The Sufi musician who just keeps snatching the headlines away from the terrorists

Well, at least on this blog he does.

In part 7 of my 10-part interview with one of Bangladesh's most popular musicians, Mac Haque, lead singer of the band Maqsood O'dHAKA, I ask him whether the global jihad movement will change Islam in the world. See the Intro to this series and Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the interview here.

This was his response:

It is only a matter of time that a ‘truce’ of some kind will be declared in this WoT, which many liberals and conservatives regard as a war against Islam. I don’t know how or when this will happen, but perhaps it will require a ‘regime change’ in Washington.

The examples being set in Bangladesh are unique and many Islamic nations would benefit from emulating our model. Bangladesh can lead the Islamic world importantly by showing how it always helps to go that extra mile to defuse friction and strife.

Be sure and check out one of his concert videos on the YouTube link provided below.

And stay tuned, tomorrow Mac will be giving some advice for the West.

A Sufi Baul Minstrel grabs the headlines (at least on this blog) from the extremists

Today in Part 6 of our series on Mac the Man, otherwise known as Mac Haque, the lead singer of the great Bangladeshi band Maqsood O'dHAKA, Mac, as you will see below will answer two question. Be sure to scroll down to see Parts 1-5, not to mention the Introduction to this series on Alternative Voices from the Islamic World. And check out his music! You can find links in previous posts.

Will the jihadist movement change Islam in Bangladesh?

I think the reason why Bangladesh has for the most part been spared by Jihadist extremism is because of the value we place on Ijtihad and in our Sufi traditions. Ijtihad is widely practiced. Ijtihad is the Islamic tradition of inquiry, assessment, fact sorting, scripture analysis, logic and proof. The Sufi twist is that we do this to music.

In the far flung backwaters of rural Bangladesh, for example, Ijtihad is used to resolve disputes and in its musical form – part of our Sufi tradition - it is often the only form of ‘entertainment’ in many rural villages. I have a keen interest in Ijtihad music and collect many of these extraordinary songs.

Ijtihad is also part of the Baul quest for spiritual transcendence. Baul is a Bengali and Bengladeshi system of thought that combines elements of Sufi Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and has inspired Bengali and Bangladeshi musicians and poets for hundreds of years. I see myself as part of this Baul tradition. [UNESCO designated Baul as one of the "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" in 2005.]

Our rural culture in Bangladesh is neither backward nor close-minded. It’s the urban centers that produce the most of the communal and extremist elements!

Is sharia a solid basis for the modern polity?

A technical question indeed. Conservative Muslim thinkers would argue that sharia is ‘unchanging and unchangeable’ but is still appropriate even in modern circumstances.

Contemporary thinkers, on the other hand, say that sharia can be modified to adjust for the new conditions. This is where Ijtihad or debate comes in. If Ijtihad is allowed then, they say, sharia is appropriate even for a modern polity.

Bangladesh legislation is not based on sharia. Rather, it is modeled on the British system of law. Other than Family Law, where disputes are adjudicated in Islamic courts, everything else is secular.

By the way, I believe the development of Jihad and Ijtihad simultaneously does not in any way indicate that we are in a degenerative phase at this point of history, but rather, shows we are finally waking up from our collective slumber of centuries.

Here's a Muslim that should be getting headlines: A pious Muslim who rocks and....

Well, all that you'd imagine a rock star doing....

Ok, maybe not ALL you'd imagine - I know there are plenty of overactive imaginations out there - and this is one rocker who stayed married to his childhood sweetheart until her untimely death in 2004....

So on that incredibly sad but also so entirely romantic note, meet Mac Haque, lead singer of the Bangladeshi band Maqsood O'dHAKA.

I introduce you to him in order to bring you alternative voices from the world of Islam. This is part 5 of my 10-part email interview with Bangladesh's "Poet of Impropriety," rocker, rasta, activist Mac Haque, otherwise better known as the lead singer of one of Bangladesh's leading bands, Maqsood O'dHAKA.

(Here is the introduction to this series, along with Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

But before you start reading, why not download some of his music for background?

Today's question for Mac was "What is Bangladesh doing to counter extremism?" Here is his response:

On the surface there is zero tolerance for Islamic extremism. Anybody found in possession of a Jihadist leaflet is subject to arrest and imprisonment. The laws are harsh. And as is the case in most nations fighting the War on Terror, there have been many violations of basic human rights. The state does what it has to in order to receive applause from the West.

But the real war is being fought culturally. The Sufi and Vaishnavite influences in our culture that have roots in Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as Islam, are the real ‘weapons of choice.’

After the series of 2005 bomb attacks and assassinations of judges, the Government activated an elite anti-terrorist police commando called the Rapid Action Battalion. Hundreds of mullahs linked to the Jama’atul Mujahideen, an Islamist party, were arrested. The key figures were executed after a quick trial in March this year.

But what I think had a greater effect was the reaction of the mainstream clergy. They went out in force, to explain Jihad to all the mosque goers in much the same way my father did to me when I was a child.

At Friday prayers they issued stern warnings saying there is no place for extremism in Islam – and that a Jihad cannot be declared in a nation such as ours, one with a pre-dominantly Muslim population, when there is no clear indication that war or war-like situation has been unleashed on it.

Cultural activists such as myself - and there are thousands others – have been active against the extremist movement for years now. In Bangladesh we have an abundance of progressive theatre, literature, song and poetry written by people who are committed socio-cultural activists against extremism.

Our ‘battle’ started much earlier than the Governments did, incidentally.

In my 1997 socio-political activism album Prapto Boyeshker Nishiddho (Banned for Adults), for example, I have a song called Parwardigar or The Creator, an adaptation, if you will, of the American singer Jim Croce’s song about the dangers of Christian extremism. As he wrote: “Which way are you going, which side are you on, one hand on the Bible one hand on the gun.”

Incidentally, I received a series of death threats after this, none of which made me afraid enough to want to back down.

I think we cultural activists in Bangladesh deserve some of the credit for the fact that our agenda for a peaceful, extremism-free Bangladesh seems to have taken root and crowded out the extremist forces.

Our War on Terror began long before it became fashionable, and we didn’t need the West or the US to tell us what to do!

You can also purchase some of Mac's music - not to mention other Bangladeshi recordings at http://www.amadergaan.com - and at the low, low prices of $1.89. You can even pay via PayPal and so have confidence that this is not just some, er, jihadist ruse to get your address or credit card information. (At those prices, you can't even call this a capitalist scheme.)

More from the Muslim rasta, rocker, poet, pundit...

Samurai, whatever....call him what you want but just don't call him late for dinner (as my grandmother used to say) or describe him as a 'moderate Muslim.' You'll find out why below.

Part 4 of my interview with Mac Haque, lead singer of the band Maqsood O'dHAKA, live from the Islamic world. Scroll down my home page for Parts 1-3.


Today's question for Mac was: Is Islamic extremism a problem in Bangladesh?

And this was his response:

Over all, it would be very unfair to say we have a major problem with Islamic terrorism here in Bangladesh. We had some simultaneous bombings in 2005 that were attributed to Islamic terrorists but I had and continue to have serious doubts about the government’s version of these events.

A recent expose suggests that my initial hunches may have been correct. Now that many of the politicians then in power are now behind bars on corruption charges, perhaps the truth about these attacks will finally emerge.

In my view, many Westerners have a lot of media-driven misconceptions Muslims. This started when Bill Clinton coined the term ‘moderate Muslim’. There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim and there never has been one. The pluralist nature of the Muslim people speaks for itself.

Then I object to this idea that madrasas produce terrorists. I have never seen convincing evidence of this – at least not in Bangladesh.

Westerners need to understand that for poor children, a madrasa education is often their only option. Madrasas are for the most part free and in many cases, these schools also double as orphanages. Without the madrasa system here, millions would be left completely illiterate. We are simply not a rich enough country to mandate compulsory education for all.

That said, there has been a concerted effort to incorporate a modern education into the Islamic syllabus. There is a successful training program here in Bangladesh, funded by the U.S., that offers prayer leaders and madrasa teachers English-language and computer-skills training. Western NGOs also work with the madrasas to educate them on the concept of Islam in a changed world. Many madrasas now teach HIV awareness, contraception, and gender issues - subjects that even five years back were taboo.

By the way, you can purchase some of Mac's music (and other Bangladeshi recordings too) - for the incredibly low price of $1.89 at http://www.amadergaan.com. Key in the word pOTAKA in the SHOP section. And here's this note from Mac about these recordings:

One word I would like to mention about the pOTAKA, it is NOT a dHAKA album, but a special project I took up for my Baul musician friends both urban and rural under my Heritage Revival Ensemble banner. So its a bunch of young , little or unknown musicians (including my son Dio playing 9 out of the 10 tracks) backing me on all tracks.

Let Mac know if you buy this music, and he'll send you what all the songs mean.