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Raef Haggag: Fighting Islamophobia one note at a time
Photo courtesy of raefmusic
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Photo courtesy of raefmusic.com
Singer-songwriter Raef Haggag believes that music can be a tool to promote the beauty of Islam to those who fear the religion in the West.
As a Muslim-American, Raef knows how it feels to live with people suspicious of his faith.
'Islamophobia in the West and in the United States is real. It's having an effect of all of our lives,' Raef said in a recent interview after a concert at the @america US cultural center in Kuningan, South Jakarta. 'At the same time ['¦] so many Americans who are not Muslims have shown so much love for us, because America is a country of immigrants. We are proud of that ' and I think there is a lot more good than there is bad.'
Raef said that as a musician, he always responded to malice aimed towards his faith through the best channel open to him: music.
Born to a family of Egyptian immigrants in Washington, DC, on Aug. 8, 1982, Raef said that music has always been a major part of his life. His love of music came from the melodies he heard during recitals of the Koran.
Raef said that he did not play a musical instrument as a child, only picking up the guitar during his last year at the University of Maryland, where he studied computer science.
After graduation, Raef worked briefly as a software engineer before leaving to teach high school for eight years, wanting to help others more directly.
Teaching also left him more time to developing his musical craft ' and for gigs at local coffee shops.
Raef rose to national prominence in the US after his band, Great Seneca, joined the 'Voices for Change' initiative and toured the country. He then joined the Poetic Vision Tour and introduced his spiritual songs to an audience of all faiths and backgrounds.
In 2014, Raef released his debut solo album, titled The Path, which chronicled his journey as an American Muslim.
Raef, who writes his own songs, also gives Western pop songs a Muslim twist with tranquil spiritual arrangements. Examples include versions of Chris Brown's 'With You' and Jason Mraz's 'I'm Yours'.
The artists who Raef has chosen to adapt might raise the eyebrows of some conservative Muslims. Mraz, for example, is a pro-gay activist.
Raef, however, said that he had no problem in adapting pop songs for the sake of showing the true face of Islam as friendly, tolerant and peaceful.
'Overall, the response has been very positive. I haven't really got any negative feedback. People are looking for positive, clean, high quality music and this is something I hope my album can bring,' he said.
Raef said that as a Muslim-American musician, he needed to sing louder to promote Islam, as the religion has been tainted by radicals, who always seem to have the loudest voice in society.
'Almost everywhere ['¦] the radicals are almost always louder,' he said. 'We have radical Christians, we have radical Jews and we have radical everyone in the United States. Usually they are very, very loud.'
Raef said that sometimes he faced bullying and mockery of his faith in the US. 'Usually the response ' from me, personally ' is measured, because I have a great deal of empathy for them.'
'I am not angry towards them,' he adds. 'I'm sad that they think that way, because most cases of Islamophobia comes out of people just not knowing. They are not malicious. They are not inherently evil.'
He continues. 'What we try to do as a Muslim community in the United States is always speak out against [radicalism]. Even more important than that is to act against it ' to show that this [radicalism] completely contradicts our faith.'
Raef added that his visit to Indonesia offered proof that Islam was a peaceful and tolerant religion. He said he hoped those in the US who were still fearful of Islam ' or those following radical Islamic teachings ' would visiting Indonesia to learn about the religion and its believers.
'They will see [in Indonesia] how tolerant and diverse and happy people are with the different cultures and different religions and the mutual respect that everyone has,' Raef said. 'This is real Islam.'
For more information, visit raefmusic.com.
