Salman Ahmed: sufi reverie broken (Photo: The Independent)
Here is Junoon lead guitarist and composer Salman Ahmed (no stranger to weird political positions and publicity seeking himself), writing a response to Ali Azmat's appearance on DawnNews (presented earlier).
Can we just say 'Meowwwww!!!'?
FROM SALMAN AHMAD FOR ALL DISGRUNTLED JUNOONIS
"Dear Junoonis,
after reading your deluge of e-mails and tweets of disgust concerning Ali Azmat‘s recent appearance on Dawn TV,I saw the programme myself and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
I’m stunned at the audacity of ignorance, the dishonesty and the complete hypocrisy uttered by Ali Azmat on the recent Dawn TV show. Pakistan does not need the “Danda” or a “Khilafat” any more than it needs corrupt politicans,suicide bomb blasts and drones that kill innocent civilians.
I wonder why Dawn TV doesnt choose to invite serious people who have contributed positively to Pakistan’s culture,education and society rather than trying to get cheap laughs out of confused and brainwashed celebrity addicts. Cynical ideologues who find Ali Azmat to be an eager robot for their conspiracies must also be wondering what kind of Bald “Pappu yaar” they have unleashed on the Pakistani population.
For the record: I would like to make clear that Ali Azmat had zero creative input on over 90% of the Junoon songs (Including Jazba Junoon, Azadi,Allama Iqbal, Bulleh Shah’s and Shah Hussain’s songs and Pappu Yaar). Ali was completely resistant and and hostile to the spiritual poetry of Bulleh Shah and Allama Iqbal and hated singing Sufi songs (and now he wants an Islamic Khilafat sponsored by the Army! Allah help Pakistan) .
While in Junoon the only thing Ali was most vociferous about was having his money for nothing and his chicks for free, and yes he also enjoyed running naked in the middle of the night in 5 star hotels screaming inquilaab! If this is a reaction to his earlier loose canon extremism, he should make a remake of the movie ALL OF ME.
After watching Ali’s “dumb and dumber” drivel, I feel i should retitle my book from Rock & Roll Jihad to “How Junoon survived despite a Psychotic, Paranoid & Schizophrenic Bald man!” "
I think it would be safe to say there's a little bit of unfinished business between the two former bandmates. I think it would also be safe to say this response was not very sufi of Salman Ahmed. More along the lines of 'don't screw up my corporate brand, you fuck!' How did that Junoon song go?... "Woh yaadein, woh mulaqaatein....!"
salman hasn't made more sense than this. very timely, indeed. i totally agree with him. at least on this issue.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide whether Salman Ahmed's opportunist PR fakeness is worse or Ali Azmat's stupidity.
ReplyDeleteI know credibility takes a backseat to a 'good story' but did you try to double check that this indeed is Salman Ahmed's response. Why would he have go on some koolmuzone website and post a reply under a 'guest author' pseudonym when he already had www.isufirock.com and www.junoon.com to pass on his moronic ideas. And if this reply is taken form somewhere and just posted on koolmuzone by some guy then it doesn't mention the original source from where it's been taken.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me Cafe Pyala, but is this response from Salman Ahmad even real? Because to be honest, it reads more like a parody of what one would expect a petulant adolescent to have written, as opposed to, I don't know, the forty something adult we expect Salman Ahmad to be.
ReplyDelete@tlw, i don't know if the response is really salman or not, but as regards your criteria of judgement, ali azmat too is supposedly a forty-something adult, and look what *he* spouts!
ReplyDelete@osseous and @TLW:
ReplyDeleteHere's Salman Ahmad, in his own words on Twitter (http://twitter.com/sufisal):
"apologies, i cant respond to all the tweets ,obviously my blog touched a deep nerve within everyone,u have power make your voices heard,now!"
I leave the verification to you.
Oh, and here's a Tweet from sufisal from yesterday, just in case the previous one doesn't quite do it for you:
ReplyDelete"After watching Dawn TV , I feel i should retitle my book "How Junoon survived despite a Psychotic,Paranoid & Schizophrenic Bald man!"
1:12 AM Jun 23rd via web"
apologies, i cant respond to all the tweets ,obviously my blog touched a deep nerve within everyone,u have power make your voices heard,now!
ReplyDeleteLooks like somebody hasn't mentally crossed seventeen yet.
Like somebody said, it seems kinda sad that we used to look upto these guys. But hey, I guess it took some combination of guts, ego and stupidity to proclaim a "Rock'n Roll" revolution in openly Jihadi Nineties Pakistan.
We all were mumbling about the dangers of Sipah-e-Sahaba and the MQM (A) & (H) wars; Ali Azmat and Salman Ahmed were thinking they were living Woodstock-II; the Sufi Sequel.
XYZ, if twitter is one of the reliable sources you bank on then I've seen soap operas with more credibility. lol. That twitter account is fake. I just confirmed that with his brother.
ReplyDelete@osseous: Since you seem to have a direct line to the Ahmads my friend, why don't you ask them to issue a rebuttal about the post and have the "fake" Twitter account shut down. All it would take, btw is one line to the press (and they have many contacts there, trust me) that they disown the blog post and one line to Twitter pointing out that someone "fake" is using Twitter to promote Salman Ahmad's music, his book, his band (the account links to junoon.com), his friends (Deepak Chopra) and his and his wife's NGO and propound views exactly the same as Salman Ahmad's.
ReplyDeleteIn case you cannot manage that, please at least get your head out of your ass.
XYZ, I think only in your own world could something so trivial and absurd as fake twitter accounts be of such importance that needed to be investigated and prosecuted. Search on Google how many people there are on Twitter pretending to be some celebrity even if these celebrities have their own Twitter accounts running in parallel with the fake ones. How many of them have gone to press? Unless press goes to them asking about it, who they are to deny tabloid coverage and free internet adoration, especially in Salman Ahmed's case, who still shamelessly runs www.junoon.com (talk about cashing in on your past success). By the way, props for making such an astute observation that wouldn’t have been obvious to many that this twitter account expresses views same as Salman's Ahmed's. lol
ReplyDeleteLastly, usually the onus is on the author to verify something before giving his/her two cents, especially when the idea is to make someone look foolish. Don't blame you, as said before I know it's hard to resist the inexorable pull of 'good story' no matter if it lacks credibility.
osseous should spell asseous.
ReplyDeleteFor your info darling, this arrived as en email from Salman to all leading Pakistani newspapers.Stop living in denial.
ah ah! funny the way the baldie and the 'me me me' salman behave. nothing unusual. the funny part is that the two have taken things into their hands and started blabbing. atleast sherry (sufi sal's wanna be corporate guru cum spin doctor) didnt not let these two do teh talking, ever! both these guys have been delusional since day 1 and their constant bickering drove Brian to the edge (yes there was a man there who was passionate about music and made good music).
ReplyDeletewith sufi sal turnin into a 'peace loving, sufi 'misquoting' soul' and ali azmat coming a long way from selling hash and E at boat basin (now he just runs around naked, not a sight to behold though since his member is way too small, unlike his larger than life ego), about time both of them shut up and get laid somewhere.
lol. interesting note about azmat's 'member.' there was a party in his house some years ago when he got drunk and actually started lamenting about the small size of his member. no joke, but this really happened. zionist conspiracy i'm sure, his small member.
ReplyDeleteIs Zaid Hamid's willy also tiny? That could be one reason for his obsessive desire to conquer the world
ReplyDelete