Cairo, Egypt – With the beats of the karakeb (large metal castanets) and the clap of their hands, Moroccan artists Mahdi Nassouli and Hicham Bajjou introduced audiences at the Cairo Opera House on Wednesday night to Gnawa, a hybrid African-Sufi music. The musicians, whose songs are inspired by traditional music genres like Gnawa, Malhun and [...]
Why Islamists in Mali are Destroying Sacred Tombs and Shrines of Timbuktu
July 3, 2012 | Posted by
It was a singular, defining act of barbarism, beamed out live for the world to see. In March 2001, Taliban fighters and grandees clustered around the famed giant statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province, laid explosives at their feet and blew them up. The extremists’ shadowy leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, lauded the destruction [...]
