(This event is organised by MEI Diffusion of Ideas-Gulf research cluster.)

Abstract

Pop nashid (or nasheed) refers to a vocal music work either sung a cappella or with instruments, according to a particular Islamic tradition or style. Such music and Islamic pop artistes generally celebrate Allah, Prophet Muhammad and an Islamic lifestyle in lyrics. At times, these lyrics address the importance of freedom or the situations for refugees or Palestinians.

Artistes and companies alike have featured in numerous politicised contexts. For instance, whether in events celebrating the Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or promoting the 2014 Indonesian presidential candidate  Prabowo Subianto. This webinar will analyse the politics of Islamic pop music through a case study of the Islamic media company Awakening Records and their artistes. Beyond motivations and implications, the discussion will zoom in on the genealogy of the music in question. How can we frame the logic of politics within a conceptual discourse of Islamic ethical empowerment? How do we see post-Islamist engagement through such music? Professor Jonas Otterbeck aims to shed light on the above themes.

This public talk will be conducted online via Zoom on Wednesday, 23 June 2021, from 4.00pm to 5.30pm (SGT). All are welcome to participate. This event is free, however, registration is compulsory. Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details closer to the date of the event.

For the reading materials of this event, you may click here.

Photo by Yomex Owo on Unsplash

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By Ilyas Salim
Research Assistant, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

Professor Jonas Otterbeck begin by detailing the history and ascent of Awakening, an Islamic media company that has emerged as one of the most important global corporations in terms of pop music inspired by Islam. Awakening is perhaps most famous for engineering the rise of Iranian-born British singer Sami Yusuf and Lebanese-Swedish singer Maher Zain, two Muslim artists who have achieved household-name status among Muslim audiences worldwide.

To illustrate the political engagement of Awakening, Professor Otterbeck turned the spotlight on “Palestine Will Be Free”, a song by Maher Zain written in 2009. While primarily an anti-war song about human dignity, the song and its accompanying music video are also positioned in a contemporary Islamic activist tradition of protest intermingled with Palestinian pride, homeland nostalgia and glorification of its fighters. These motifs seen in the music video align the song with a genre of political songs often called nasheeds, produced since the 1970s in the eastern Mediterranean by groups such as Hamas and Hizballah. This genre signals an affinity to a certain global discourse about politics, suffering and justice shared widely within Muslim environments.

Songs do not necessarily have to contain explicit political statements to embody a political function. Ron Ayerman and Andrew Jamison have described “movement artists” within social movements as artists who manage to capture the spirit and message of a movement in their works, which may then became appropriated as anthems by the movement’s participants. Such works can have an immense importance by drawing people to the movement and also function ritually when sung by participants conjuring up emotions of belonging, meaning and righteousness. While Awakening is a commercial entity and not a social movement, it signals a clear affinity with the sentiments that mobilise support for the Palestinians. The songs of Awakening artists such as Maher Zain and Hamza Namira, which called for dignity through non-violent personal resistance and the revival of Islam in general, came to be appropriated by different kinds of political actors.

The term ‘musicking’ was coined by academic Christopher Small to highlight how music is an act, rather than a simple object. Both a musical performance and the listening done by an audience can be described as acts of musicking. The concept enables us to consider the meaning and consequences behind the various actors involved in musicking together, especially when it comes to nasheeds and Awakening’s musical offerings. Maher Zain, for instance, has publicly engaged with political Islamist figures such as Indonesian politician Prabowo Subianto and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan while they were attendees at his concerts. Awakening CEO Shariff Banna has emphasised that the company consciously avoids political groups and Islamists and that its artists do not play for specific ideologically-driven religious groups. However, the lines between general and political engagement are often blurred; Maher Zain has, for example, released a song for Mr Erdoğan which was then used by the latter during his campaign trail. The presence of these figures at Maher Zain’s performances is no accident — political leaders and organisations searching for legitimacy through Islam are often celebrated by Awakening and may be allowed to connect to its artists. Association with these artists is also actively sought by such political actors to boost credibility with their respective constituencies.

Altogether, the quasi-political aspect of Awakening’s singers such as Maher Zain prompt an interesting question — should Awakening then be viewed through the prism of political Islam? 
The answer, according to Professor Otterbeck, is not so simple. For one, Awakening organises concerts in a large variety of settings and is a highly sought-after collaboration partner in Muslim majority areas and contexts; as such, it is bound to be musicking with a wide variety of actors. Furthermore, these actors, although sharing common cultural ground, are likely to have different goals and support different means. Nevertheless, these varied actors are commonly participating in a shared Islamic ethical empowerment discourse, which brings people into contact with each other even though they do not necessarily share the same views and visions.

This Islamic ethical empowerment discourse is global and is manifested in very different ways depending on context. It is too loosely constructed to be described as a proper social movement. Rather, this discourse feeds into a number of different social movements and is further manifested in a multitude of social movement organisations, generating in some sense, an imagined solidarity. Given that this Islamic ethical empowerment discourse is related to the political realm, yet transcends it in many ways, it is tempting to connect it to Asef Bayat’s concept of post-Islamism. However, Professor Otterbeck said he was reluctant to describe Islamic ethical empowerment discourse as post-Islamist, as it was not necessarily in a post-relation to Islamism historically or culturally. Nevertheless, he said that Bayat’s claim about how social engagement in post-Islamist movements aim to use media publications, associations, education, fashion, lifestyle and the new discourse to bring about moral and intellectual change in civil society serves as an accurate description of Awakening’s modus operandi. As such, it may be said that the project of post-Islamism is one that can be conceptualised and strategised by engaging in social problems through an Islamic ethical empowerment discourse. Among contemporary Islamic intellectuals, there seems to be a very broad trend of approaching Islam holistically rather than through legal rulings or details, an inclination that complements the stress on ethics. This is seen in prominent preachers such as Egypt’s Mustafa Hosny. Yet Hosni is not the leader of social movements but part of a broader Islamic ethical empowerment discourse shared with post-Islamists and others.

Professor Otterback finally noted that this general Islamic ethical empowerment discourse is manifested among other things in Islamic conferences. Prominent conferences (such as the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto) often bring together a diverse array of Muslim movements, political activists, artists and intellectuals. Notably, Awakening’s artists have headlined a number of these conferences and as such, the organisation is an active part of extensive networks spanning the globe that gathers Muslims engaged in an overall Islamic ethical empowerment discourse from most walks of life.

Highlights from the Q&A

A key question that surfaced was how religious-tinted record labels such as Awakening navigated the tenuous and potentially controversial intersection between their commercial activities and the realm of Islamic politics. How and according to what logic, does Awakening draw the line?

Professor Otterbeck noted that often, it is difficult for Awakening to predict if and when the songs or performances by its artistes would acquire political overtones. In general, Awakening follows certain rough guidelines in selecting appropriate collaborators that are in keeping with the company’s values and image. Nevertheless, there is always the risk that these collaborators might acquire questionable or undesirable political connotations over subsequent years.

An illustrative case in point is that of the Awakening-signed Egyptian singer-songwriter Hamza Namira who produced three records with the label. While Hamza Namira sought to distance himself from the Muslim Brotherhood, his songs — which often centred around themes such as freedom from state corruption — became very popular with the organisation, which saw them as being aligned with its own values and political message. This indirect association with the Muslim Brotherhood resulted in the banning of Hamza Namira’s songs on Egyptian radio, creating a difficult situation for Awakening whose main office was situated in Cairo. After a re-evaluation of their partnership, the decision was made by Awakening to discontinue the collaboration with the singer.