In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV) We Present:

1) "Defend a Fort Called Marcel Khalifah". Laith Shubeilat Presents an
Islamic and an anti-Zionist Perspective in Support of the Progressive
Lebanese Arab Singer and Composer Marcel Khalifah.

2) Translations for the Occasion from Muzzafar An-Nawab's Poetry

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1) "Defend a Fort Called Marcel Khalifah" by Laith Shubeilat.

[Introduction: The House of Fetwa is the official institution responsible
for issuing verdicts on controversial questions in accordance with Islamic
law in each country.  The official verdicts they issue are called Fetwas.
The head of such institutions is called Mufti.

Hence, the Grand Mufti of Sunni Muslims in Lebanon, Muhammad Qabbani, issued
a verdict against the progressive Lebanese composer and singer for using a
verse of the Quran in a 1995 album.  Now Khalifah, an accomplished and
serious musician who embodies the definition of creative commitment and
"music for the people", is being sued in Lebanese courts at the behest of
Qabbani allegedly for "debasing religious rites".

Predictably, the case has caused great polarization in Lebanon and
neighboring Arab states, with leftists, secularists, liberals, and most Arab
nationalists on the side of Khalifah, and with Islamic fundamentalists and
their supporters on the other side.  However, there were two notable
exceptions to the latter: Shiek Muhammad Hussein Fadllah, the highest
religious authority of the Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, who exonerated
Khalifah, and the Jordanian Arab opposition figure and Islamic leader and
activist, Laith Shubeilat, who presents below a declaration supporting
Khalifah from an Islamic perspective.

Enjoy- The Free Arab Voice ]

Defend a Fort Called Marcel Khalifah
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

It is in these circumstances where many anti-Zionism forts are imploding one
by one, that a recent outlandish attack springs forth from within against a
soaring cultural citadel of anti-Zionism: the composer and singer Marcel
Khalifah.  Yet, while some bastions of Fetwa in the Arab world have
collapsed before the Zionist onslaught, Marcel Khalifah never wavered.  He,
God willing, will remain steadfast should the so-called peace treaties with
"Israel" be imposed as well on the society he lives in.  Hopefully then, the
Houses of Fetwa which today accuse Marcel of blasphemy will also remain
steadfast, and won't just collapse before the onslaught as they have in some
neighboring Arab states, like the one I reside in.

It is in fact these collapsed bastions that should stand charged in courts
of law and the courts of Islam by 'any who has heard and thus stands
witness'.  Blessed are those other Fetwas (Islamic verdicts) which hold that
quoting a verse of the Holy Quran in a poetic text or a hymn intending to
serve one of the greatest purposes of the descent of divine inspiration,
that of liberating humans, and opposing injustice, coercion, and occupation,
does not touch on the sacredness of the Quran. On the contrary, they glorify
and testify to the truth of the Book before those who deny it IN PRACTICE by
surrendering their will to those whom God forbade us to make peace with,
those who 'expelled us from our land or helped to expel us'.

>From this platform, this Muslim hymns with Marcel: "Ya abati inni ra'aetu
a7adah 3asharah qawqaban" (The Quranic verse Khalifah is being sued for
quoting).  This Muslim says that we get close to God by chanting this hymn
with Marcel, and by singing "Allahu Akbar..Allahu Akbar..Allahu Akbar fawqa
kaydil mu3tadi" (God is greater than the injustice of the aggressor), and
that we should support whoever helps save our youth from degenerate and lame
music that is flooding society by composing refined music of noble purpose.

We should furthermore discard, under the auspices our revered Islamic
scholars and Muftis (like our respectable Mufti Qabbani), the Fetwas which
sanctify taboos, like peace-making with Zionists.  How numerous are such
erring Fetwas nowadays!  And how urgently must we attend to our Islamic duty
by confronting them, while leaving our backs well-covered  by the strong
safety of such cultural forts like that of Marcel Khalifah!

As a Muslim who reveres God and his Prophet, I respectfully ask of the Grand
Mufti Qabbani to drop the case against Marcel Khalifah. For the Mufti knows
like I do that Marcel only intended in his hymn to politically uplift the
Arab nation, the nation of the pole-bearers of the Holy Quran.  The record
of this artist and his work demonstrate clearly that he never meant any
disdain for the words of God, which we  certainly would not accept together
with our Muftis.

Hence, Marcel's Fort is worthy of defense just like that of Pope Shnoudah of
the Egyptian Copts, whose position on Zionism certainly sets an example to
follow by many of our scholars who are wavering in these hard times.

                                Laith Shubeilat

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2) The following are verses from Muzaffar Nawab's poem "Taraneem Layliyah".

There's is your clay God:
in it, age slowly dies away
and sulfur flares up like madness

There's your clay..
under overlapping fingerprints
and many years spoiled with consciousness

There's your clay..
tossed about by the roads in the nights of exile and rain

POEMS LED ME TO YOU
SO HOW MAY I POINT YOU OUT WITH THE AMBER OF MY POEMS?

Tears made me tender, like a handkerchief on a wedding day
I don't harm a cheek!

Take me.. Take me and wipe your lantern with me at night
So we may glow with secrets

Lord, blame not the infidel in these infidel times

Hunger is the father of the infidels

I'll take the side of infidel hunger, Lord,
so long as the other side kneels
from the weight of wrongdoing

But I beseech You not to be angry with me,
for You're the one tucked beneath my wing at dawn

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