The music of Marcel Khalife
Religion and freedom of expression. Marcel Khalife & Mahmoud Darwish, "Ana Yusuf ya Abi". (music, documentary film; Middle East, Islam)
Music, art, religion and politics: Marcel Khalife and Mahmoud Darwish
Marcel Khalife (Wikipedia article)
Mahmoud Darwish (Wikipedia article)
A New World Order, A New Marcel Khalife
Marcel Khalife in Freemuse, a website dedicated to freedom of musical expression.
Watch this interview with Marcel Khalife
Watch Marcel Khalife in performance (the video begins by showing the double bass; Marcel appears later, on the Arabic lute called oItalic textud)
Ana Yusuf ya Abi: the controversy
Read the poem... (the last line is taken from the Qur'an)
Read the Qur'anic passage in question (and listen to its recitation by clicking on the verse)
Mahmoud Darwish recites the poem
Read this chronological newspaper archive:
Browse the summary of the 1999 controversy on Marcel Khalife's website
Some thought questions
- How does this controversy relate to Lebanese identity politics?
- What is the difference between Qur'anic recitation and Khalife's performance?
- How is the controversy related to post-colonial issues of identity in Lebanon?
- Why might Sunni authorities been more critical of Khalife than Shia?
- Why is secularism such a contested issue in the post-colonial world? How does it follow from the colonial era, both top-down and bottom-up?
- Why do you suppose the song created so much more controversy than the poem?