A way to a healthier life

"Islamaerobics" combines prayer, cardio

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (RWN) - "Islamaerobics" is the kind of thing that could only come out of Southern California.

Where else would anyone think of putting popular Islamic prayers to funky music and then choreographing exercises to the tune?

"I first saw this when I went to my gym," Tracy Khoury wrote in her influential blog "Workin' It Woman." "I was fascinated. The words were in Arabic and sounded like daily ablutions, but the music was almost techno in nature. And the people in the class - it was integrated - were moving around and active, though they often would move into prayer positions."

"Islamaerobics" has been making the rounds of Los Angeles County gyms for the past six months, according to Tayyib Thab, who teaches the course at the Warrior Gym in central L.A.

"Some guy I know gave me a CD and said 'You have to listen to this,' and as we were listening, he totally just started doing aerobic steps. It was like he was chillin' on Khat or something, but he was totally straight. After he finished, he told me he'd been teaching it out on Muscle Beach and people were totally loving it."

Thab brought it to his gym and it took off.

"First week, we had a couple people in there," he said. "By the end of the first month, we had to schedule a second class so many people wanted to do it. I think at first there was some worry that it would be blasphemy or heresy, or people were worried that the Black Robes would lay a beat down on them, but then they figured out that the Black Robes don't work out at modern gyms."

One of Thab's students was the daughter of Sid Sharif, the owner of Think Fitness on Wilshire, the gym that the Beverly Hills elite choose to work out at. She told her father about it, and Sharid brought it to his gym. That's where Khoury found it, and where it's been taking root among influential California Muslims.

Not that it's easy for the Black Robes to swallow.

"Let me count the ways it is wrong," said Mullah Tanner, the chief imam of Los Angeles' Black Robes. "It is immodest. It has men and women together. It blasphemies the Holy Qur'an. It sets the prayers to immoral music. Would you like me to go on? Or should I just say that Allah knows all and sees all."



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