July 21, 2010
Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/arts/music/22sufi.html?_r=1&ref=religion_and_belief
Hands waved overhead. Voices shouted lyrics and whooped with delight. Children were hoisted onto parents’ shoulders. In the tightly packed crowd a few dancers made room to jump. T-shirts were tossed to fans from the stage.
Yet in the songs that Abida Parveen was singing, saints were praised. They were Islamic saints, the poets and philosophers revered by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.