DEPOK, Indonesia: With a discombobulating mix of blonde hair and ecstatic cries of 'Allah, Allah!', the members of Islamic band Debu sway on stage at a strip mall on the edge of Indonesia's capital.
Led by a clutch of American siblings, the band of adherents of Sufi Islamic mysticism have become a perennial hit during the holy month of Ramazan here in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
The band - who live communally under the tutelage of a 60-something California-born Sufi teacher in Jakarta's southern sprawl - make an often confusing blur of the lines between the West and Islam.
A tour of Iran last year netted the band wildly popular TV appearances and an audience with President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, though bureaucratic red tape over their US passports meant they were unable to perform live.
'One of the things that totally blows them out of the water is that, okay, there are these Americans and the women are all in hijabs (head scarves), singing in Indonesian,' lead singer Mustafa Daood, a 28-year-old with an American accent and a blonde ponytail, told AFP.
'Or in Turkey we're singing in Turkish, from Indonesia, so they have no idea where to put us,' Daood said, laughing.
Asked what Ahmedinejad was like, Daood hesitated before saying that in their brief meeting the leader reviled as a bogeyman in much of the West seemed to be a 'really sweet person.' Debu, whose name means 'dust' in the Indonesian language, formed in 2001 and play instruments ranging from the oud, a type of Middle Eastern lute, to tabla drums, flamenco guitar and electric bass.
That sound has seen the band sell around 200,000 albums in Indonesia and win their own daily show on national television before evening prayers during Ramazan, Daood said.
http://newageislam.com/american-band-of-sufi-mystics-aims-to-go-global/islamic-world-news/d/1766
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