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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Salman Ahmad

Aired October 28, 2001 - 10:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Junoon (ph) , a leading pop band in Pakistan has been helping the United Nations raise money for the campaign against AIDS and HIV. Now the group is in New York to perform at a fund raiser for the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy. Joining us now is Salman Ahmad, Junoon's bandleader. He is also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.

Good morning to you.

SALMAN AHMAD, GOODWILL AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: Hi, Martin how are you?

SAVIDGE: Fine, thanks. Tell us, for those who don't know, a bit about the band. What type of music you play, and more importantly, how you got involved here?

AHMAD: Well, Junoon's a South Asian rock band. We've got three main members: Myself, lead singer Ali, and an American friend of mine, Brian O'Connell, who I went to school with in New York in junior high and high school.

And we've been working out of Karachi, Pakistan and we -- since September 11, we have shared that sense of sharp disbelief of how the world has turned upside down, and what we've tried to do in our own humble capacity was to set up a peace concert in Islamabad on the October 9, which was a concert to raise funds for the victims here and the Afghan refugees coming into Pakistan.

And I chose October 9 because of John Lennon's birthday, and it was wonderful to see, you know, a girls' college where we held the concert, where everybody was singing, "Give peace a chance." And there were -- the people -- it wasn't just Junoon, I got artists from music, television, film, sports stars, doctors, lawyers all on one stage to show the silent majority of Pakistan.

SAVIDGE: Well, you mentioned that this is all in your humble way. But there's a great deal of significance of where you are from. The group also has a number of religions that are connected to it. What is the message that you are trying to get out there for people to understand?

AHMAD: Well, you know, the underlying ethos of Junoon's music is Islamic Sufi poetry, and for those who don't know, Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the best-known Islamic Sufi poets. And the Sufis sang about harmony, tolerance, peace, self-discovery, simplicity, and they were really, sort of, totally, the antithesis of the religious extremists that you see nowadays protesting on the streets.

SAVIDGE: So you're sort of counter the message that we have seen played up in the media regarding those that are opposed to this action. You have a different message then.

AHMAD: Well, Martin, if you think about it, it's not just our message, it's the message of Pakistanis everywhere. It's a country of 140 million people; 10-30-40,000 people constitute a real huge minority who you see on CNN in America and elsewhere, and unfortunately, the great silent majority, which has been suffering silently for 50 years, because they were -- can't go out on the streets and face being shot by the religious extremists; they obviously aren't supportive of these protests, because this terrorist attack is an un-Islamic act.

The hijacking that took place wasn't just a hijacking of an airplane -- an entire religion was hijacked by the terrorists. In Islam, you can't kill innocent civilians; it's murder. In Islam, suicide is prohibited, and the prophet Mohammad said that the ink of a scholar is far more precious than the blood of a martyr. So this whole radical image of Islam which is being portrayed is, I think, a minority view and it doesn't really have to do with Islam.

SAVIDGE: Salman Ahmad, that was very well put. Thank you very much. The name of the group is Junoon. We wish you very good success in all of your concerts. Music goes a long way to heal in many of the problems in the world today. Thank you.

AHMAD: Thank you.

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