'Heavy Metal Islam' Book Author Reports On Arabia’s Metal Scene

The National newspaper has published a guest column from Mark LeVine, Professor of Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic Studies at UC Irvine and author, most recently, of "Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam" (Three Rivers Press/Random House). An excerpt follows.

"I was not a metal fan growing up. Sure, I had been into the great late 1960s and early 1970s groups from which metal had emerged — JIMI HENDRIX, CREAM, DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, and LED ZEPPELIN. But I came of age at the moment that MTV took over, and the brand of metal that grew up with it — 'hair' or 'glam' metal, epitomised by groups such as MÖTLEY CRÜE, POISON and QUIET RIOT — seemed more about debauchery than building on the foundations of the ur-generation of heavy rock.

"Indeed, while most of my friends either moved into hip-hop or tried to be the next Eddie Van Halen, there was something about the music of those seminal bands which drew me backwards in time: towards the blues, classical music, and, while I couldn't at first put my ears on it, what I gradually realised were the Arab roots of rock 'n' roll.

"The more deeply I delved into music, the more I understood the powerful links between black American music, hard rock and music from around the Muslim world, especially the Middle East and Africa. That same realisation also drove me to spend a decade getting a doctorate in Middle East studies.

"Yet despite working with many Middle Eastern artists as a musician and researcher, I was shocked when I first heard about the metal scene while celebrating a friend's birthday in Fes, Morocco. If there could be such a thing as a Heavy Metal Islam, I thought, then perhaps the future was brighter than most observers of the Muslim world imagined less than a year after September 11."

Read the entire article from The National.