The sweet sound of Islam

IMP opens in Seattle

SEATTLE (RWN) - After nearly a decade of bickering, the Islamic Music Project is set to open in Seattle this weekend.

The museum, designed to honor Islamic musicians throughout the ages, from the ancients to Shania X, will open with a concert by the Bin Laden Band, the popular alternative band that's currently on top of the charts.

"This marks the end of a very long road," said Ibn Lohur, the museum's director. "It's no secret that we've had our troubles trying to get everything put in place."

But everything is in place, from the animatronic Shania X to the graceful amphitheater where visiting artists can give impromptu performances.

The first temporary exhibit is "Music of change: Muslim popular music in the time of the transition," and will feature oral history interviews with many of the artists who converted during the transition.

The first fight over the IMP came over its design. Traditionalists wanted the building to resemble a mosque, while avant-garde designers wanted it to be a deviation from the dome-and-minaret design that dominates Seattle's skyline.

A compromise option - incorporating minarets and sharp edges - failed miserable, and three major funding groups, including two record companies, pulled out. Lohur, the former chief executive officer of the Mohammed's Gym franchise, was brought in to save the sinking project.

Adopting a style his critics called "dictatorial," Lohur ram rodded through a modern design - shiny white, with knife-sharp edges, and developed a business plan for the museum.

"The IMP, as a concept, does no good to anyone if it doesn't get off the ground, or worse, if it does get off the ground and is crap," Lohur said. "The last thing this regime needs is another bad museum with a few dusty relics and some misspelled exhibit signs. We are trying to restore Islam to its place as a leader of arts and letters. The Black Robes would prefer that we didn't."

One of the biggest challenges was getting past the religious police, who were unhappier with the museum's planned content than they were with the modern design. Black Robes are believed to be responsible for two fires set in the museum's storage facility during the main building's design. And they are known to be responsible for pulling five workers out of the IMP construction site and caning them for alleged blasphemy.

"All of that is past us now," Lohur said. "We are, as I said, at the end of a very long road. But we are also at the beginning of a long, hopefully smooth road. We open in a few days and the world can see the artistic contributions of Islam."



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