Tag: İmam

  • Turkey’s Rock and Roll Imam Under Investigation

    Turkey’s Rock and Roll Imam Under Investigation

    By Thomas Seibert

    Turkish authorities are investigating whether the imam of a Mediterranean mosque can continue his rock band, or whether the genre is incompatible with Islam.

    ISTANBUL—Is rock music incompatible with Islam? That’s the question facing the preacher of a small village mosque in southern Turkey, who is under official investigation for singing in a band in his spare time.

    Religious authorities have launched an investigation into whether Ahmet Muhsin Tuzer, 42, can keep his job as imam in the mosque of Pinarkoy, a hamlet of some 80 people near the town of Kas on the Mediterranean coast. In Pinarkoy, Tuzer calls the faithful to prayer over a public address system at his mosque and leads the community in five daily prayers. There have been no complaints about his conduct in his main job, but his hobby has made religious leaders uneasy.

    “I have heard that the decision will come in two to three weeks,” Tuzer said by telephone from Pinarkoy last week. Whatever the verdict will be, “I will continue to play music.”

    Tuzer’s career as a rock singer took off in August when he performed his first and, so far, only concert with his band, FiRock, in Kas, drawing around a thousand people as well as reporters and camera teams that turned the “Rocking Imam”, as he is now called, into a minor celebrity.

    Fuzer cheerfully admitted that the concert was designed “to make us well-known,” but insisted that there was more to his hobby than just PR. “If music reaches people’s hearts and fills them with beautiful ideas, then it is an act of worship,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of music it is or what kind of instruments you play, it’s the intention that counts.”

    Tuzer said his band’s music did not contain references to Satan, sex or violence. “We don’t play Death Metal, you know.”

    One of his songs, “Come to God”, is about man’s search for religious enlightenment. The video clip for the song shows the band performing against the backdrop of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, a sixth-century church that was later turned into a mosque and is a museum today.

    FiRock recorded its first album, “Time for Change”, in Istanbul and hopes to release it in the coming weeks, Tuzer said. “The album will resonate around the world.”

    The album’s scheduled release coincides with the expected decision on Tuzer’s future as Imam.

    All of Turkey’s 80,000 mosques, including Tuzer’s village mosque in Pinarkoy, are run by the Directorate for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet in Turkish, a state agency with more than a hundred thousand employees and a multi-billion dollar budget. Imams like Tuzer are civil servants and bound by the rules of the Diyanet headquarters in the capital, Ankara.

    Tuzer said his band’s music did not contain references to Satan, sex or violence. “We don’t play Death Metal, you know.”

    When Tuzer’s musical ambitions became public, the Diyanet sent an inspector to Pinarkoy and Kas to interview the imam and local people. “He even talked to atheists in the bars of Kas”, Tuzer said. He added that he understood the Diyanet’s need to probe his hobby.

    It is not the first time Tuzer’s behaviour has raised eyebrows in the religious bureaucracy. While working in a mosque in Istanbul in 1997, he met his future wife, Oana Mara, who was a Christian at the time. Tuzer said he resisted pressure to make her convert to Islam. “I don’t have the right to interfere,” he said, adding that Oana Mara became Muslim three years ago of her own free will. The couple has an 11-year-old son.

    Tuzer said he founded FiRock in May and went into rehearsals for the concert in Kas. Rock music of different stripes is wildly popular in Turkey and can sometimes have political undertones.

    When Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd member, performed his “Wall” album in Istanbul in August, he commented on the anti-government unrest that swept Turkey earlier in the summer and was applauded when he spoke of “state terror”.

    In 2009, five rock fans waiting outside the entrance to a festival in Istanbul were detained by police after they were seen giving the sign of the horns, a salute of heavy metal fans, near the passing convoy of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The signs were interpreted by police as an insult to Erdogan, but the fans were later released.

    For Tuzer, things may not be that easy. Mustafa Aydin, deputy director of the Diyanet branch in Antalya province, reminded the “Rocking Imam” in September that hobbies—which would be regarded as normal in other jobs—could lead to problems in his case. “Being an imam is not an ordinary profession,” Aydin said.

    While religious experts in Ankara ponder the question of what to do with Tuzer, the “Rocking Imam” and his band plan their next career steps. “We want to play all over the world,” he said. Niki Kaiser, an artist in Oakland, CA, offered help to set up concerts in the United States, he said, although no dates had been confirmed yet. “All this will come after the album has been released,” he said.

    Religious authorities in Ankara have not commented on the outcome of their probe, but Tuzer said it was possible that they would ask him to give up rock music. “They may say that if they allow me to go on, they will have to deal with a Jazz imam or a Rap imam next time,” he said. “It would mean they have no control anymore.”

    But Tuzer said he would not accept such a result without a fight. “I will take them to court if they decide that way,” he said.

  • Muslim rockers inspired by Pink Floyd take on Turkey

    Muslim rockers inspired by Pink Floyd take on Turkey

    A Muslim imam in Turkey has joined with a rock band to bring a message of peace and love to Muslims. Religious authorities are not sure if they like it.

    KAS, Turkey — What do you get when you mix a medieval Sufi poet with one of the greatest ’70s rock acts of all time?

    A Muslim rock band led by a Turkish imam whose music is an Islamic version of peace and love.

    “If I hurt your heart, I believe that I hurt God’s heart,” says Ahmet Muhsin Tuzer, bedecked in the white robe he wears when leading the faithful to prayer in the tiny village of Pinarbasi near Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline. “If we love each other, we will be very happy this life and the next life.”

    But Tuzer’s melding of influences from 13th century Sufi poet Rumi and 1970s rock band Pink Floyd is attracting attention from Turkey’s religious establishment, which has been expanding its authority over Turkish society under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The mufti in charge of the region’s mosque confirmed that the Rockin’ Imam is being investigated.

    “In the (religious affairs directorate) we have certain common values,” mufti Ahmet Celik told USA TODAY from his office in the city of Antalya. “(Investigators) are looking into it to see if there’s anything against these values.”

    Tuzer, 42, is an accomplished muezzin — the one who sings the call to prayer — and had earlier been posted in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet quarter that houses the ancient Ottoman capital with many of its most famous mosques.

    Tuzer says he spent the last two years exploring Sufi mysticism and he’d long had an interest in singing, drawing inspiration from the late Freddie Mercury of the British band Queen.

    Earlier this year, Tuzer met some veteran rock musicians in the nearby seaside town of Kas, a touristy fishing village where he was born and raised. He decided he’d like to fuse his love of rock music with the beauty contained in Islamic verse and he began to write songs with Dogan Sakin, a guitarist who’s played with some of the most well-known musicians in Turkey.

    The collaboration begat FiRock, which combines Tuzer’s lilting vocals with Sakin’s metal guitar riffs. With his long, grey hair and tattooed arms and legs, Sakin looks the part of the veteran rocker. Sakin is not religious but says he believes in the group’s message.

    “I felt this would be something beautiful directly from the heart,” Sakin said. “Without that feeling, I wouldn’t be here.”

    “We could play ney and bende (traditional Turkish instruments) but that wouldn’t attract much attention,” Sakin said. “It would be too traditional and wouldn’t work. But with rock, it’s universal.”

    In the band’s first concert in Kas in August, Tuzer took the stage in the long white robe usually reserved for an imam leading prayers. About a thousand people listened to songs that included the band’s first recorded single, Mevlaya Gel (“Come to the Creator”).

    The image of an imam on stage with seasoned rockers created a sensation in Turkey. But not everyone grooved on their musical message. After the show Tuzer says insults and even threats poured in on Twitter and other social media.

    “The radical Islamist public, they don’t like my music, my stuff because they cannot understand,” he said.

    But the band could threaten Tuzer’s livelihood. In Turkey, imams are employed by the government’s religious affairs directorate, which supervises the country’s mosques. Soon after news of FiRock broke Tuzer found himself under investigation by his employer.

    Under the law, there are rules about what kind of business imams can engage in outside of their profession as religious figures. Mosque officials are examining whether being in a rock band constitutes a commercial activity.

    Meanwhile, the band released its first single and music video on YouTube — getting around 20,000 hits — and is recording its first album.

    FiRock’s ambition is to show a side of Islam that’s often overshadowed by violent Islamist radicals to the detriment of all.

    “Islam is peaceful. Islam is respect,” Tuzer said. “Islam is moral — and beautifully moral. We want to live like that.”

    Turkey is a modern society but is polarized between a growing religiously conservative sector that for the past decade have been the power base for Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government under Erdogan.

    Some Turks who look westward for their music and fashion feel threatened by recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol and dictates about family size — one of the roots of protests in cities across Turkey over the summer..

    Sakin says the band wants to help heal the division in Turkish society.

    “Why should we be so polarized? We embrace everybody,” he said. “What good is it to be polarized for the rest of our lives?”

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/19/turkey-rocking-imam/3007893/

  • Turkey Opposes Letting Greece Name Imams

    Turkey Opposes Letting Greece Name Imams

    Turkish officials have slammed legislation that will enable Greek authorities to appoint imams at state schools and mosques in Western Thrace.

    Turkish_schoolsThe amendment voted this week, which will allow religious teachers to teach the Quran, is expected to curb the influence of the Turkish Consulate, which has funded imams and the Quran teaching centers.

    “Greece has disregarded the legitimate demands of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace, taking an overbearing stance,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Athens only recognizes a Muslim minority.

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras rejected the allegations, saying the move is part of Greek efforts to improve the minority’s religious and cultural status.

    Tensions remain in Greece among the Muslim community which has been pressing the government to build them an official mosque instead of forcing them to worship in makeshift halls and basements.

    via Turkey Opposes Letting Greece Name Imams | Greece.GreekReporter.com Latest News from Greece.

  • Turkey: Imams Take Voice Lessons

    Turkey: Imams Take Voice Lessons

    imams 040Twice a week a group of Turkish imams gather in a small classroom not far from Istanbul’s Golden Horn. Their goal is to get in tune.

    Istanbul’s Muftiate, or Council of Religious Affairs, has received complaints of late about imams who melodically recite verses of the Koran in an off-key manner. In response, muftiate officials have started offering voice lessons to any imam who wants them. Although strictly voluntary, those who have been identified as being “unable to satisfy his community” are strongly urged to attend, said Recai Albayrak, head of the of the district mufiate for the Beyoglu section of Istanbul.

    The voice lessons are led by Firkret Yasin a graduate from the Classical Folk Program at Haliç University who also moonlights in a rock band that performs around istanbul. Yasin guides the group of 20 imams through warm-ups, scales and popular Turkish folk songs. He then shows how imams can use the techniques when reciting Koranic verses.

    The imams gather in a classroom at the Fetih Kuran Kursu – Kasimpasa school that is normally used by religious students ranging in age from eight to 15. Although used to being accorded respect and deference, many are eager students.

    “Before class I was not using my breath correctly, after [this] class I can recite the Koran better because of the scales I learned,” said one Imam, who declined to give his name.

    Sadri Karabas, from Kars in eastern Turkey, said he sought out voice lessons to improve his ability to issue the Azan, or call to prayer. “I decided to come to the class because I want to be able to read … the proper notes.”

    Albayrak, the Beyoglu muftiate official, indicated that there is no shortage of candidates for voice lessons. There have been requests for at least another 40 imams to take advantage of the program, he noted.

    Editor’s Note:

    Monique Jaques is a freelance photojournalist working in Turkey and Afghanistan.

    Watch Video:

    via Turkey: Imams Take Voice Lessons | EurasiaNet.org.

  • Amerika’daki İmam

    Amerika’daki İmam

    amerikadaki imam ergun poyraz
    Ergenekon tertibiyle yaklasik 3 yildir cezaevinde olan yazar bu kitabiyla
    Fetullah Gülen`in bilinmeyenlerine isik tutuyor.
    Kitapta Fetullah Gülen`in soyu ile ilgili tüm bilgilerin yaninda Islamla telifi mümkün olmayan eylem erine yer veriliyor.
    Gülen`in bir ayda hazirladigi risalesinde;
    Allah`in sifatlarini eksik bildigini, Cuma`nin sartlarini bilmedigini,
    namazin sartlarindan habersiz oldugunu, mezhepler ve mezhep imamlari hakkinda hiçbir bilgisinin olmadigini belgeliyor.
    Kitapta; Ergenekon tertibinin Gülen`in ülkeye rahat dönebilmesi amacini tasidigini,
    Gülen`in hocaliginin istihbarat örgütlerinin eseri oldugunu kanitliyor.
    Yazar; kitapta Fetullah Gülen`in kimligine projektör tutuyor.
    Burada verilecek karar; Gülen`in kendi halinde bir din adami mi,
    yoksa Ankara Emniyet Müdürlügü`nün raporunda önemle vurguladigi gibi;
    `Cumhuriyet`e karsi en sinsi, en kapsamli ve en tehlikeli olusumu köklendiren biri mi oldugu`dur.
    Tabii ki takdir okuyucunun…
    e-kitap olarak ektedir…

    Download