NEWS STORY: Muslim congregation `frozen out’ of community over jazz links

c. 1999 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ New Orleans’ conservative Muslim community has quietly but noticeably frozen out of their community life the city’s oldest Muslim congregation because its leader is associated with the Jazz and Heritage Festival, an annual exhibition of sensual music, alcohol and briefly attired women many believe is anathema to […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

NEW ORLEANS _ New Orleans’ conservative Muslim community has quietly but noticeably frozen out of their community life the city’s oldest Muslim congregation because its leader is associated with the Jazz and Heritage Festival, an annual exhibition of sensual music, alcohol and briefly attired women many believe is anathema to Islamic values.

To representatives of the New Orleans area’s immigrant-dominated Muslim community, a diverse mixture of 5,000 to 10,000 Egyptians, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Senegalese as well as a significant number of African-Americans, the issue is one of religious integrity: The values of Jazz Fest are counter to Islamic values, and Muslims in good faith are obligated to enforce that discipline in their public life. “There are some things about Islam that may be debatable,”said Dr. Mahmoud Sarmini, a Metairie doctor and head of a metropolitan-wide council of Muslims.”But the things involved here _ drinking, free intermingling of men and women, these sexual issues _ these are fundamental, and absolutely not debatable.” But to Wali Abdel-Ra’oof, the African-American head of the New Orleans Masjid of Al-Islam, a community of 25 Muslim families in Central City, their rejection is better understood as foreign-born Muslims’ disapproval of American culture. “This is not about the spirit of Islam in America,”said Abdel-Ra’oof, executive director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, which sponsors the Jazz Fest.”It’s their attempt to bring their spiritual conflicts to my country _ to my country,”he said, tapping his chest,”and calling it belief in Islam. But my Islam does not have to be like their Islam.” As a result, when Muslims early this year organized the Islamic Shura Council of Greater New Orleans to organize festivals for Muslims and to speak for their community on public policy matters, the body included voting representatives from nine metropolitan”masjids,”or places of worship, but not Abdel-Ra’oof’s Masjid Al-Islam.


The group did, however, include Masjid Al-Raheem, a gathering place for a large number of African-American Muslims that grew out of a years-ago split with Abdel-Ra’oof’s community.

Abdel-Ra’oof was not part of two council statements in which New Orleans Muslims deplored the United States bombing of Iraq and supported NATO airstrikes against Serb forces terrorizing Muslims in Kosovo. Nor is Masjid Al-Islam being solicited as a partner in the council’s attempt to build an elementary school for Muslim children in Kenner.

The split is more caustic because a powerful component of Islamic religious life is the sense of welcome Muslims must extend to all others. But involvement with Jazz Fest is too much.

The free intermingling of men and women in a public social setting, the presence of women in shorts and halter tops, the availability of alcohol and the constant backdrop of frankly sensual music all condemn Jazz Fest in the world of the devout Muslim, Sarmini said. “At this stage, they are not a voting member of the shura council because the council does not want an imam (prayer leader) who represents those activities to have a voice on our council, or a voice to speak for our community,”Sarmini said.

He said council members for months have intended to approach Abdel-Ra’oof and urge him to sever his ties to Jazz Fest in order to welcome him back into the community. But the body has been distracted by other business, said Sarmini, a native of Lebanon.

The exclusion stings Abdel-Ra’oof, the son of a Baptist minister who converted to Islam 27 years ago.

Abdel-Ra’oof said he reads the Koran and prays the required five times daily, and has made two pilgrimages to Mecca. Two years ago, he hosted a visit to Jazz Fest by W. Deen Mohammed, the leader of about 200,000 African-American Muslims and a respected religious leader in the Islamic world. “Do you think he would have come, a Muslim respected the world over, if this festival was against Islam?”Abdel-Ra’oof asked.


Moreover, Jazz Fest frequently showcases Muslim musicians like drummers Jesse Hameen and Billy Higgins, Abdel-Ra’oof said.

Abdel-Ra’oof said he believes there is more than a whiff of anti-Americanism about the council’s exclusion of his community, including a wish to assert Middle Eastern Islamic culture as superior to African-American Islamic heritage. “God never told me when I became a Muslim I had to give up my heritage,”he said.”Instead they ought to be thankful that it is a Muslim who holds my position, who can do charity, help the poor, help preserve a culture which is also Islamic. I think that’s very much in the spirit of Islam.”

DEA END NOLAN

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