WOEBOT

Bhangra and Islam.

“Perhaps what (the Extreme Muslims) really need isn't Communism so much as a surrogate belief system/ideological framework for their rage ... they need their own kind of rock'n'roll... something to divert and defuse them as effectively... as rock culture has done vis-a-vis Western youth these past 40 years...” Simon Reynolds.

This informal remark by the New York-based Music Theorist Simon Reynolds prompted by the bombings in London on July 7th zoned in on the similar “profiling” shared by July’s Suicide Bombers, and the make-up of the characters who have historically been the motor of many innovations in the UK’s music scene. Statistical data collated by Israeli agencies has revealed that “the typical suicide bomber” is young, well-educated (23% of suicide bombers since 2000 possessing a University Degree), from a lower-middle class background and hungry for celebrity. Contributing to his speculation, Reynolds highlighted the unabashed flirtation with terrorist imagery present in Punk (spun off from the RAF and Baader-Meinhoff) and Jungle and the pseudo-terrorist stance taken by The Clash, and MIA. There is a sense in which Reynolds is denigrating Rock’s role in depoliticisation through diversion over the decades, though these “neutered” cultural forces do have their own validity.

Music is external to the religion of Islam. Recitals of the Koran, though their delivery has Psalmic qualities, are never accompanied by instrumentation. Music is seen as clouding the message of the holy book. Many Islamic scholars, such as Mustafa Sabri are unequivocal that music is “haraam”, forbidden by the prophet. These scholars cite incidents in the Quran in which Mohammed denounces it. On the other hand more moderate voices say there is a place for Music if it’s content is in accordance with Islam, pointing to its appropriateness in some situations, such as before war. In spite of the mundane fact it’s common for Muslims to download “Nasheeds” (religious songs) from the Internet, there is an unsureness about the ethics of music which leads even the lofty artistic pinnacles of Qawwali to be viewed with some suspicion.

Harry SONA of London’s SONA Family, riding high in the UK Bhangra charts with the effervescent “Glassy”, describes himself playfully as “a Friday Jumma Boy”. He might not pray five days a day but will do his best to say Friday prayers at the Mosque every week. Harry’s cousin Usmaan, who had garnered a reputation as “the Asian Tupac” on account of his gritty raps, left the group to become a more orthodox Muslim. Aware that their music business lifestyle were “Jihali” (contravening the moral code of Islam) he saw no way of combining his beliefs with their music, surer still that the boys and girls on the street heard enough talk of religion at home. But could the message of antipathy to US Imperialism and disgust at the politics of oil, content-wise the musical counterpart to the writing of free-thinking firebrand Tariq Ali, be harnessed to the Bhangra Beat? Harry remarks: “If I could find the right voice and the right person, I would do it in a flash. But it’s not like when Public Enemy came out and were preaching Black pride and Black power. To an extent they were going to get shut down, but this is just too close to the bone. That’s like loyalists coming out and doing Rap songs!” Conflating Islamic Music with Bhangra might appear to be slovenly journalistic shorthand. After all, Bhangra is a Sikh invention isn’t it? Truthfully the matter becomes more shaded and complex the closer one examines it. Asian Musical culture in the UK has an internal unity that is as much to do with unity in opposition to the “White” mainstream as Bhangra’s geographical legacy. The Punjab, Bhangra’s spiritual home, is split in two with the larger section in Western Pakistan. While the province’s faith as high as 63% Sikh, it’s cultural impact on predominantly Muslim Pakistani state is disproportional to its scale. In the UK, in the same way Bangladeshi cuisine dominates restaurants, so Bhangra rules the Asian music scene.

RDB (three brothers Kuly, Surj and Manj) reinvented Bhangra with their debut LP in 2002 and have subsequently dominated the music thanks to their massive label Untouchables and their year-old, insanely popular website RDBTV.com, which acts as a video gazette for the entire Bhangra scene. They’ve recently returned from Pakistan and the biggest concerts they’ve ever thrown. In Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi their audience at each show was between 20,000-30,000 people. Kuly: “We were surprised. They don’t care that we’re Sikhs… I don’t think it’s ever reached that level here. We’re like amazing superstars out there.” The bleed between the Sikh and Muslim is perhaps more pronounced over here. Half of the SONA Family are Sikh and the other half Muslim and RDB’s Guitarist and engineer is Muslim, indeed RDB venture to describe their audience in the UK as predominantly Muslim: “They’ve claimed Bhangra as theirs.” There are many big names in Bhangra who are Muslims, like Metz and Trix and Tariq Khan. While Harry describes The SONA Family as never having been a Bhangra group: “We are Desis who do Hip-Hop and R’n’B”, their records sit squarely in the Bhangra charts.

The bombings in the summer hit RDB particularly hard. Based in Bradford, a few miles down the road from where Hussain, Khan, Lindsay and Tanweer lived, they were appalled: “When they linked the attacks to those clowns to Leeds we were shocked, it was just the last thing we needed. After the Bradford Riots and all the negative aspects of life this side of Yorkshire. It put the nail in the coffin.” His brother Surj remarks: “Some idiots set fire to a Sikh flag at a Sikh temple as well. There was a time when ANY Asians, ANY Brown person would be scared to go out.” The riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley in the Summer 2001 might be seen as some kind of precursor to the July bombings. The Cantle report commissioned by the Home Office after the riots described communities where people were living “parallel” and “polarised” lives. Is it too simplistic to imagine a situation wherein Bhangra, at the same time as acting a mouthpiece for discontent, contributes to a weakening of this divide? Before conceding that Harry SONA may be right in concluding that Muslim dissent, or indeed extreme orthodoxy, will continue to be channeled through Islam, and not sprout into something illicit yet vibrant like the UK’s early post-Acid House culture, it’s worth reminding one-self that according to most Muslim authorities the acts of July 7th represented, not an expression of Islam, but a perversion of it.

Running counter to this speculation there is evidence in Blakstone’s ground-breaking debut “Dark Dayz” that Hip-Hop, not Bhangra, will prove to be the chosen outlet for the frustrations of Islamic youth in the UK. In its favour “the message” is abundantly clear in rolling English, but (and this from the perspective of a self-confessed white middle-class aesthete) the formulation lacks both Bhangra’s riddimatic frisson and its electrifying Punjabi vocals. Listen to a Bhangra track like Indy Sagu’s “Club Chaleeay” (released on Untouchables RDB’s imprint) and one imagines one’s eavesdropping on a militant fury; tapping into the kind of excitement which made Public Enemy such a vicarious thrill.

Blissblog
RDBTV
Sona Family
Blakstone

This piece was originally published in FACT Magazine. With special thanks to Sean, Simon, Harry, Surj and Kuly.