Artist Profiles

Salman Ahmad

// Guitarist & Music Producer

SALMAN AHMAD is an artist, author, guitarist, music producer, peace activist, and former actor from Pakistan, now based in Tappan, New York. He is founding member of Junoon, South Asis’s biggest and longest-lasting rock band. Salmad Ahmad is also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, spreading awareness about HIV in South Asia, and was involved in two documentaries with the BBC. He also has worked significantly to help bring peace between Pakistan and India. Salman Ahmad is currently teaching at Queens College, City University of New York. His book “Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star’s Revolution” (2010) is available from Amazon.com

Websites: www.junoon.com and www.ssgwi.org
Photo: Chris Ramirez

Interview:

We begin the life that God gave us as seeds. Whether we become musicians, poets, teachers, saints or sinners or soldiers, we are only on this earth for a short time. The season of the rose won’t last forever, as Iqbal wrote. And while on earth, as our inner mystical wheel revolves, we must plant seeds of our own before we return to God.

Darkness and light have alternated for at least the past twenty years in Pakistan, but one thing never changes: the people’s spirit. The spirit of passion is in Pakistanis’ DNA. But it’s also in the perennial interest of the international community to help see to a thriving arts and culture community in Pakistan, and in the rest of the Muslim world. Artists and humanitarians are the strongest glue between cultures in a world divided by fear and threatened by terrorism.

Arts and culture can be mightier than the sword. The people are already going where the leaders should follow. On my tours of the U.S. or Europe, I’ll often play before crowds that won’t understand the Urdu and Punjabi lyrics I’m singing. But there are scores of people who want to know more about the verses of Bulleh Shah or Iqbal, and I’ll get flooded with requests for translations or explanations. What gives my audiences and me hope for deeper ties between Islamic and Western culture is that there is love in those lyrics. And there can never be enough love, in any language.

I’m just one person who’s trying to live out a journey of light. We can only wake up each day and go out and plow the fields, armed with our God- consciousness and a clear awareness of the purpose of our individual life. In my own case, I try to keep the focus on finding common ground through music and teaching. The jihad never ends and my song remains the same. We are all connected and interdependent.

“The jihad never ends and my song remains the same. We are all connected and interdependent.”
– Salman Ahmad, Guitarist & Music Producer

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