'The Bombs of Dhamma'
Grace, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Nick
‘The Bombs of Dhamma’ Pakistan’s pop music scene. BY DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS & NICK GRACE Singer-songwriter Imran Raza and guitarist Faraz Anwar hope to bring an unlikely revolution to...
...Pakistan’s music scene has declined in the past fi ve years...
...The country’s musicaverse extremists were quick to take notice...
...They have created something of their own...
...On reading this, Anwar exclaimed in Urdu, “Finally someone has come my way who is on my level...
...Concertgoers generally represent the most progressive element of society, young people either hailing from liberal families or rebelling against conservative ones...
...Military affairs analyst Bill Roggio said, “Raza and Anwar show real courage, as their music strikes at the core of the extremists’ message...
...Dhamma is the Pali word for dharma, which Raza explains as “an enlightened state of purifi ed intentions where one doesn’t desire to do anyone harm...
...Provided a security detail by the government, Raza only became more outspoken...
...Sporting Dolce & Gabbana designer clothes, a shaved head, and Prada sunglasses, he refl ects a Southern California sensibility...
...It was President Musharraf who introduced Raza and Anwar...
...Certainly Anwar and Raza know the risks...
...Basically, they are not educated people, and they don’t even know what the Koran says...
...In the aftermath of the attacks, Raza more than once heard bigoted remarks about Muslims...
...And he still aspires to produce his rock opera centered on the themes of liberty and pluralism...
...Raza says he felt more outrage at the attacks themselves and the Taliban’s brutal rule in Afghanistan than anger at the comments— but both reinforced his desire to work against bigotry...
...BY DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS & NICK GRACE Singer-songwriter Imran Raza and guitarist Faraz Anwar hope to bring an unlikely revolution to Pakistan—one guided by Sufi-oriented music inspired by Led Zeppelin and Metallica...
...Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the author of My Year Inside Radical Islam...
...Raza saw his chance to create a music comfortable for South Asians that would combine Western freedoms and his own commitment to Sufi sm, which to him is characterized by a mystical and tolerant practice of Islam...
...In October, a bomb ripped through the large Musafi r CD Centre in Peshawar...
...They were played on the radio...
...Counting his recordings as a session musician, Anwar has sold over 30 million albums—no small feat in a country where music piracy is rampant...
...Although popular performers had tried to form bands with Anwar, he had always turned them down...
...During his most recent trip to Pakistan, Raza was afforded a glimpse of the celebrity that may be in store for him...
...Religious extremists got the message and issued death threats against him...
...A concert would make an ideal target for a suicide bomber...
...The Taliban will stop at nothing to silence them...
...Among music fans there is a sense that social change is needed, but the feeling is diffuse, not connected to any program for action...
...The two musicians began recording Raza’s songs...
...If that involves risks, so be it...
...Musicians tend to be infl uenced by MTV and Western rock in both sound and look: There are long-haired performers and glammed-up pop stars...
...since he looked more like a rocker type than a Middle Easterner, people weren’t on their guard around him...
...In this environment, any live musician performs in an atmosphere of threat...
...Above an impressive guitar collection hung two six-foot posters, one of Jimi Hendrix and one of Anwar...
...Days later, Raza found himself in Anwar’s modern recording studio in Karachi...
...Raza noticed that the lead singer of a band called Fuzon seemed to have a government security detail, but he too may benefi t from a connection to Musharraf...
...But Anwar and Raza are undaunted...
...Two years later, Raza returned to Pakistan to film a short documentary as part of his studies...
...The rise in militancy in recent years has hit musicians hard...
...Last May, Musharraf and Raza saw each other at a Sufi musical performance at the governor’s house in Karachi, and Raza struck up a conversation with the president, a fan of classic rock...
...One of Raza’s bodyguards began fi elding the calls so he could focus on his studio work...
...They typically perform in venues seating between 2,000 and 10,000...
...Though Raza and Anwar haven’t yet completed an album, the leaked songs have gained them plenty of attention...
...the response promptly landed it on the channel’s “fl aming hot” rotation...
...He discovered a vibrant music scene, for which rock musicians had one man to thank: President Pervez Musharraf, who had privatized the country’s television stations the year before...
...Because piracy remains unfettered, musicians rely on live performances for revenue...
...It is unclear, however, whether others have been personally targeted...
...The Taliban and al Qaeda-led campaign against music stores across northwest Pakistan saw 20 stores bombed in May and 25 attacked in June and July...
...Though other artists had released songs promoting tolerance, Raza’s lyrics were especially direct...
...Early in their recording sessions, unmixed clips of “Fly with Us” and “The Bombs of Dhamma” were leaked to the Pakistani media...
...They do not follow Islam,” he said...
...Suddenly Pakistan boasted 20 channels, 3 of them dedicated to music...
...The search took four years, but was fi nally successful...
...Raza had a family connection with the president— an uncle had gone through offi cer training with Musharraf...
...What bothered me,” Raza said, “is that the mullahs are able to muzzle speech and force others to bow through violence and retribution...
...The fi rst one they tackled was “Fly with Us,” which mixes South Asian fl utes and classical Sufi singing with classic rock...
...Nick Grace is a contributor to ThreatsWatch, a website seeking to increase public awareness of national security threats...
...Though his local number was unpublished, his cell phone rang incessantly with calls from journalists...
...Said Raza, “Whatever you do in life, you have to do it with sincerity...
...Raza hopes to complete an album by the end of 2008...
...The result was an explosion of opportunity reminiscent of the early days of MTV: Airtime had to be fi lled, and a lot of stars emerged, many of them one-hit wonders...
...Faraz Anwar, 30, had won Pakistan’s national music competition at the age of 11, and had become a full-time musician at 14, touring as a guitarist with toptier acts...
...The song proclaims: “I believe in enlightened moderation, the beauty of knowing who you are...
...Raza explained his musical project and expressed an interest in working with the legendary Anwar...
...In addition, the youth-oriented television channel Aag played a music video of their song “Be Like the Onion...
...Anwar went further in a phone call with us from Karachi, challenging the extremists’ theology...
...Raza began looking for a musical collaborator...
...A former University of Southern California student who has been writing songs since his teenage years, Raza went back to school in 2001 to study fi lm and poetry in pursuit of his dream of producing a rock opera...
...Speaking of the need for “a real reformation,” the song contrasts religious intolerance with the fresh spirit of classic rock, inviting listeners to spurn extremism and “fl y with” Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles...
...Less than a month after classes began in August, he woke up in his penthouse apartment to the news of 9/11...
...Raza, 35, was born in Pakistan but raised in the United States...
...Anwar was initially dismissive—but when he fl ipped through Raza’s lyrics, a song called “The Bombs of Dhamma” caught his eye...
...It calls for “Bombs of purity and bombs of joy / Bombs of peace and bombs of love / Bombs of harmony and bombs of compassion / The bombs of dhamma...
...It is very complex, and there are different aspects of how it addresses different human situations and relations with God...
...Sufi sm’s core message,” he says, “is one of pluralistic understanding...
Vol. 13 • December 2007 • No. 13
