FAITHS IN TUNE: Humanizing the “Other” Through Music
When I first set out to organise an Interfaith Music Festival at SOAS, my university at the time, I don't think anyone would have imagined how far this project would take me: to heading an international organisation and social enterprise that works in several cities and countries to build interfaith dialogue in cooperation with respected educational and social institutions, and being acknowledged in this effort by several awards (including the SOAS Director's Prize 2013 and 3FF Alumni Award for Commitment to Interfaith Work 2014). As I am now in the middle of organising a fourth all-day festival under the new title of “FAITHS IN TUNE Interfaith Music Festival” at SOAS, University of London on 30th March 2015, this is a perfect time to look back at the past four years, acknowledge the development that the festival has made, and remember the reasons for which the Interfaith Music Festival continues to be needed and relevant today – probably even more than it was ever before.
2011 was the birth year of the Interfaith Music Festival, was an interfaith year for me in many ways: I was participating in the 3FF's interfaith leadership programme “ParliaMentors”, where I was personally mentored by Hilary Benn, MP and organised a dialogue event on contemporary racism in the UK together with my interfaith team mates. Finally I initiated the Interfaith Music Festival at SOAS, with the first festival in April 2012.
What is the interfaith music festival?
Originally intended as a one-off event, the festival has now become an annual well-established and beloved event that every year attracts several hundreds, and by now even some thousand visitors of all social, ethnic, faith and gender backgrounds from across London and the UK. Each festival showcases over 20 musical and/or dance performances representing various faith backgrounds, with more faiths being represented and united in one place this year than at any other comparable event or project. While past festivals have also featured interfaith panel talks bringing together renowned speakers on the subjects of faith, music and conflict resolution, the upcoming festival will offer a new and interactive interfaith singing workshop to bring the festival experience and music even closer to participants. Also, the upcoming festival will as in previous years feature an Interfaith Fair where festival attendees can learn about different religions and faith and interfaith organisations, providing a safe space for them to enter into an active interfaith dialogue with each other and ask all those questions they always wanted to ask.
Where we are today
Although I left SOAS and London in 2013 after completing my degree, I have continued to organise annual Interfaith Music Festivals in London ever since, now with the help of two student interns at SOAS. In 2014, I became an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow (and joined the ranks of amazing interfaith leaders such as 3FF's Stephen Shashoua!). In summer 2014 I registered the Interfaith Music Festival as a social enterprise in my home town of Berlin, Germany, where I am currently working in cooperation with the Berlin Senate and local organisations and institutions to organise a major-scale interfaith and intercultural music festival for autumn 2015. My dream is to organise future festivals in many additional locations all around the world – Paris, New York, Jerusalem: You name it, the sky is the limit!
Promoting interfaith dialogue through music
I sure would not have dared to dream this big when I set out to organise the first festival in 2011. At the time, I was studying at one of the most exciting and diverse universities in the world, and was surrounded by people from all countries and various faith backgrounds. However, I was startled about the fact that, while the university hosts all sorts of religious student societies as well as a very rich department of religious studies, there was no organised interfaith framework at the university that tried to bring it all together. I felt it was incredibly important to promote interfaith dialogue not only among the educated or those already in powerful positions or of social status. I wanted to create a space for interfaith dialogue that would be accessible to as many people as possible, including those who might be scared to actively participate in a verbal dialogue event because they fear they might not be educated or eloquent enough.
I understand the promotion of interfaith dialogue as a political necessity and a moral duty. We have to stop defining “others” with irreconcilable religious and cultural identities, and have to learn to primarily see people in terms of their shared human identity with human needs and human feelings. This doesn't mean to deny our differences, but to learn that our differences make us beautiful and complimentary rather than irreconcilable. Only then we will be able to effectively address the challenges that we face today together. Now music is the perfect medium to accomplish this “humanisation” of the “other”: Music can be understood beyond the barriers of language or education, and allows its listens to immerse in the feelings, passion and spirituality of those who perform it - Music makes us curious, music makes us empathise. It is a perfect ice-breaker and a wonderful facilitator of interfaith dialogue.
And so, with a big vision, though with no budget or connections at all, four years ago I set off to organise a festival that can be hardly compared to anything that had ever been done before. Along the way, I was blessed to meet numerous people who wholeheartedly supported me and my project, and I was pleased to find that faith communities and musicians received the festival with open arms. The fact that none of them could be paid for their performances was not a problem, to the contrary: People were extremely thankful to be offered a space where they could share their music, teach others about their faith, beliefs and traditions, and most importantly share the love – their love for the divine, life, their fellow human-beings and the world that we live in.
In doing so, in sharing their music and love, the performers at the Interfaith Music Festival have contributed invaluably much towards promoting interfaith dialogue and working towards a world where people of diverse faith backgrounds respect and appreciate each other’s difference, while primarily identifying each other as humans who share the same emotions, fears and hopes – humans who can come together and cooperate to deal with common challenges and build a better future.
To find out more about FAITHS IN TUNE Interfaith Music Festival and to be part of this incredible experience, visit www.faithsintune.org and
Come along to SOAS, University of London on Monday 30th March 2015 between 9.30am and 9pm for the 4th Interfaith Music Festival.
Official Website: www.faithsintune.org
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/faithsintune
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/321608928014475/
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/SOASIFMF
Tickets:www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/faiths-in-tune-interfaith-music-festival-at-soas-london-tickets-13899918029
By Anja Fahlenkamp