London Imam becomes a sean nós singer

Subject: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Vic Smith
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 02:49 PM

How about this for a good news story?

How a London Imam became a sean nós singer

Listen to the video clip to hear how good a singer he is.

Well done to old friends Karen Ryan and Kathleen O'Sullivan for encouraging this and making it happen.

After all the anti-Islamic crap there has been in right wing media and political parties, this made my day.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 04:08 PM

Good for him. I am not the slightest bit surprised...I hear quite a lot of similarity between Arabic and Irish music. We must have the same ancient ancestors...and people should make sure they don't sing sacred or extremely significant songs of a different culture perhaps but there is no reason they should not sing the more standard songs...mg

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:00 PM

Surely he is singing "Casadh an tSugain", not "Caoineadh na dTrí­ Muire"?

I applaud this man and hope he will be safe.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:19 PM

Good on him! It seems he's trying to learn what Delia Murphy used to call the "Nyaah", that nasal sound from the west of Ireland.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:21 PM

And yes, I hope he'll be safe too. Religions seem to go through these extremist fundamentalist phases; the Puritans were like that in England, and heaven knows in Ireland, and even the Quakers banned singing for a while. Mad singers now, though.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:13 PM

Lovely clear voice.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:26 PM

Micheaelr
Yes indeed - Casadh an tSúgáin alright. That said, the text doesn't definively refer to that piece of singing.

Nice job.

Regards

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: freda underhill
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:52 PM

here he is.. what a wonderful voice..

Muhammad Al-Hussaini - Casadh An tSúgáin

Muhammad Al-Hussaini - The Boys of Barr na Sráide

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: freda underhill
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 07:14 PM

A cover of the classic song written by singer-songwriter and peace activist, Tom

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 07:52 PM

How well he's singing such radical songs ;)

"If you are with me, be with me, treasure of my heart"

and a song about boys who hunted innocently ended up as guerrilla fighters defending their rural homeland from invaders from a powerful empire.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 08:02 PM

WONDERFUL....

Thank You ! ! !

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

The Arabic "tone-bending" is a touchstone.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: CupOfTea
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 08:49 PM

Wow.

Great singer and great example of a human being.

wish there were more where he came from.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Vic Smith
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 12:06 PM

It looks like I am going to get a chance to meet and talk to him on Sunday. Now that will be a major treat!

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Thompson
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 04:41 PM

He was on one of the English TV news programmes last night; the newsreader said "I've always wanted to say this - Take it away, Imam"!

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 07:21 AM

Fair play to him, surprising how alike the sound is to the call to prayer one hears at Mosques. It's very sad that much of his religion is against the beauty of music and the freedom of song

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 08:04 AM

"It's very sad that much of his religion is against the beauty of music and the freedom of song"
Actually it isn't, some fanatics are, pretty much like the priests in Ireland broke up crossroads dances and smashed instruments because they believed unsupervised social gatherings encouraged immorality.
EVILS OF DANCING
The Scots church virtually drove traditional songs underground, and the Welsh Chapels all but destroyed traditional music and singing there.
Some of the worlds most beautiful and skillful traditional songs and music comes from Muslim countries (see Jean Jenkins 6 LP set, Music of Islam).
One of the sad facts about this forum is that Muslims have been virtually discouraged from participating because of the prevailing Islamophobia - we non-Muslims are very much the losers.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 05:19 AM

On radio 4 now (10.20am)

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 06:05 AM

This is the bbc link
At about 1:14:50
Interesting discussion.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 06:16 AM

re BBC link above...
And ends the programme, from 1:28:50

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 08:55 AM

As mg has said, I am not surprised either: it's something about the ornamentation even if the 2 types of music are perhaps based on different scales/modes. Very good too.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 02:22 PM

Heard him on the radio - Bit Good !!

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Betsy
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 07:32 PM

Well done - lovely singer - but I also understand that the islamic world takes a dim view on males ( and females? ) having connections to music which is not related to the religious side of their Religion.
There was a very good play on Radio 4 this week highlighting this very point, I wish I could reference it - but I can't remember the title.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: OlgaJ
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 11:01 AM

I also understood that some Islamic groups do not condone music from other cultures, hence the fact that Muslim children are often withdrawn from music lessons at school. Its a shame as in my very limited experience music is one thing that actually crosses religious/cultural divides. I think its great that someone is prepared to 'bend the rules' a bit. Hope he doesn't get into too much trouble for going public though.

Subject: RE: London Imam becomes a sean nós singer
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 12:57 PM

"I also understood that some Islamic groups do not condone music from other culture"
It seems a shame to take a pop at this young man's culture/religion rather than to celebrate his singing.
He is an Imam, so his religion obviously presents him with singing songs from other cultures, despite what some extremists think.
Most religions/cultures are intolerant in some shape or form of of aspects of other cultures - why select the Muslim culture?
This town has an annual week-long traditional music school that attracts people from all over the world Japanese Sean Nós singers and musicians, South American groups, Hebridean singers....
During the 'troubles' the town was full of singers of both religions from the North - all there to play musc, no matter what was happening back home.
Music can be a great unifier, if we let it, and don't harp (pun intended) on what extremists and bigots think.
Jim Carroll