Heavy Metal Islam (36 page)

The fear, the violence, the hatred in the Middle East can seem deafening, but it’s still not loud enough to silence the voices of resistance. A generation after Twisted Sister’s 1984 smash hit, kids across the MENA are screaming, in English, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Hebrew, Turkish, and French—online, onstage, and, however tentatively, on the streets—“We’re not gonna take it anymore.” It’s a message that used to resonate with Americans and Europeans. The sooner we rejoin the chorus, the sooner real peace, democracy, and reconciliation will be achieved—not just in the heartlands of the Muslim world, but in the heartlands of the West as well.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Nearly every person mentioned or interviewed in this book provided important help in my attempts to understand the dynamics of the metal, hip-hop, and larger rock scenes in the Middle East and North Africa, and their relationship to popular cultures of the region more broadly. I extend to all of them my deepest thanks for their time, openness, and help. In addition, there were numerous people who were either not mentioned directly in the book, or who provided invaluable inspiration or organizational help during numerous trips to the region, including the following:

Sami Abu Shehada, Howie Alper, Pegah Arzi, Hicham Bahev, Noam Ben-Zeev, Ishay Berger, Bill “Freedom” Bremner, Emil and Dennis Culic, Chuck D, Davey D, Lara Deeb, the Dryer Brothers, Ted Dunbar, Sam Dunn, Jordan ElGrabli and the staff of the Levantine Center, Mona Eltahawy, John Epstein, Kevin Eubanks, Ezgi Evcil, Omar Fadel, the Farmer family, James Fittz, Thomas Frank, Michael Franti, Richard Gizbert, La Famiglia Guidotti, Hassan Hakmoun, Avi Haligua, Amine Hamma, Rema Hammami, Amin Hashwamy, Myke “Shyndigg” Henney, Dr. John, Akbar Irani and the staff of Miras Maktoob (Tehran), Junaid Jamshed, Ritchie Johnson, Deborah Kapchan, Shawana Kemp, Naz Khan, Ben E. King, Liisa Ladouceur, the Lane family, the MacDonald/Hertel family, Abdessalam Maghraoui, Sohrab Mahdavi, Behnam Marandi, Russel Martone, ash-Sherif Marzeban, Mahmoud Omidsalar, Jonas Otterbeck, Anton Pukshansky, Ghidian Qaymari, Dr. Zahoor Qureshi, Todd Ray, Ole Rietov, Marie Korpus and the staff of Free Muse, Dan Rabinowitz, MC Rai, Haroon Rashid, Todd Ray, Yuval Ron, Violaine Roussel, the Rubel family, Sameh Sabry, Michael Santiago, Gershon Shafir, Anwerali Shahbuddin, Jonathan Shannon (the next drink in Fes is on me), Jerjees Sheja, Mahsa Shekarloo, Samora Smith, Paul and Yuki Soares, Sami Syed, Alyce Thomas, Jackie and Laura Wartanian, Charles Wheeler, Oren Yiftachel, Rebecca Young, Sameh Zakout, Maor Appelbaum, and David Ziegler.

A very special thanks and extra love to the following people, without whom this book could not have been imagined or completed: Salman Ahmed, Sara Alexander (my teacher and soul sister), Moe Hamzeh, Jean Dupré, Armando Salvatore (
Visto che non ero pazzo!
), Reda Zine (Le Dude, A+), and, of course, Layla al-Zubaidi (four continents and counting).

Special thanks to Adrian Cheesley and Mario Choueiri of EMI, for their support of the compilation album “Flowers in the Desert,” featuring many of the artists discussed in this book.

Barry Siegel, Benjamin Horbert, Ted Swedenberg, Dani McClellan, Samuli Schielke, and Amy Willentz all provided much-needed comments and/or editing suggestions on drafts of various chapters. Sandy Dijkstra, Elise Capron, and Taryn Fagerness of the Dijkstra Literary Agency provided invaluable advice and support in the conceptualization and completion of this book. Kate Kennedy of Three Rivers Press undertook a heroic effort to turn the completed draft into a coherent manuscript. John Glusman, my editor at Three Rivers Press, and Tom Peters, editor of Verso Books, exhibited great patience, foresight, and sculptors’ hands in editing the final manuscript.

Research for this book was made possible by grants and other assistance provided by the School of Humanities, Department of History and International Center for Writing and Translation, UC Irvine; the United States Institute of Peace; the Open Society Institute; the Fulbright Senior Researcher Grant program, Italy; l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris; the European University Institute, Florence; the Central European University, Budapest; the Mediterranean Studies Association; and the Higher Education Council, Pakistan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Most of the research for this book is the result of in-depth fieldwork and interviews with the individuals mentioned in the various chapters, along with many others who provided background or other information on the condition that their names or any other information that could be traced to them not be given. Unless otherwise indicated, all names are real. In addition to interviews, quotations or specific information were taken from the following sources, listed by country/ chapter. A comprehensive list of metal bands in the MENA is available at
www.metal-archives.com
, searchable by country.

For a detailed bibliography and analysis of economic and cultural globalization in the MENA, and in particular countries, see my
Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil
(Oxford, England: Oneworld Publications, 2005).

I
NTRODUCTION

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M
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———.
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.

———.
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boulevard.ma

H-Kayne.com

hobahobaspirit.com

lazywall.co.uk

maroc.attac.org

myspace.com/biggthadon

myspace.com/cafemiralegroupe

myspace.com/syncopeaband

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yassine.net

E
GYPT

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Sinan, Omar. “In Egypt, Heavy Metal Is Making a Quiet Comeback.” Associated Press, August 16, 2006.

Websites:

anaikhwan.blogspot.com

arabist.net/arabawy

egyptmetal.net

ihoudaiby.blogspot.com

ikhwanonline.com

ikhwanweb.net

manalaa.net

myspace.com/beyondeast

slacker.foolab.org
/ (archive of Slacker’s photos and reviews of all metal shows in Egypt)

I
SRAEL
/P
ALESTINE

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.