Salman Ahmad was a member of the Pakistani rock band Junoon, until he moved to the US. In this video interview he tells about his experience of meeting with clerics in Pakistan and discussing with them whether it is true that music is prohibited according to Islam.
This is an excerpt from an interview with Salman Ahmad which was conducted by Freemuse’s Kristina Funkeson in connection with the Freemuse conference on freedom of musical expression held in Beirut in October 2005.
In another excerpt Salman Ahmad tells about the videos he has produced, and about how and why Junoon was banned and received death threats in Pakistan in the late 1990s. This excerpt (below) is available in a short and a longer version:
Rock star Salman Ahmad desribes his encounters with angry mullahs and oppressive dictators who wanted all music to be banned from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Five people were injured and 10 shops damaged in a bomb blast on 28 January 2010 in a music and video market in the small town of Jand in Pakistan's Punjab province
A concert with the exiled Pakistani singer Haroon Bacha on 9 December 2009 marks the start of 'Impossible Music Sessions' in New York showcasing banned music
Pakistan's performing artists face deadly occupational hazards. Lahore's music festival, and theatres across the city are bombed in co-ordinated overnight raids
"No doubt this is the most critical phase in the history of our province," writes journalist Shaheen Buneri about the situation for artists in north-western Pakistan
Musicians, singers, and other art performers are in panic. We are all at risk, Zeek Afridi, an up-and-coming singer fromm Peshawar, told correspondents of Radio Liberty
Ethnomusicologist John Baily and Freemuse executive director Marie Korpe speak about the Taliban’s campaign against music and musicians in Afghanistan and Pakistan
