Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam

8vo, br. ed. Mark LeVineís acclaimed, revolutionary book on sub- and countercultural music in the Middle East brings this groundbreaking portrait of the regionís youth cultures to a new generation. Featuring a new preface by the author in conversation with the band The Kominas about the problematic connections between extreme music and Islam. An eighteen-year-old Moroccan who loves Black Sabbath. A twenty-two-year-old rapper from the Gaza Strip. A young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marleyís ìRedemption Song.î Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each the music of protest, and are considered immoral by many in the Muslim world. As the young people and subcultures featured in Mark LeVineís Heavy Metal Islam so presciently predicted, this music turned out to be the soundtrack of countercultures, uprisings, and even revolutions from Morocco to Pakistan. In Heavy Metal Islam, originally published in 2008, Mark LeVine explores the influence of Western music on the Middle East and North Africa through interviews with musicians and fans, introducing us to young people struggling to reconcile their religion with a passion for music and a thirst for change. The result is a revealing tour de force of contemporary cultures across the Muslim majority world through the regionís evolving music scenes that only a musician, scholar, and activist with LeVineís unique breadth of experience could narrate. A New York Times Editorís Pick when it was first published, Heavy Metal Islam is a surprising, wildly entertaining foray into a historically authoritarian region where music reveals itself to be a true democratizing forceóand a groundbreaking work of scholarship that pioneered new forms of research in the region.