ABSTRACT
All over the Middle East music is played – in taxis, buses, restaurants, homes, demonstrations, commemorations, political events, and religious feasts. Simultaneously, music is being banned and concerts and festivals are closed down with the motivation that the circumstances might exhort sinful acts or thoughts. This chapter derives from my experiences and understandings of the complex relationship between music and Islam, particularly in the Lebanese and Palestinian contexts where I lived for approximately six years. The chapter will render discussions with religious Muslims and leaders, sheikhs, on how they make sense of music and Islam in contemporary times. It will also describe my involvement in how religiously accepted music (anashiid) is produced and used and how members of religiously correct bands argue on the matter of music. The following narrative and discussion, for example, will consider why religious Islamic practitioners consider certain lyrics of love and atheism as blasphemous (haram) and why songs that, for example, encourage battle are in line with Islam (halal).
