In northern Mali, music silenced as Islamists drive out artists

Arby and Toure perform at the WOMAD Festival in Wiltshire, England. In a telephone interview, one of the Islamists’ top commanders declared that his fighters would continue to target musicians. “We are not only against the musicians in Mali. We are in a struggle against all the musicians of the world,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, the military leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, one of three extremist groups controlling the north. July 30, 2011 C. Brandon / Redferns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-northern-mali-music-silenced-as-islamists-drive-out-artists/2012/11/30/110ea016-300c-11e2-af17-67abba0676e2_story.html?hpid=z1

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Published: November 30

BAMAKO, Mali — Khaira Arby, one of Africa’s most celebrated musicians, has performed all over the world, but there is one place she cannot visit: her native city of Timbuktu, a place steeped in history and culture but now ruled by religious extremists.

One day, they broke into Arby’s house and destroyed her instruments. Her voice was a threat to Islam, they said, even though one of her most popular songs praised Allah... READ MORE