This music hit has become a big success in Pakistan.
8 out of the 10 biggest Pakistani music stars participated in the project.
There have been 60,000-70,000 downloads which is an impressive figure for a poor country like Pakistan, which has few people with internet connections.
The song was the brainchild of Waseem Mahmood whose children asked him to do something about the rising radicalization of Islam
Children sing the lyrics in the streets.
The Pakistani cricket team after being defeated by Ireland responded to the defeat saying, "We are not that."
"Yeh hum naheem"
www.yehhumnaheen.org
This is a new Musical video that has become a huge hit in Pakistan. I resounded very much with me. When people talk about "Muslims" and how they are (all) violent and terrorists, and this and that... I scratch my head and think... who are these people talking about?? That's not me!
The Yeh Hum naheen website has more on this music sensation:
Written by Ali Moeen, Pakistans foremost lyricist, with music composed by Shuja Haider, its the central message of the song that has compelled so many people to become involved. It is a message of reconciliation, a message of peace and a message of truth. Capturing the imagination of people across the board, Yeh Hum Naheen has given a voice to the silent majority, those in the Muslim world who have for too long been mis-represented.FOX News has more on the making of the Mega Hit.
Limited Edition CD single available in all good UK music stores in 16 July 2007.
With simultaneous release on iTunes
UPDATE: The Video reached #1 on MTV for 4 weeks!
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ReplyDeletewow, i'm impressed!! :)
i'm still hoping the world unites to fight this
scourge against civilization vs dividing it in
the name of kumbaya.. *sigh*
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wow! what an inspirational song. More power to them. Now do they have artists in Iraq and Afghanistan to do the same? Who need the politicians over there, when they have such a courageous and inspiring artist!
ReplyDeleteUntil members of the 25% of them that support terrorism start cutting off the heads of children and teenagers caught listening to those songs.
ReplyDeleteI said to my husband, I bet the other 2 of the top 10 wish they had joined in this song. He said, they probably want to keep living. It shocked me that these 8 are actually putting their lives in jeopardy by speaking against the fanatics.
ReplyDeleteBravo to these good souls.
The sentiments are great, the video well done - but to this fan of Asian music, the wimpy Western music is barely up to the standards of a third-rate coffeehouse in Albuquerque. More power to the performers and lyricists, but it could have been radically better by setting it to music recognizeable by Muslims as 'ours'.
ReplyDelete-
It's almost as if it were for mainly European/US consumption.
Have you read the lyrics?
ReplyDelete"This story that is being spread in our names is a lie"
The Westerners are lying about us
"These stamps of death on our forehead are the signs of others"
They have stamped us for death.
"The name by which you know us - we are not that"
They falsely label us.
"The eyes with which you look at us - we are not that"
They look at us funny.
"This is not us - this is not us..."
"As with the coming of night one loses one's way"
Sure we've lost our way but it's because of all the bad stuff being done to us.
"We are scared of the dark so much that we are burning our own home"
This is probably the most troubling line in the song. It almost sounds like a justification for terrorism? As if they are saying, "we are only fighting the dark forces arrayed against us." Is the dark the West? I don't see how it could be terrorism. "We are burning our own home." Obviously that's bad. Is it also bad to attack the homes of others? I don't know. They don't say.
"What is this rising all around us..."
Hopefully they are talking about the terrorism, not the West.
"We have lost on the way the lesson of living together
we are now even scared of each other."
This song seems to be primarily opposing terrorism against Muslims (possibly to be extended to terrorism against other people in Muslim lands). I see nothing to make me think that they are speaking out against attacking Western targets.
"They are others whose faces are on your hands"
Not sure what this means.
"Your hurts are a deep sea - our wounds are deep."
Also, they link to some interesting images on their site.
http://www.yehhumnaheen.org/download/wall_2.JPG
All in all, I think it is a great thing that they are speaking out against terrorism. However, I am not completely reassured. I hope that I am misinterpreting the lyrics. Would anyone care to defend them?
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ReplyDeleteDoug @ 9:15 AM
[Hopefully they are talking about the terrorism, not the West.]
thanks for the lyrics.. :)
the Yeh Hum Naheen video
@ YT starts off differently..
"Terrorism is murder
Murder is haram.
Countless innocents are being
murdered by terrorists
claiming to fight in the name of
Islam."
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Doug, I agree with your analysis of the lyrics. You saved me from the trouble of doing it myself. It does not seem to me that they are agitating against terrorism as much as they are singing against the Western view of Muslims as terrorists. If they hold to the Saudi line, then we've to blame the Jooz. They don't denounce any Muslims for terrorism; they look outward and only look inward to deplore their losses. They don't mourn ours. Yeh hum naheen is self-serving. It sounds nice and airy fairy, but it is but another apologetic. Inasmuch as the source of Islamic terrorism is the Koran, then the song must be Yeh naheen.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I am behind a firewall so I don't have access to the video just now, which is why I went to the lyrics here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yehhumnaheen.org/english/the_song.html
Thanks for posting the lyrics from the video, bg. Those are exactly what I would hope for.
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ReplyDeletehey Doug..
[Thanks for posting the lyrics from the video, bg. Those are exactly what I would hope for.]
oh you're so welcome, but those were not part of the "lyrics", guess it was part of the introduction / opening monolog or whatever one calls it.. ie: at the very end it depicts the words Yeh Hum Naheen in white on a mostly black screen (can't make out what's in the background, maybe a poster of some kind), and all of a sudden shots are fired into it, and bright red blood oozes out from the bullet holes..
i'll try & give you a visual the best i can.. at the beginning they spotlight "Headlines" re: terror attacks with flames burning in the backgound.. along with varying clips of terrorized / frightened people.. then they show shots of people in the orchestra playing instruments ie: violins.. then it switches to the group on stage singing the song (in a circle, all facing outwards (towards the audience i suppose).. in between close ups of the individual singers & group shots, they show a wide range & age of men women & children doing ordinary every day things (ie: attending to their businesses, school lessons, etc).. waving & smiling while singing (mouthing) "Yeh Hum Naheen".. :)
hope that helps (also hope i
didn't forget anything).. :D
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ReplyDeletewell i found one thing i forgot to mention.. ;)
re:
[waving & smiling while singing
(mouthing) "Yeh Hum Naheen".. :)]
at us (ie: at the camera / towards the viewing audience)..
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The problem as I see it is that they waited too long to differentiate themselves from the terrorists. The terrorists were deliberately trying to ensnare the moderates by pushing taqyyia and it has probably worked because now there will be severe reservations about anything said by the muslim community. There also were far too many demonstrations in support of the terrorists and against the west to have any good come out of late protestations of innocence
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ReplyDeletehey Mike..
not disagreeing with you to a certain extent..
however, being that these barabaric Islamsists have been & still are slaughtering more of their own per se.. i'd say the people on that side of the Ocean live in more fear than the ones on this side who "still don't get it" and are still "siding with the terrorists" in the comfort of their bass ackwards Congressional matrix, gah!!
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Pakistan has a lot of problems with internal terrorism. See this Wikipedia article for numerous examples of incidents in recent years, most of which have not even received much publicity in the USA.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the song may be interpreted within the country as a stand against the Muslim-vs.-Muslim terrorism going on in Pakistan, without reference to anything involving Western countries.
As to the musical style of the song, I believe it could be considered in the mainstream of Urdu pop music. (Yes, they do have pop music in Pakistan.) If the song was meant for Western audiences, they would have written it in English instead. Pakistan has English as its official language so presumably they could have found someone to write English lyrics if they wanted.
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ReplyDeleteflashback: GP had posted a few stories about Pakistanis rallying against terrorism (including this one), but i don't know how to locate them..
100,000 Pakistanis Protest against Radical Mosque
excerpt:
["Islam is a religion of peace and there is no place in it for using force or terrorism," said MQM leader Altaf Hussain, who addressed the rally on loudspeakers by telephone from London. "Islam is a religion of peace and it does not need Kalashnikovs and sticks," he told the rally, while a helicopter whirled overhead to provide aerial surveillance and hundreds of police surrounded the venue -- the city's main commercial area.
“We will strongly resist religious terrorism and religious extremism,” Mr. Hussain said. “We will resist their intentions with co-operation of the people.”]
and thank you for upsetting the good people of Pakistan, as well as enflaming any angst they have against US Mr. Barack Hussien Obama.. (thumbsdown)
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Dear Doug
ReplyDeleteI am Waseem Mahmood, the person behind the song. Poetry is open to interpretation but I assure you that there is not one single hint of anti westernism in the song. The whole idea was that a number of Muslims are in denial about the fact that a problem even exists - thus this was a wakeup call to them. We can only root out the problem once we accept that there is a problem. The lies being spread refers to these acts being carried out in our name...not lies being spread in the west. The whole tone of the song is thus. The line about deep wounds is the only one that can refer to the west but it is to say that there is suffering on both sides.
Hope that this helps.
Waseem;
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response, and congratulations on your success with the message. It obviously is something that was waiting to be said and heard, hence the "mega-hit". Might I suggest a short series of such songs? Elaborating one aspect or another of your message? I think there's a lot more out there to tap into.
Again, well done, sirs!
Hi All
ReplyDeleteThis is Ali Moeen, the lyricist of the song. I have been reading the comments posted on your blog by different people. Thanks for appreciating it. However there is a gross misinterpretation at places. The song/lyrics are at the outset an inhouse wake-up call as well as a message for other alienating ourselves from the scourage of generalizations of terrorism. The words "wo"(meaning "they") and "them" have been used for the terrorists exclusively to draw the line of distinction between them and us. This song has no innuendos or allusions towards west or anyother country. No... Not at all... It is only meant to declare the terrorists as OTHERS and not being one of us.
I appreciate all again for taking the message forward and talking about it. Spread the message in the song as it is for the good of the world regardless of color, cast, creed, religion etc...
Ali Moeen
uzi
ReplyDeletesalaam yehhumnahee team
welldone u all guyz who participate in such thoughprovking message,really its time we ppl unite n tell other that we r not thatwat westrn countries think whenever i listen thiz song i have tearz in my eysz it awke me....
we should think about thiz matter otherwise other nations supoil us...being a pakistani its everyone duty to tell other yehhumnahi behind thiz terrorism..
wishess GOD BLESS PAKISTAN