JEDDAH, 8 December 2006 — Islamic singer Sami Yusuf was the star attraction at a media conference hosted at the Jeddah Hilton yesterday. “I want to do something good for the shababs (youth),” said the youthful singer some hours before he was to stage a performance with other Islamic singers at the Dar Al Hekmah College premises.

“I want to cleanup the tarnished image of Islam through the efforts of my supporters,” said Sami, a UK resident whose parents are natives of Azerbaijan.

“Wherever I go, be it Egypt or any other country, I see our youth influenced by Hollywood. We need our own entity — not like Hollywood — so that our youth are influenced by our values and morals,” said Sami. “They (Hollywood) have the equipment and talents, why not we develop them ourselves and influence our youth. All companies need to support us, not necessarily financially but spiritually, as we need to have our own identity and not a Hollywood-influenced one.”

Asked whether he would take the help of satellite channels for this purpose, Sami said: “Yes the media is a strong tool and if used properly, it could help, but our idea is not to take recourse to a channel but invest our money and efforts toward spreading the message worldwide. In fact, what we’re doing is like a jihad. We want people who strongly believe in what we do to support us, as our efforts are no less than like fighting a war of identity for Muslims. We need to pursue a strong alternative.”

Sami said that he was involved in charity work over the last three to four years that provided Islamic relief worth millions of dollars.

“My Ummah” is the title of Sami’s first album recorded sometime ago. “My music is not 100 percent Arabic. My music is influenced by several classical and other forms of music ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to the ones native to China, India and the Arab world. Sami, who comes from a family of musicians, said.

“I have songs particularly influenced by ongoing world events, be they terrorism, atrocities, oppression, AIDS, but they all are composed with Islamic values.”

Sami was among Islamic, Arab and Western singers who presented a program of Islamic songs for two days from Wednesday. With him were other singers including Mohamed Al Husain of Kuwait, Osamah Al Safir of the UAE, Massoud Kourts of Turkey, Ayman Al Hallag of Jordan, Mohamed Al Azzawi of Iraq and Fahd Al Kubaisi of Qatar. “Ibda’a,” a Saudi band and “Amoag Al Bahr,” a Bahraini band, lent support to the program.

Toyota Yaris was the main sponsor of the program, with Al Ain Establishment as the organizer. The audience comprised 3,000 men and women.