by Catherine Bailey
posted Jul 07, 2009 see YES! Magazine's "People We Love"
After hearing his sons’ ongoing frustration over the stereotypes of Islam they heard from schoolmates and the media, British producer Waseem Mahmood decided to take action—by creating a pop song and launching a movement.
Mahmood recruited Shuja Haider and Ali Moeen, Pakistan’s foremost lyricist, to write the song, “Yeh Hum Naheen” (“This is Not Us”). The lyrics, like these lines, translated from Urdu, take aim at misperceptions of Islam: “The name by which you know us—we are not that … The stories that are being spread in our name are lies—this is not us.”
Mahmood used the song to launch a petition drive in Pakistan condemning terrorism. Six thousand volunteers helped gather more than 60 million signatures.
“It’s very moving,” Mahmood says. “It’s almost as if we’ve given [the people of Pakistan] something they were waiting for.”
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Today with so many events at an especially rich intersection, including the first time the UN celebrates HUMANITARIANS in a special way - let's look at Mahmood's message and create our own similar loving challenges for peace. (Connie - One Heart blogger)
Yes we have to show THIS IS NOT US, but it would be more fitting if we show to the world the sublimity of our thoughts and ideals and the grandeur and the beauty they the hold.
ReplyDeleteAnd this you do, Akhtar Wasim Dar Sahib - and you show the world these high ideals in all their grandeur and challenge all of us to do the same. Thank You!
ReplyDelete