USA: British pop star Sami Yusuf hopes his music can soften Western perceptions of Islam

The music of British Muslim pop singer Sami Yusuf has nothing to do with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Instead, the 27-year old Muslim singer writes songs about topics as alien to rock music as the Beslan school massacre in Russia and identity issues facing young Muslims. Touted by the U.S.'s Time magazine as "Islam's biggest rock star," Yusuf has already sold more than two million albums and hopes to do for the nascent form of Muslim pop what others have done with Christian rock. "There have been a lot of singers who have sung about religion and stuff... What I'm doing is unique in the sense that it is bringing together so many different influences and cultures, and it's kind of saying, look, it works, we can all live together, we can all share and just chill, if you like. We can do that," he told Reuters in an interview in New York. Yusuf, who was born in the Iranian capital Tehran but immigrated to Britain at the age of three, says he dislikes the way Islam is perceived by many in the West. He says he thinks discrimination against Muslims in Western societies has made it difficult for many young Muslims to define or be at ease with their identity -- an identity he hopes his music can help shape for the better. "The problem that Muslims are facing is an issue of identity. I think a lot of young guys are going through an identity crisis. And that's where people like me come in, an artist and say, look, you can be British, you can be Muslim, you can be hip, you can be having fun. It's not either or," he said. Yusuf's next album, due for release in 2008, will include songs on Muslim identity and the negative effects of globalisation. It will also have a song Yusuf is writing for the film "The Kite Runner," based on the best-selling novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini.

ITN Source | August 23, 2007

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