Interview with Sharon Chadha - Part 1

"The Bangladesh Poet of Impropriety"

In an effort to bring you alternative views from the Islamic world, here is the first of my 10-part email correspondence with Maqsoodul Haque, who, as he writes on one of his many blogs is a "Bangladesh based anti-establishment radical thinker, columnist and jazz musician." As a lead-up to this interview series, a few days ago I posted this YouTube video of one of his recent concerts.

So who are you Mac?

Just an average Bangladeshi with a lot of varying interest, the foremost being a passion for music and one that has been a part of my life for almost thirty one years. In my family tree which I can track back to six generations I find no musicians and I guess I learnt it all from the hours spent listening to the radio. My parents were poor and couldn’t afford music lessons for me, but my stern yet affectionate father noting my enthusiasm encouraged me to sing along with the radio. The ‘shower’ is where I probably graduated next and where I would lock myself in and sing to my hearts content. Without an audience I would conjure mental images of playing to thousands and all of it miraculously added up to my real life experience! I must be blessed? To date, I remain musically illiterate i.e. I cannot play any instrument, not the guitar, I do not know what a chord or a note is, or which key I am singing, but my discography has about sixty songs that I wrote, composed, and sang and made popular – so I must be doing something TERRIBLY RIGHT. I have ten albums to my credit, the most recent being in October of 2006. What amazes me is the fan following I have and last week when I was at a FM station I was deluged by over 300 text messages by a generation of listeners that wasn’t even born when my earliest recordings were released. I average about fifty live concerts a year.

Tomorrow I'll be posting his answer to the question: "Why the interest in global jihad?" Meanwhile, enjoy another of his video recordings. Mac, incidentally, is the lead singer of the group, or, as he puts it, "I am the guy with a mullah beard and 'Gumcha' on my head."

Sharon Chadha