a concert effort!

Well after much planning and much falling thru of those grand plans I finally made it to London last night for what was an amazing Concert for Peace in Darfur - with Sami Yusuf and friends.

We were entertained with top class music, songs and lyrics by a variety of Nahseed artists from around the world; including Outlandish, Hamza Robertson, Sound of Reason and Kareem Salama.

For once these artists didn't just play to us exactly what we would hear on their cds but actually prepared and tweaked it for a live show. This made the concert music come alive as it was different, interesting, alive and at times a tad quirky!

I loved the different juxtapositioning of artists and styles from around the world and how they all brought and added something new to the mix.

I went expecting an extravaganza and what I got was so much much more. Alhamdulillah.
I loved the fact that at no point did I have to cringe on behalf of whoever was on stage. I loved that we started almost on time! I loved that it was professional. Clear. Succinctly done. I loved the freshness of the music and the clarity of art that the artists brought on-stage.

What I did not love was certain narrow-people's booing at the politics bit; when the Prime Minister of this country was addressing us. I am no fan of the dirty politics this country has been involved in and I am no big fan of Mr Gordon Brown but I believe in being polite and letting the guy have his say.

The fact is that the Muslim population are sheep. One person booed and they all did. Why? Why were they booing? Did they even know?? What Gordon Brown said, sincere or not, was not that bad.... OK so we dont agree with the policies and actions of the Labour government but does that give us the right, the excuse, to be rude? I think not. I despise unnecessary rudeness. You can let someone know how u feel and whats on ur mind without being rude and derogatory. Without swearing and booing. And if u cant, if u find expressing yourself otherwise impossible - well thats just a fault in u. One you should, as a Muslim, correct as soon as you can.



And then the whole crowd got taken in by what was soooooooo obviously Conservative propaganda. Now I dont like the conservatives anymore or less than I like Labour but how easily the Muslim population gets taken in is quite scary.

As a political entity we are so naive and gullible. No wonder we are not a force on the political scene! Most Muslims are either apathetic about politics or only care about the "Muslim" situation. Thats not enough. Not by far. We are British. This is OUR country. We should be involved in every aspect of it. This is our duty as Muslims - whether we like it or not. People who boo at every controversy and political question piss me off!!

Ok ok enough of that!

I'm so tired I cannot even express it! Got back from London at 3am and then got up for work at 6am. I am so tired - just thinking is tiring. And the worst thing is - I cant go home and sleep cos then I'll wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. How annoying is that?! Anyways I better run - gotta go home now!

Here are some clips from the concert last night:
(some videos are not from the concert but the songs all will be)

Kareem Salama: