First Sufi Festival In New York From July 20

The Pakistani Peace Builders Sufi Festival is an independent cultural diplomacy campaign to give voice to the true Pakistan and reaffirm shared values of tolerance and peace that celebrates Pakistan’s rich cultural heritage through the universal language of music. PPB stands in solidarity with New Yorkers and the world against violence perpetuated in the name of Muslims and Islam.

Responding to the negative stereotyping of Pakistani-Americans and Pakistanis after the recent failed bombing of Times Square, we invite all Pakistani-Americans, Muslim-Americans and concerned global citizens to come together with this peace-building message. It is an effort to present the softer side of Pakistan and to repair country’s tarnished image. Folk artistes from the four provinces of Pakistan will be part of an ensemble at the First New York Sufi Festival and will have their first public performance at New York’s Union Square Park.

A free public concert in Union Square will take place on Tuesday July 20th. Associated partners, the Asia Society and Rubin Museum, will host events of their own. An “unplugged” concert by younger performers will also be held at the Rubin Museum as part of their Spiral Music Series on July 21. The 50-member Sufi group headed by the Living Legend Abida Parveen will include the Soung Faqirs from Sindh, and Akhtar Chanal Zehri of Balochistan, the contemporary Pashtun singing duo Zeb and Haniya from the famed Coke Studio and several other popular ensembles.

Announcing the festival at a press conference, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Husain Haroon said: “Individual acts or the violence espoused by any minority cannot be allowed to define us all. We need to urgently give voice to the true Pakistan by showing our peaceful human face and culture to demonstrate the tolerant moderate Islam practised by the overwhelming majority.”

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Source: DAWN