US MUSLIM MUSICIAN WANTS TO REFLECT TRUE ISLAM IN HIS MUSICS

Jakarta,  13 Muharram 1436/7 November (MINA) – An Egyptian-American Muslim musician Raef Haggag  expresses  his  hopes  that people could connect with the true-peace Islamic  messages from his songs so that they could reflect it in their real life.

“I wish people could connect with the messages expressed in my songs, when they’re  connected and they would reflect it in their own lives. When I wrote the songs I wrote them with my feelings and my experiences,” Raef Haggag told Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) on the sidelines of  his mini concert at Indonesia International Book Fair (IIBF) 2014 in Jakarta, Wednesday.

Raef also said it’s so lucky to live in a place like  Indonesia when there’s only two seasons and when its people live side by side with other faiths.

“Most of the US Muslim communities  in the US  are immigrants, we have people coming from different countries, so it’s like hajj, you go there findpeople from everywhere,” he added.

Raef Haggag (Arabic: رائف حجاج‎ ; born 1982) is an Egyptian-American singer from Washington D.C. He is a prominent American-Muslim songwriter whose songs are for Muslims and faith-based communities around the world. He released his first album “The Path” produced by Awakening Records in June 2014.

Raef was born in Washington DC and raised in Maryland to parents who immigrated from Egypt to attend graduate school. From a young age, he often went fishing, kayaking, and camping with family and friends. Growing up, music had always been an important part of his life.

Raef studied Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College park and graduated in 2005. During college he sang tenor in a comedic A cappella group on campus. After graduating, Raef worked as a software engineer, developing security software for the New York Stock Exchange.

Shortly afterwards, Raef abruptly quit his computer programming job to work as full-time high school teacher from 2005-2013. He said: “I decided to switch careers from a software eng. to a high school teacher because I wanted to help others in a more direct way (and because it was pretty boring sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day).”

Raef ventured into the classroom and taught computer programming in Montgomery County Public Schools and was awarded “CS Teacher of the Year” for implementing creative lesson plans that included songs on how to program in C++ and Java.

Teaching gave Raef time to focus on songwriting, often performing at local coffee shops and busking at metro stations. He was introduced to the national stage after his trio rock band “Great Seneca” toured the United States of America as part of the “Voices for Change” initiative.

Raef also joined the “Poetic Vision Tour”; a band of traveling musicians and poets catering to the American Muslim community. Raef did several Islamic covers of popular main-stream songs, attracting young listeners wanting a modern take on religious music. Raef signed with Awakening Records and released his debut album “The Path” in 2014. (L/R04/P007/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)