Of music and Arabophobia..

Yesterday evening, I was playing Cueball with Sarath, one of my friends. For those of you who dont know what Cueball is, its a PC game that lets you play all major cue games like snooker, billiards, nine-ball etc. My phone played songs from Amr Diab's album El Leilah Deh. I was enjoying the song and the game, with Sarath, the better Cueball player concentrating more on the game than the music. Another friend, Safdar was watching the game with interest, not because we were playing a great game, but because he did not have anything else to do.

Things were going fine, till another friend of mine, whom I would just call R entered the room. R apparently surveyed the monitor, found nothing interesting there, and saw that I was listening to Arabic music, and asked me "Do you understand the meaning of the song ?".
Well, I have heard him ask me that before and I clearly know the point he wants to make. He wants to "prove" that I am listening to Jeel music just because I am an Islamic fanatic, even though I don't understand a word. He had asked me that question on numerous times before, but on each of those situations. I had restrained from confronting him but on this occasion, something else occurred. Safdar blankly asked R "Why the hell do you then listen to Telugu songs ?". This had R on the ropes to say the least. His reply was that he listens to only Hindi and Malayalam songs. When I asked R about the Telugu songs, he said "It is only one Kannada movie album I listen to (Bommarillu)". I ask "Do you understand what teh words mean ?". As I expected, he has no answer.

At this point I blankly asked him ""R, I know the point you are trying to make! You want to establish that I am listening to Arabic music,simply because I am a Muslim. And you are so concerned that I don't understand the lyrics ? Why don't you have the same complaint when I and others listen to pop and rock stuff whose lyrics leave us with the desire to possess a device that would play music in slow motion ?". R apparently sensed the danger, he knew that if it was moving onto a debate, he would face a stern test, He knows better than many that when it comes to my believes and practices I am the staunchest defender you can get. He backed away, and I was happy that I was spared of a debate, however elegant R is in arguments.

That settled the argument for the time being. Two games of snooker on the PC later, I was left wondering why people, even well-read, intelligent types like R are afraid of Islam, Arabic and anything remotely connected to it.
I have friends who listen to hard rock and openly admit they don't understand much of the lyrics. There are friends of mine, who passionately listen to Telugu songs and yet the handful of Telugu words they understand are centered around the word "Ammayi" which means "Girl". And to be honest, I know it for a fact that most of my friends who listen to Hindi songs don't understand what most of the words mean. All these friends of mine are incidentally, R's friends too. And he regularly sees them listening to the music of their choices. I have never seen him ask anybody "What is the point of listening to a piece of music if you dont understand the meaning ?".

The bottom line is that people like R, who endorse ideologies that are very politically correct are not so politically correct in flesh and blood when it comes to Islam.