Hisham Aidi
On Sunday, May4, 2014, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Office of the President in collaboration with Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research at AUC hosted a lecture by Dr. Hisham Aidi,School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, titled “Empire State of Mind: Race, Music and Democracy Promotion.”The lecture was held from 1:00 to 2:00 pm at the Conference Room in Prince Alwaleed building. More than30 people attended the lecture including faculty members and students.
Dr. Aidi, the author of Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture(2014), talked about the encounters of American power with Islam and race. Although the book deals with different genres of music, Dr. Aidi’s talk focused on the subject of Islam, Jazz, hip hop and the political–cultural ferment that has grown out of these music encounters and how governments are trying to steer this music towards different political ends,focusing particularly on American efforts to use music for strategic communications, cultural diplomacy and even torture in some cases.
Dr. Aidi talked about the historical roots of Islam’s relationship with Jazz that begins in the 1910s with the Great Migration of the African Americans from the south. The cultural ferment that was introduced by the Great Migration and the Harlem renaissance would compel the rise of Islam and Jazz.
A trend that intrigues historians and Jazz critics to this day is that after World War II dozens of Jazz musicians in America became Muslims. In this regard, Dr. Aidi interviewed some Muslim Jazz musicians. Rashid Ahmad, the patriarch of theAhmadi community in America said: “Islam was like Jazz gave us a way out; it was an exit.” By identifying with the Islamic world, the African-American converts could go from being a downtrodden minority to being part of a global “colored majority.”
The genre that has most absorbed Islamic influence is hip-hop. Islamic motifs and Arabic terms have threaded through the genre’s fabric since its beginning in 1973. Through hip–hop, Muslim youths were exposed to Black history and non–Muslims were exposed to Islam.
In the 1990s after the First Gulf War, Salafism goes global and also the internet enters the equation. So the globalization of hip–hop and Islam converge and overlap with all kinds of cultural repercussions. Dr. Aidi added that “one can argue that in the US, hip–hop paved the way for the rise of the Salafi movement in the mid 1990s.”
Dr. Aidi explained that another policy debate within the American foreign policy is whether Sufi Islam makes better allies for the US. He argued that after the Cold War, European scholars of Islam considered Sufi Islam to be more moderate, flexible and compatible with globalism and recommended that the West shouldsupport Sufi Islam to promote democracy to South Asia, Iran, and North Africa. The realists, on the other hand, who are less interventionist, were more concerned with order and with containing the Soviet Union, argued that the Islamists are more reliable and have more institutional capacity and ability for social control than Sufi Islam. So, they supported Islamic movements and used political Islam not only against Third World nationalism,communism, or socialism but also against African American Muslim groups in the US.
After 9/11 the Sufism debate resurfaced again and Washington realized that it cannot rely on the Salafis anymore and they began to look for a more moderate Islam. Government agencies leading men started to think of how to mobilize Sufism against Salafi movement. Music played a central role in this strategy. Giving the Salafi opposition to music and the Sufi use of songs for worship, music after 9/11 came to be seen as a quick and easy way to distinguish between moderate and radical Muslims. Policy makers, Aidi argues, think music can convey a liberal discourse that can re-socialize Muslim youths.
Hip-hop diplomacy fits into a larger effort to showcase of civil rights movement and America’s model integration of Muslim youths. A Brookings report claims that hip-hop resonates with Muslim youth worldwide because its pioneers were inner-city Muslims who carry on an African-American Muslim tradition of protest most powerfully represented by Malcolm X. Dr. Aidi added that “Malcolm X is central to Muslim youths’ conscience today and if Islam is the unofficial religion of hip-hop culture, Malcolm X is the prophet or at the very least the patron saint; his speeches are quoted, his dress and demeanor imitated.”
Fifty years after Malcolm X’sdeath, Aidi concluded, the Muslim’s conversation about the significance of Malcolm X is taking a distinct theological turn and Malcolm X is gradually becoming a saintly figure. Different organizations and governments are trying to use hip-hop and the legacy of Malcolm X to socialize Muslim youths today.
Written By: Nermine Sergius
Research Assistant, Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research