively in a way considered obscene by Kano standards.
Kabiru Shariff, a musician better known as Shaba after the American rap star Shaba Ranks, defends his ranks, saying they should be commended for enticing fans to their "harmless" type of music.
And Professor Adamu feels the government is overreacting.
"Reading crime novels doesn't make one a criminal and in the same way one is not tempted to commit murder by merely holding a knife except if one already intends to," Adamu said.
Hausawa, meanwhile, said the music industry rakes in roughly 100 million nairas (700,000 dollars) yearly.
If the government bans the industry, he warned, young musicians could turn to robberies and violence, thus worsening the already "apallingly high" crime rate in the city.
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Broke and with time on his hands, Naziru Hausawa, an unemployed biology graduate, decided to introduce his own blend of rap and hip hop to the most conservative city in Nigeria's Muslim north, Kano, where authorities wage war against immoral western culture.
That was six years ago. Now Hausawa, 28, is the proud owner of the Golden Goose recording studio, thus named because of the amount of money it brings in.
Some 60 studios, recording home-made rap and hip hop, have sprung up since 2002 in Kano, Nigeria's northern commercial capital, and have turned out 50 albums and hundreds of singles.
"Young people the world over are attracted to western music on the Internet, but here, because of unemployment they decided to record their own music and use it to make a living," said Abdallah Uba Adamu, an anthropology professor at Kano's Bayero University who does research on local rap and hip hop.
But in this conservative Muslim city, the sex and drugs that predominate in the lyrics of much imported rap music have given way to social issues such as poverty and corruption.
"We make songs to make money and we have to respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of our fans who frown at drugs, violence, sex and anything vulgar," local musician Ibrahim Bello, alias Billy-O, told AFP as a muezzin's call to prayer rang out from a mosque behind his studio.
Some of the musicians are attired in traditional style in loose cotton trousers and matching tunics; others have adopted western styles.
Hausawa said employment is getting ever harder to find in Kano. Out of the 500 factories in the city 15 years ago, some 400 have now closed, mainly due to power shortages.
"It is unemployment that has pushed young men with talent to domesticate rap and hip hop as a way of being productive and as a means to financial independence," Hausawa told AFP in his studio.
Recent official figures show that more than half of youths in Kano are unemployed -- a statistic Bello bemoans in his track entitled 'Bamayi'.
"We have finished school, we have no jobs while the son of a big man drives past us in big cars looking down upon us with disdain, while we can't have even three square meals and our parents look at us hopelessly, therefore we rebel", he sings in the local Hausa.
Although Kano is the home of the music industry, the songs are popular throughout the north. And the Kano state authorities are determined that no elements of the global rap culture of drugs and violence should "contaminate" music in northern Nigeria.
"We fear the musicians will copy the lyrics of American rap musicians and imbibe the rap culture of violence and drugs," said Bala Muhammad, head of the Social Reorientation Directorate, a state government agency tasked with improving morals.
Muhammad concedes that "it has not happened so far."
"But moral corruption sets in gradually and if things get out of hand society will be the worse for it," he warned.
"The government wants us to be didactic, singing religious songs and not songs on love and romance which they feel is western and a manifestation of waywardness and moral bankruptcy, but I see their attitude as fanaticism," complained Hausawa as he fiddled with a keyboard.
With a permanent population of nine million and another one million traders who flood into the city everyday from neighbouring towns and countries, Kano is the ideal market for this new music industry. CDs recorded here are found on every street corner and in every traffic jam as young hawkers weave their way among cars.
Yet however worthy their lyrics, the musicians of Kano remain under constant threat of a clampdown from the government and from radical Muslim clerics.
"If the situation degenerates, we will use the same rules we used in sanitizing the film industry," warns Bala Muhammad or the Reorientation Directorate.
In 2007 the Kano government clamped down on the local movie industry, saying it led to immorality. Authorities slapped a six-month ban on film production in so-called "Kannywood" after a sex video shot by a cellphone, but involving a popular local actress, made the rounds in the state.
Around the same time -- proof that its threats against the music industry were not idle -- it jailed hip hop musician Adam Zango for three months for producing a video musical album it considered obscene.
The video showed females in skimpy skirts and jean shorts dancing seductively in a way considered obscene by Kano standards.
Kabiru Shariff, a musician better known as Shaba after the American rap star Shaba Ranks, defends his ranks, saying they should be commended for enticing fans to their "harmless" type of music.
And Professor Adamu feels the government is overreacting.
"Reading crime novels doesn't make one a criminal and in the same way one is not tempted to commit murder by merely holding a knife except if one already intends to," Adamu said.
Hausawa, meanwhile, said the music industry rakes in roughly 100 million nairas (700,000 dollars) yearly.
 | ||
| A street vendor displays CDs of local rap and hip-hop |
 | ||
| Nigerian hip hop artist Naziru Ahmed Hausawa(R) |
January 14, 2009
At past inaugurations, ceremonial prayers uttered on behalf of the incoming president drew about as much attention as the flags on the podium.
Not this year.
Barack Obama's choice of clergy is under scrutiny like no other president-elect before him, alternately outraging Americans on the left and the right as he navigates the minefield of U.S. religion.
"I can't recall any prayers drawing so much attention," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center who specializes in religion in public life.
Gay advocates assailed Obama, while many conservative Christians were heartened, when he invited the Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist who opposes gay marriage, to deliver the inaugural invocation on Tuesday.
The tables turned when Obama asked V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to lead prayers at Sunday's kickoff for the inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial. Gay rights groups rejoiced, while some conservative Christians wrung their hands.
The Inauguration Committee has only released one clergy name so far for the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that caps the inauguration. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first woman president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant group, will deliver the sermon.
The Associated Press has learned additional details.
A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The Islamic Society, based in Indiana, is the nation's largest Muslim group.
Three rabbis, representing the three major branches of American Judaism, will also say a prayer at the service, according to officials familiar with the plans. The Jewish clergy are Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, sources said.
It is also traditional for the incoming administration to ask the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington to lead a prayer. The Most Rev. Donald Wuerl leads the archdiocese.
And like many incoming presidents before him, Obama will attend a service at St. John's Church, dubbed the "Church of the Presidents," before his swearing-in.
Religion has been a lightning rod for Obama since the presidential campaign — from false rumors that he is Muslim to uproar over sermons by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
And interest in the inauguration is higher overall, partly because of its historic nature, the swearing-in of the first African-American president. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a Methodist considered the dean of the civil rights movement, will give the inaugural benediction.
But Obama's choice of clergy is also of greater interest because of the changing landscape of American religion.
The United States is more diverse than ever before, and members of minority faiths yearn to be recognized as fully American.
"In the past, minority groups within Christianity and minority religions on the American scene were not as vocal or as sure-footed and therefore didn't pay as much attention to the inauguration event itself or didn't feel the need to. That's no longer true," said Rabbi James Rudin, who spent three decades leading interreligious outreach for the American Jewish Committee.
Even atheists are newly energized, suing to prevent prayer and mention of God at the swearing-in.
An attorney for Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath, says the president-elect prefers to conclude with the phrase, "so help me God," as presidents before him have done.
Obama's preference was filed last week by Jeffrey Minear, an attorney and administrative assistant to Roberts, as part of a lawsuit by atheists and non-religious groups who sought for years to keep mention of God out of publicly administered oaths.
The Constitution mandates the exact language to be used in the oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Some presidents have added "so help me God."
Most past presidents only had to choose from clergy of the American Protestant establishment. Eventually, inaugural organizers added a priest or bishop to the ceremonies as the Catholic Church in the U.S. grew stronger. Rabbis were sometimes included.
But Protestants are now losing their majority status in the country. The go-to Protestant for inaugural prayer, evangelist Billy Graham, is 90 and off the public stage. No one has, or likely could, take his place as "America's pastor."
The Obama campaign is also partly responsible for the religious focus.
The Democrat spoke openly of his faith during the election, more so than his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, and reached out to believers, hoping to counter the perception that the GOP had cornered the market on God.
"This inaugural is a coming-out party for the Democrats in terms of their religious voice," said Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University. "Democrats found their religious voice in the last election and I think there's interest in seeing how that voice is going to sound."
Haynes said Obama is also carrying the hopes of the many Americans frustrated by the prominence of the Christian right in recent decades, especially in the administration of President George W. Bush. That partly explains the backlash against Warren, he said.
"The sense is it's time to balance that out and to have other voices heard. He's supposed to represent change," Haynes said. "There are many people looking for a symbolic change in tone, especially when it comes to issues of religion and public life."
To gather together as a community of individuals who identify as Muslim culturally, religiously, ideologically and/or politically and also as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), while reconnecting with our faith, our community and with ourselves.
