The music of Marcel Khalife
Oct 2: Religion and freedom of expression. Marcel Khalife & Mahmoud Darwish, "Ana Yusuf ya Abi". (music, documentary film; Middle East, Islam)
Assignment: Please browse the following.
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
Browse these entries about 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 Qur'anic passage in question (and listen to its recitation by clicking on the verse)
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?