By Simon Shaheen
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Published by Americans for The Link Middle East Understanding, Inc. Volume 39, Issue 5 Link Archives: www.ameu.org December 2006 BY SIMON SHAHEEN ONE MONTH AFTER 9/11, I WAS INVITED TO GO ON THE BILL MAHER SHOW “POLITICALLY INCORRECT.” THE COMEDIAN QUOTED FROM PRESIDENT BUSH’S SPEECH IN WHICH THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF DECLARED THAT THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD WERE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US IN THE WAR ON TERROR. WHAT DID I THINK OF THAT? MAHER ASKED ME. (Continued on page 3.) The Link Page 2 AMEU Board of Directors Jane Adas (Vice President) Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr. What lies beyond the minor second? engaging and relevant. Where possible Atwater, Bradley & Partners, Inc. they are updated. The selections are: I’ll leave it to Simon Shaheen to take you Elizabeth D. Barlow there. • Lest We Forget Edward Dillon Were you to “google” Simon Sha- • Political Zionism heen, the words that would keep popping John Goelet • U.S. Aid to Israel up would be: “`oud and violin virtuoso,” Richard Hobson, Jr. “internationally acclaimed from Carnegie • Veto Vice President, Olayan America Corp. Hall to Egypt’s Opera House to Beirut’s • In the Beginning There Was Terror Thêatre de la Ville,” and “the most signifi- Anne R. Joyce • Deir Yassin Remembered cant Arab musician and composer of his Robert V. Keeley generation.” • Politics Not as Usual Former U.S. Ambassador Inside H-2 And more: In 1994, he was honored • Kendall Landis (Treasurer) with the prestigious National Heritage • Rachel Robert L. Norberg (President) Award at the White House. His all-star • A Polish Boy in Palestine Hon. Edward L. Peck group Qantara (meaning “arch” or “bridge” Former U.S. Ambassador • Censored in Arabic) fuses Arab, jazz, Western clas- Lachlan Reed sical, and Latin American music into a • Epiphany at Beit Jala President, Lachlan International unique blend of sound that was first heard • People and the Land Donald L. Snook to great acclaim on his debut album Blue • The Coverage and Non-Coverage Flame. In 2000, he became one of the James M. Wall first Arab-Americans to appear on the of Israel-Palestine Grammy Awards. • In the Land of Christ, AMEU National Council Christianity Is Dying Simon has also contributed selections Hon. James E. Akins to soundtracks for movies “The Sheltering • Confronting the Bible’s Isabelle Bacon Sky” and “Malcolm X,” among others, and Ethnic Cleansing William R. Chandler he composed the entire soundtrack for the David S. Dodge • The Islamic Alternative United Nations sponsored documentary Paul Findley • The Lydda Death March “For Everyone Everywhere,” which cele- Dr. Cornelius B. Houk • The USS Liberty Affair Cynthia Infantino brated the 50th anniversary of the United O. Kelly Ingram Nations Human Rights Charter. • Timeline for War Moorhead Kennedy Another site that comes up on Google The anthology also contains maps Ann Kerr notes that Simon Shaheen has never writ- specifically drawn to accompany the arti- David Nes ten a personal account of his life. Until cles, as well as a descriptive listing of all Mary Norton now. We are pleased indeed to invite this our Link issues and of our most requested Marie Petersen truly gifted artist to take us to that special Public Affairs publications. Dr. John C. Trever place beyond the minor second, where Don W. Wagner Come the first week of December, in musical influences from many cultures Miriam Ward, RSM appreciation of your support over the past intersect and merge, as if by magic, into 40 years, we will be sending each sub- “the sound of one world.” Esthetically— Executive Director scriber a complimentary copy of “Burning and ethically—this is his world. John F. Mahoney Issues.” Additional copies of the anthology Simon’s Blue Flame CD is available may be purchased from our catalog on page 13. AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) grants from AMEU’s Book & Video catalog on permission to reproduce material from page 15. From all of us at AMEU, our choicest The Link in part or in whole. AMEU must best wishes for the holiday season. be credited and one copy forwarded to Now available, as well, is AMEU’s 40th our office at 475 Riverside Drive, Room anniversary anthology “Burning Issues.” John F. Mahoney 245, New York, New York 10115-0245. Executive Director Tel. 212-870-2053; Fax 212-870-2050; This anthology includes 20 entries E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.ameu.org. that the editors consider among our most The Link Page 3 (Continued from Page 1.) Tarshiha I’m a musician, so I answered using a musical As a child in the Galilean village of Tarshiha, analogy. The distance on a piano between two adja- whenever I performed on the ‘oud or the violin with cent keys is a half-step, or a minor second. The Ara- my father’s ensemble or at a friend’s house, people bic scale, however, allows for intervals smaller than a exclaimed in amazement among themselves and to half-step which are called quartertones. These many my father: “Imagine this kid playing in Beirut, Da- intervals have no equivalent in Western music and mascus, or Cairo!” Those words rang in my ears, and are difficult for Western ears to hear. It is here, be- the innocent questions to my father followed: “Why yond the minor second that the richness and diver- don’t we go to Beirut? I want to play there! Can we sity of a culture, with its wide range of emotional go?” After all, the distance between my village, Tar- experiences, is truly expressed. Politically speaking, shiha, and Beirut was only a one-hour drive. I said, the danger of looking at the world in black However, I was young and living in the isolated and white is that it can easily lead to totalitarianism. atmosphere of Israel. It would take me years to un- Also on the “Politically Incorrect” panel that eve- derstand why it was not possible to travel freely be- ning was an F.B.I. agent, who came up to me while tween Israel and the surrounding Arab countries. we were waiting in the Green Room, and said: “I Still, I nurtured that dream—sparked by the com- know you are a Christian.” Then he added: ”We sup- ments of those adults—to perform on the stages of port Christians who live in the Middle East.” Beirut, Cairo, and beyond. What my “ear” heard were the sounds of a black It would take 27 years for those dreams to come and white keyboard. Christians versus non- to fruition by way of performances at the City Thea- Christians. Christians versus Muslims. It was not ter in Beirut and the Opera House and the Sayyed the keyboard I knew in pre-1948 Palestine, where Darwish Theater in Cairo. Formed in the spirit of my Christians and Muslims respected, even celebrated, childhood, this dream to move and freely perform each others’ traditions. across borders and to live in an open space with no Link author Simon Shaheen during a concert performance at the University of Notre Dame in 2005. The Link Page 4 restrictions and limitations continues to inform my ian ensemble. When I told them that the ensemble vision. was from one little village in the Upper Galilee called Tarshiha, it was apparent that they had difficulty un- The village of Tarshiha lies tucked into the derstanding how a single village could produce such mountains of the Northern Galilee, close to the bor- an abundance of talent! der of Lebanon. This is my village, where I was born and spent my Within that musically-charged earliest years. environment of my childhood vil- lage, I vaguely remember my The village is situated on a grandfather, Najib, who was the mountain and its foothill called deacon and the head of the choir Mjahed. From the top of the of the village church. He had a mountain, we could see the Medi- distinctive and warm singing terranean Sea, the extensive ter- voice with a great command and rain of the lush upper Galilee sweet undertones. He used the Mountains, and parts of southern ‘oud to accompany his singing of Lebanon. Valleys and fields in traditional Arab vocal music, from which farmers grew wheat, vege- 9th-century Andalusian to 19th- tables and tobacco surrounded the century Egyptian. In addition to village. My birth took place in our the influence of his own voice, my house, a structure made of many grandfather owned a gramophone arches (Qanater, the plural for that played the old cylinder wax Qantara) attached to the church Simon’s grandfather, Najib Shaheen, recordings of the greatest Arab with a well in front of the house ca. 1915.—From the family album singers of the nineteenth and early and a large backyard. twentieth centuries, such as Abu Tarshiha has been Al-‘Ula Mohammad and a center for crafts- Sayyed Safti. manship and the arts All of my uncles and and has produced aunts were musical, many talents in music with beautiful voices and visual art. In and good musical in- 1999, the Tarshiha stinct. I remember in Music Ensemble, con- particular two of my sisting of twenty mu- aunts, Fahum and sicians, joined me for Shafiqa, participating in a performance at the various secular and reli- Cairo Opera House. gious ceremonies and The performance in- events such as wed- cluded three instru- dings, holidays, harvest mental selections celebrations, and funer- from my own musical als. As a child, I used to repertoire, something follow them and watch Egyptians were not them interact with peo- used to since their Hikmat Shaheen, Simon’s father.—From the family album ple in lively call and re- music traditionally sponse.