http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1807543,00.html

G-had and suicide bombers: the rapper who likens Bin Laden to Che Guevara

· Record label chiefs' threat to quit over violent lyrics
· This is about freedom of expression, says musician

Mark Brown, arts correspondent and Luc Torres
Wednesday June 28, 2006
The Guardian

Aki Nawaz
Aki Nawaz says he is is prepared to face the consequences of his album's
release. 'I'll take all the blame,' he says. 'If they're going to lock
anyone up they'll lock me up'. Photograph: Martin Godwin
 

Two record company executives are threatening to resign from a label
over an album by a radical Muslim musician which has tracks about the
immorality of the west, suicide bombers and Osama bin Laden.

Aki Nawaz is determined to release what is, by anyone's standards, a
phenomenally angry album. He says he fully expects a knock on the door
from MI5. As the main component of the band Fun-da-Mental, Nawaz has
been producing politically challenging music since 1991 but accepts he
is pushing those boundaries further.

The album, All is War (The Benefits of G-had), contains one track which
uses the words of Bin Laden issuing "a statement of reason and
explanation of impending conflict" and equates him with Che Guevara.
Another forensically recreates a suicide bomber at work. The opening
song is a rejection of what Nawaz sees as the hypocrisy and immorality
of the west. One supposedly dream-like track predicts the demise of
America at the hands of Islam.

Nawaz, a former drummer in the Southern Death Cult, said yesterday: "I
have a right to push the boundaries as much as anyone else has, whether
it's Ken Loach or Harold Pinter or George Galloway or Neil Young or the
Sex Pistols."

He recognises some people will say his album should not be released,
that it might incite people. "I've already told all the lyricists don't
worry if we get into trouble, I'll take all the blame. If they're going
to lock anyone up they'll lock me up. I'm not scared, I've got a lot of
anger and frustration at where we have arrived at. I'll take the heat.
And I've told my kids, I've told my wife that if anything goes wrong
with me I want you outside Paddington Green and I want you staying there
day and night."

The impending release of the album has already caused consternation.
Nawaz says two silent directors of his label, Nation Records - Martin
Mills and Andrew Heath of Beggars Banquet Records - have threatened to
resign if he releases the album, which he intends to. Neither Mr Mills
nor Mr Heath were prepared to comment yesterday.

Nawaz said he had respect for both men but added: "I'm kind of
disappointed because it makes me think if Never Mind the Bollocks had
landed on their tables they would have dismissed it. "They're in fear
for themselves and they're in fear for me which is a telling tale of
where we are at in the present scheme of things when it comes to freedom
of expression."

Nawaz produced the album in London, Pakistan and South Africa and it
also contains songs which address deaths in Afghanistan and Srebrenica.

He said rather than ask about the effect his album might have on
impressionable people, the question should be asked of the government.
"You've already got people at the top who are inspiring them to do
wrong. It's like a mafia who say for us to do anything is legitimate but
any resistance towards us is illegitimate. So you have legalised
terrorism and illegal terrorism."

Nawaz, who grew up in Bradford, believes he is being honest. This
"honesty" manifests itself in tracks such as the rap song I Reject, an
angry polemical blast with lines such as "Reject your blood I reject
your creed/Reject your queen and her stolen crown/Reject your media
falsified news/Reject your patronising liberal views." It also takes a
swipe at moderate Muslim voices who accept invitations to Downing Street.

Nawaz said: "A lot of young people will listen to I Reject and say
that's where I'm at. Anyone worried by what I'm saying should get
involved in the debate. You are allowed to dissent. It's a right. It's
not exclusive to indigenous people."

Nawaz describes the songs Che Bin Parts 1 and 2 as a discussion on
resistance and terrorism. He uses the words of Bin Laden and Che Guevara
to suggest that they have more in common than differences. Nawaz said he
challenged anyone to disagree with the statement by Bin Laden that he uses.

Cookbook DIY has lyrics about how a suicide bomber makes his bomb. It
also has a verse about how a White House scientist makes his bomb -
equating the two.

Nawaz denies that he is condoning suicide bombers. "Everything to me is
tragic. I don't understand what the guys are doing. But I can feel what
they're doing."

It is not difficult to predict the reaction from some sectors. Nawaz
says he is ready for it. "I've got a Post-It note on my front door
saying don't knock the door in, ring me, here's my number."

Extracts

I Reject

Reject your thieving foreign policies
Reject your elitist congregation
Reject your mini skirt liberation
Reject your concept of integration ...

Parasites

But revenge will be mine, with my last breath I will rise to curse you
Because you, you dogs and parasites have made us helpless

Cookbook DIY

I'm strapped up cross my chest bomb belt attached
Deeply satisfied with the plan I hatched
Electrodes connected to a gas cooker lighter