{"id":2698,"date":"2009-03-26T10:17:10","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T10:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2009\/03\/kareem-salama-a-muslim-country.html"},"modified":"2009-03-26T10:17:10","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T10:17:10","slug":"kareem-salama-a-muslim-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/03\/kareem-salama-a-muslim-country.html","title":{"rendered":"Kareem Salama: A Muslim Country Singer for Your iPod"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" height=\"198\" alt=\"kareem-salama_final.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/kareem-salama_final.jpg\" width=\"180\" \/>When I think of Muslim musicians, the genres of hip hop, rap, maybe a little rock, and of course the more religious category of <em>nasheeds <\/em>and Sufi-type music come to mind. But what about country? Putting aside the whole huge debate of whether music is <em>halal <\/em>(acceptable) or <em>haram <\/em>(forbidden) in Islam&#8211;have you ever heard of a Muslim country singer\/musician? The two words seem as out of sync as oil and water. <\/p>\n<p>But then again, you may not have heard of Kareem Salama, a Muslim country singer who&#8217;s fan base is growing. Salama&#8217;s star is rising due to his blend of spiritual, meaning-filled music that draws upon the lilt, vulnerability, and rhythms of country music. Beliefnet&#8217;s Muslim columnist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Columnists\/a-j\/Hesham-A-Hassaballa.aspx\">Hesham Hassaballa<\/a>, who writes an occasional &#8220;Hesham&#8217;s iPod&#8221; column about &#8220;what&#8217;s buzzworthy and spiritual in the world of Muslim music,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Faiths\/Islam\/2009\/03\/Hesham-iPod-Kareem-Salama.aspx\">recently interviewed Salama about what inspires him<\/a>, what drives him, and how his music isn&#8217;t &#8220;overtly Islamic,&#8221; but rather overtly human. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Hesham&#8217;s recommendation? You&#8217;ll want this unique artist on your iPod. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I think of Muslim musicians, the genres of hip hop, rap, maybe a little rock, and of course the more religious category of nasheeds and Sufi-type music come to mind. But what about country? Putting aside the whole huge debate of whether music is halal (acceptable) or haram (forbidden) in Islam&#8211;have you ever heard&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[588,127,587,300],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-country-music","tag-islam","tag-music-2","tag-muslim"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kareem Salama: A Muslim Country Singer for Your iPod<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/03\/kareem-salama-a-muslim-country.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kareem Salama: A Muslim Country Singer for Your iPod\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I think of Muslim musicians, the genres of hip hop, rap, maybe a little rock, and of course the more religious category of nasheeds and Sufi-type music come to mind. But what about country? Putting aside the whole huge debate of whether music is halal (acceptable) or haram (forbidden) in Islam&#8211;have you ever heard&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/03\/kareem-salama-a-muslim-country.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-26T10:17:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/kareem-salama_final.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dali\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kareem Salama: A Muslim Country Singer for Your iPod","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/03\/kareem-salama-a-muslim-country.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kareem Salama: A Muslim Country Singer for Your iPod","og_description":"When I think of Muslim musicians, the genres of hip hop, rap, maybe a little rock, and of course the more religious category of nasheeds and Sufi-type music come to mind. 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