By Febriyanti Lestari

Aidi’s Rebel Music (2014) examines the cross-cultural trends in political activism throughout different eras and regions. Focusing on Muslim youth, he looks at how political movement is brought together with music, showing how music can be a powerful lens to view the identities and movements emerging in Muslim communities. He argues that music is the realm where Muslim diaspora consciousness and identity politics are most poignantly being debated and expressed. In his later chapter, he also provides some case studies of how state uses music as a means to create order and homogenize mass behavior. Aidi begins his discussion with a prologue seeing how young European and American Muslim search for a nonracist utopia. He notes how the young European admires the Black music and takes it as a role model for political activism. They naively praise America after Obama was elected President in 2004 with his soft-diplomacy policy. To delve deep into the matter, Aidi connects the past with present situations by zooming in a particular area. Rather jumping, in the first two chapters, he takes the audience to South America and elaborates how Brazil under Lula has become a safe haven for Muslims especially after 9/11 and relates it with the existing Brazilian foreign and domestic policy. Lula is eager to promote the idea of Brazil mixedness, and as part of his reforms, the Brazilian government has made Bahia’s past central to its cultural diplomacy. In terms of popular culture, it is reflected through soap opera such as Salve Jorge and The Clone and Sambadrome parade ground in Sao Paulo. Despite Lula’s friendliness towards Muslims—reviving the nostalgia of Convivencia—perhaps not all Muslims would be happy with the Orientalist fantasy and sensual images arising from this hybrid character and popular culture. In Chapter 3, he is back to the United States and explores the unique urban development model that uses music and religious capital in Philadelphia, with its urban Salafi style. Historically, Salafi was once seen in a more positive light. In the U.S. Salafi was seen as a force to moderate black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam. From late 70s until 2001, the Salafi’s traditional values were seen as an asset to rebuild communities and clean up the streets. His observation shows how the connotation of a term or a group is subject to historical contexts.

This book covers a vast array of topics that it is quite difficult to come to a specific conclusion. Based on its title, the bottom line is the politization of music by both Muslim youth across national borders as a reaction to “war on terror” policies, at one end, and by U.S. and U.K. as part of their soft-diplomacy policy through culture to deradicalize Muslims, at the other end. In the aftermath of 9/11, music has been used paradoxically as a form of rebellion or resistance by the marginalized groups but also a means to create order and homogenize mass behavior by the government officials. Regarding the latter, U.S. government under Obama began to send cultural ambassadors abroad to restore U.S. image after Bush invasion to some Muslim countries. Aidi argues in Chapter X that “at the international level, U.S. hip-hop diplomacy is more interventionist, using hip-hop not only to rebrand America’s image, but also to promote democracy and economic development and to alter the behavior of other countries.” This is ironical how the U.S. government since the 70s attempted to crack down on black militancy at home but then used their rebel music for state propaganda purpose abroad. Similar case happened to Salafi. Conservative Salafi is seen as radical but was once seen as a force to moderate black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam and for a while urban Salafi style was viewed in a more positive light at the domestic level. However, since late 90s through the aftermath of 9/11, U.S. government preferred to promote Sufism as a “moderate” alternative along with the growing concern with Wahabism and Saudi policies. In the U.K. gnawa is deployed to encourage social cohesion as opposed to Salafism. This is interesting how even a particular religious sect is utilized as an easy way to distinguish between the moderate and the radical. All this demonstrates how music is very fluid, often highly politicized but also effective as a means of proclaiming a group’s identity.

 Aidi also found the connections between the contemporary Muslim diaspora youth movement with the Black movement. He saw how young European and American Muslims searched for a nonracist utopia. They admired Black music and took it as a role model for political activism. Using transnational perspective, he explored how particular music such as hip-hop, jazz, and punk, played significant role in the circulation of protests among Muslim youth in the diaspora including U.S. and U.K. that could lead to the Arab uprisings. Back to his prologue, all this Muslim youth cultural movement in some way “represents struggle, an alternative idea of modernity and cosmopolitanism, as well as a different relationship to the West.” (FL)

 

---