Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2002, page 111
Bulletin Board
Convenings and Deaths
Compiled by Janet McMahon
CONVENINGS
Middle Eastern artists will play a prominent role in the second Los Angeles World Festival of Music, taking place throughout L.A. Sept. 14 to 19. A free presentation of “Mystical Music of the Middle East,” with the Yuval Ron Ensemble featuring Najwa Gibran, will be offered Sept. 15 at 3 p.m. at the UCLA Hammer Courtyard, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. A “Multi-Faith Devotional Service,” also free, will be held at noon Sept. 22 at the Los Angeles Bahai Center, 5755 Rodeo Rd. “Sacred Space/Sacred Ground: Music and Dance Fall Equinox Celebration,” with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, will take place Sept. 22 from 2 to 6 p.m. Space is limited; call (323) 655-8587 for reservations. The Whirling Dervishes of Damascus will present two offerings of sacred Sufi music and ritual: Sept. 28, 8 p.m. at UC Northridge’s Luckman Fine Arts Complex [call (323) 342-6600] and at the Sacred World Closing Concert, Sept. 29, 6 p.m., in the Greek Theater, 1700 N. Vermont. For more information call (213) 480-3232.
Entries are sought for the AL-JANA Children’s Film Festival, to be held in Beirut in October, as part of a larger yearly event in active learning and arts entitled “Sawt Souarna 2002.” The festival will present films on and by children under 18 years of age, with preference given to films directed by children themselves or with the active participation of children. For complete information contact Mr. Hicham Kayed, AL-JANA/Arab Resource Center for the Popular Arts, P.O. Box 114/5017, Beirut, Lebanon, phone/fax 011-9611-819970, e-mail <[email protected]>, Web site <www.oneworld.org/al-jana>.
DEATHS
Abdul Ghani Lone, 70, a senior leader of Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyet Conference, was assassinated May 21 as he left a rally in the capital of Srinagar. An advocate of Kashmiri independence but an opponent of violence, he said in a lecture the day before his death that he was “not averse to talking with India or anyone else.” He had spoken out in recent months against the role Pakistani-based extremist groups have played in Indian Kashmir, accusing them of co-opting the Kashmiri independence campaign to further “their international struggle to Islamicize the world.”
Gunnar Jarring, a former U.N. mediator for the Middle East who served as Sweden’s ambassador to Washington and the Soviet Union, died May 29 at his home in Helsingborg at the age of 94. He entered his country’s diplomatic service during World War II, serving in India, then-Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. He was ambassador to the U.S. from 1958 to 1964 and to Moscow from 1964 to 1973, and served as the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy on the Middle East from 1967 to 1991.
Fadzil Noor, leader of Malaysia’s opposition Islamist party, died June 23 at the age of 65, after failing to regain consciousness following heart surgery June 10 in a Kuala Lumpur hospital. The leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party since 1989, he was viewed as a relative moderate who opposed imposing shariah in the multiracial country with its large non-Muslim ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. In 1999 he successfully formed a coalition of opposition parties to challenge the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. That year the Islamists won more parliamentary seats than the ruling party and took countol of a second of Malaysia’s 13 states. The coalition collapsed last year, however, when post-Sept. 11 statements in support of the Taliban alienated Malaysians and strengthened the standing of Mahathir’s United Malays National Organization.
