Beirut's diverse, thriving music scene now battered by war

from www.Haaretz.com

When the last note sounds on peace

By Noam Ben Ze'ev

"All that is banned is desired," goes the Arabic proverb. This expression is the title of a new brochure published by the Freemuse organization - the only international organization that is focused on the struggle against music censorship and which promotes freedom of expression in music. The brochure cites discussions from the Freemuse Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music, which took place in Beirut last October, and reflects Beirut's rich musical scene and climate of freedom - before the strikes began there last month.

The sensitive topics discussed in the course of the week-long convention point to why Beirut was chosen as the host city.

"We chose Beirut because only in that city, in conditions of freedom of expression, could musicians from all over the Middle East and its periphery speak openly and without fear about the censorship and the oppression that they suffer, and about the real threat in whose shadow many of them work," says Marie Corpe, the chair of the organization, whose headquarters are in Denmark.

In a phone conversation from Amman a few days ago, Jordanian-Palestinian oud player Ahmed al-Khatib, one of the featured speakers at the conference, described the musical and cultural climate in Beirut: "It's hard to describe the tremendous cultural progress that has taken place in the city since my first visit there in 1993, when it was in ruins after the war."

Al-Khatib came to Ramallah at the end of the last decade and became one of the founders of the city's conservatory and a leading teacher. However, in 2002 he was arrested by the Israeli army, and since then he has not been allowed to return to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"I though that Ramallah was the height of cultural flourishing until I came to Beirut," he continued, "a city that is unlike any other city in the Arab work: bustling with music, with full concert halls, wonderful artists, recordings and new trends in composition."

The spirit of freedom

In a phone conversation from Copenhagen, Marie Corpe also describes pre-war Beirut as a city that enjoyed a renaissance of construction, theater, music, master classes and conventions attended by people from all over the Middle East - not to mention jazz cafes full of intellectuals and university students. "A large number of journalists and television people took an interest in our conference, the first in the Middle East devoted to freedom of expression," she says. "Even the people from Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station confirmed their attendance but they canceled at the last minute."

To kick off the convention, as a point of reference for later deliberations, they screened a documentary film about Lounes Matoub, the popular Algerian singer of Berber origins. Matoub was kidnapped in 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), released in the wake of demonstrations by millions who spontaneously took to the streets, was exiled to France, but returned after four years because of his longing for Algeria - and was then murdered.

In lectures and discussions held after the film, different facets of the oppression of musicians surfaced, which not only threaten musicians in Algeria, but in the entire region - including Syria, Morocco, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. These threats were described by players and singers, producers and radio people, newspaper music critics and artists from these countries.

A discussion with the head Egyptian censor, Ali abu-Shadi, revealed only a few of the methods used to silence music in that country. Ahmed al-Khatib also shed light on the complexities inherent in the Palestinian situation. He said musicians and teachers were trying to establish a musical and educational infrastructure under the terrors of the occupation, all the while within a political, social and economic context that prevents them from flourishing. "It is difficult to divert the attention of children from the violent situation surrounding them, and to make them concentrate on music," said Al-Khatib. And outside intervention, by political forces as well as by foreign donors, is in itself censorship."

The desperate situation of the artists who live under the yoke of totalitarian regimes in Arab countries, or under occupation, only serves to emphasize the growing spirit of freedom in Beirut prior to July 2006. A unique expression of this spirit was showcased at the conference by a cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Ramadan al-Mardini, from the Beirut Studies and Documentation Center. In an exhaustive survey the sheikh explained the main points of Islam's attitude towards music - both according to the Koran and according to Muslim law. "The censorship of music and arts is a tool used by the totalitarian regimes to preserve themselves, and is opposed to religion," he said, pointing to many examples from theology to prove his arguments. "Islam opposes any coercion relating to thoughts and ideas, including in the field of music - because it is an abstract, neutral language of expression, which does not reflect nationality, gender, identity or religion. Therefore, everyone is permitted to express himself through it."

The participation of Lebanese composer and oud player Marcel Khalife may have been the best indication of the victory of freedom of expression in his country. In 1999 Khalife was arrested for insulting the religion and for heresy because of his song: "Father, I am Yusuf," set to the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish an allegory on the story of Joseph and his brothers. At his trial, which was taped on camera, Khalife courageously spoke harshly to the judges, and freely expressed the contempt he felt for his prosecutors: "Why does the court of justice, which conducts its meetings in the name of the people and makes its rulings in the name of the people, close its doors to the people?" he said defiantly. "Did you throw me into the cage of the accused only because I am a creative artist? Placing me on trial is a crude and arrogant act, which subverts a person's right to interpret any idea according to his understanding."

In the verdict, the Lebanese judges ruled that disobeying the laws of religion did not necessarily mean desecrating its holy men. "After listening to the disc we discovered that the accused sang the song out of respectful awe," they added, "without desecrating his holiness, and without intending to incite against him - neither by the words and their meaning, nor by the music." Khalife was declared innocent; and in his lecture at the conference he once again opposed censorship of any kind, claiming that the censorship official was nothing but a police officer, and emphasizing the importance of the intellectuals and artists in society: "The artist needs wings, and we must help him fly."

Just like Tel Aviv

Lebanese composer Joelle Khoury's stories about up and coming music in Lebanon and the status of the female artists in the music scene; rapper Klotair K's description of the hip-hop scene, and the story of American musician and scholar Mark LeVine, emphasize a progressive Lebanon, which exists alongside reactionary forces. "In Beirut's jazz clubs, Shi'ite and Christian girls dance with one another, and all the borders - sexual, ideological, nationalist, religious - are crossed in the climate of the youth culture there," says LeVine, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies at the University of California at Irvine, during his lecture at the convention.

LeVine speaks Hebrew. He lived for over a year in Tel Aviv, and has written books and articles about the Western-Islamic conflict - including that of the Israelis and Palestinians - from the music angle.

In a phone conversation from California last week, he described Beirut as a city that is more reminiscent of Tel Aviv than one that suits the image of an evil enemy: "When you sit there on the beach, it is impossible to tell whether you're in Beirut or in Tel Aviv," he says, "and the same is true in the cafes, the pubs and the nightclubs - the same dj's play in both places. Now a friend of mine who is a rapper tells me that just like in 1982, he once again goes to sleep with heavy metal rock and Jimi Hendrix on his stereo system, in order to drown out the thunder of the bombs. The artists have stopped believing that there is a chance for peace with Israel - and that's terrible, because they are usually the last ones to give up. They will be able to reconstruct Beirut with the billions from the Gulf states; the anger and suspicion against Israel, and the disappointment and fear of it, these have already been an issue for generations."