الريـاض / Riyadh

;Date : 15-01-2011

;Organizers : shib -

the event will be in the Riyadh City at Global Colleges in Al-Nakheel hood!

---- ;Date: 20-Jan-2011 ;Description: wiki celebrations

---- ;Date : 20-Jan-2011 ;Description : Wiki Celebrations : Please do join and let us have fun. ;Venue : Riyadh ;Participants : 1. Prashanth : 2. Karthik : 3. Saurabh Shekar : 4. Panchhi Rahul : 5. Srikanth Parmatmamuni : 6. Abdul Malik : 7. Shantanu : 8. Sandeep : 9. Mazen Al harbi : 10. Mohammed Umar : 11. Ram Kumar : 12. Mohammed Abdul Wahab : 13. Mohammed Rizwan (JGC) : 13. Hamza alodaini : 14. Mohammad Mahdi (محمد مهدي) : 15. Amr Mohammad Gad : 17. Mohannad Al omani(( مهند العماني )) : 18. Muhammad Munir Sharif (محمد منير شريف) .: 19Mohammed Al-Wajeeh ((محمد الوجيه)) : and many more wiki lovers....

Category:Saudi Arabia Category:2011-01-15 Category:2011-01-20

name	Al Stewart
background	solo_singer
birth name	Alastair Ian Stewart
birth date	September 05, 1945
birth place	Glasgow, Scotland
origin	Wimborne, England
instrument
genre
occupation	| years_active 1966–present
website
notable instruments	}}

Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart, 5 September 1945) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.

Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.

He is best known for his 1976 hit single "Year of the Cat", the title song from the platinum album of the same name.

Though ''Year of the Cat'' and its 1978 platinum follow-up ''Time Passages'' brought Stewart his biggest worldwide commercial successes, earlier albums such as ''Past, Present and Future'' from 1973 are often seen as better examples of his intimate brand of historical folk-rock - a style to which he has returned in recent albums.

Stewart was a key figure in a fertile era in British music and he appears throughout the musical folklore of the age. He played at the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970, knew Yoko Ono before she met John Lennon, shared a London apartment with a young Paul Simon, and hosted at the legendary Les Cousins folk club in London in the 1960s.

Stewart has released sixteen studio and three live albums since his debut album ''Bedsitter Images'' in 1967, and continues to tour extensively around the US and Canada, Europe and the UK. His latest release, is ''Uncorked'', which was released on his independent label, Wallaby Trails Recordings.

He has worked with Peter White, Alan Parsons, Jimmy Page, Richard Thompson, Rick Wakeman, Tori Amos and Tim Renwick and recently has played with Dave Nachmanoff and former Wings lead-guitarist Laurence Juber.

Early life

Though born in Glasgow, Al Stewart grew up in the town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England after moving from Scotland with his mother. He attended Wycliffe College school in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, as a boarder. After that, as he sings in the song "Post World War II Blues" (from ''Past, Present and Future''): ''"I came up to London when I was 19 with a corduroy jacket and a head full of dreams."''

Having bought his first guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Stewart traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar when he was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London's Soho in 1965. From there, he went on to compete at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street, where he played alongside Cat Stevens, Bert Jansch, Van Morrison, Roy Harper and Ralph McTell.

It was at this time that Stewart also met Yoko Ono, who persuaded him to part with the only £100 he had in the world to put towards her film entitled ''No 4'', a compilation of naked bottoms.

Career

Stewart's first record was the single "The Elf" (backed with a version of the Yardbirds' "Turn into Earth"), which was released in 1966 on Decca Records, and included guitar work from Jimmy Page (later of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin), the first of many leading guitarists Stewart worked with, including Richard Thompson, Tim Renwick and Peter White. Stewart then signed to Columbia Records (CBS in the UK), for whom he released six albums. Though the first four of these attracted relatively little commercial interest, Stewart's popularity and cult-following grew steadily through albums that contain some of Stewart's most incisive and introspective songwriting.

Early albums

Stewart's debut album ''Bed-Sitter Images'' was released on LP in 1967 (though technically his first recording was 'The Elf', an extract from Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' set to music and released by Decca in 1966, which sold an estimated 496 copies). A revised version appeared in 1970 as ''The First Album (Bed-Sitter Images)'' with a few tracks changed, and the album was reissued on CD in 2007 with all tracks from both versions. His first recording of any kind appears on Jackson C. Frank's first album, 1965's ''Jackson C. Frank'', playing guitar on "Yellow Walls".

''Love Chronicles'' (1969) was notable for the 18-minute title track, an anguished autobiographical tale of sexual encounters that was the first mainstream record release ever to include the word "fucking". It was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by the UK music magazine ''Melody Maker'', and also features Jimmy Page and Richard Thompson on guitar.

His third album, ''Zero She Flies'' followed in 1970 and included a number of shorter songs which ranged from acoustic ballads and instrumentals to songs that featured electric lead guitar. These first three albums (including ''The Elf'') were later released as the two CD set ''To Whom it May Concern: 1966–70''.

In 1970, Stewart jumped into a car with fellow musician Ian Anderson and headed to the small town of Pilton, Somerset. There, at Michael Eavis's Worthy Farm, Stewart performed at the first ever Glastonbury festival to a field of 1,000 hippies who had paid just £1 each to be there.

On the back of his growing success, Stewart released ''Orange'' in 1972. It was written after a tumultuous break-up with his girlfriend and muse, Mandi, and was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he would increasingly adopt (e.g. "The News from Spain", with its prog-rock overtones, including dramatic piano by Rick Wakeman).

The fifth release, ''Past, Present and Future'' (1973), was Stewart's first album to receive a proper release in the United States, via Janus Records. It echoed a traditional historical storytelling style and contained the song "Nostradamus," a long (9:43) track in which Stewart tied into the re-discovery of the claimed seer's writings by referring to selected possible predictions about twentieth century people and events. While too long for mainstream radio airplay at that time, the song became a hit on many U.S. college/university radio stations, which were flexible about running times.

Such airplay helped the album to reach #133 on the ''Billboard'' album chart in the US. Other songs on ''Past, Present and Future'' characterized by Stewart's 'history genre' mentioned American President Warren Harding, World War II, Ernst Röhm, Christine Keeler, Louis Mountbatten, and Joseph Stalin's purges.

Alan Parsons years

Stewart followed ''Past, Present and Future'' with ''Modern Times'' (1975), in which the songs were lighter on historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music. Significantly, though, it was the first of his albums to be produced by Alan Parsons, and Allmusic regards it as his best. It produced his first hit single, "Carol", and received substantial airplay on album oriented stations and reached #30 in the US, some 30 years before Bob Dylan would release an album of the same name.

Stewart's contract with CBS Records expired at this point and he signed to RCA Records for the world outside North America. His first two albums for RCA, ''Year of the Cat'' (released on Janus in the U.S., then reissued by Arista Records after Janus folded) and ''Time Passages'' (released in the U.S. on Arista), set the style for his later work, and have certainly been his biggest-selling recordings.

As Stewart told Kaya Burgess of The Times: "When I finished ''Year of the Cat'', I thought: ‘If this isn’t a hit, then I can’t make a hit.’ We finally got the formula exactly right."

The most amazing fact about this album is that Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he even had a title for any of the songs. He mentioned, in a Canadian radio interview, that he has done this for 6 of his albums, and he often writes 4 different sets of lyrics for each song.

Both albums reached the top ten in the US, with "Year of the Cat" peaking at #5 and "Time Passages" at #10, and both albums produced hit singles in the US ("Year of the Cat" #8, and "On the Border", #42; "Time Passages" #7 and "Song On the Radio", #29). Meanwhile "Year of the Cat" became Stewart's first chart single in Britain, where it peaked at #31. The overwhelming success of these songs, both of which still receive substantial radio airplay on classic-rock/pop format radio stations, has perhaps later overshadowed the depth and range of Stewart's body of songwriting. On tour in 2008, Stewart commented that he wished his fans would "never again listen to anything I recorded prior to 1988."

1980s

Stewart then released ''24 Carrots'' (#37 US 1980) and his first live album ''Live/Indian Summer'' (#110 US 1981), which both featuring backing by Peter White's band Shot in the Dark (who released their own unsuccessful album in 1981). While "24 Carrots" did produce a #24 single with "Midnight Rocks," the album sold less well than its two immediate predecessors.

After those releases, Stewart was dropped by Arista and his popularity declined. Despite his lower profile and waning commercial success, he continued to tour the world, record albums, and maintain a loyal fanbase. There was a four-year gap between his next two albums, the highly political ''Russians and Americans'' (1984) and the upbeat pop-oriented ''Last Days of the Century'' (1988), which appeared on smaller labels and had lower sales than his previous works.

1990s

Stewart followed up with his second live album, the acoustic ''Rhymes in Rooms'' (1992), which featured only himself and Peter White, and ''Famous Last Words'' (1993), which was dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Wood (who co-wrote "Year of the Cat"), who died the year of its release.

Stewart followed these up with a concept album, ''Between the Wars'' (1995), covering major historical and cultural events from 1918 to 1939, such as the Versailles Treaty, Prohibition, the Spanish Civil War, and the Great Depression.

In 1995, Stewart was invited to play at the 25th anniversary Glastonbury festival, taking to the same stage he had graced in 1970 at the first ever festival.

21st century

In 2000, Stewart released ''Down in the Cellar'', a concept album themed on wine. Stewart had begun a love-affair with wine in the 1970s when, he admitted, he had more money than he knew how to spend, and so turned to fine wines.

In 2005 he released ''A Beach Full of Shells'', which was set in exotic places from First World War England to the 1950s rock'n'roll scene that influenced him.

In 2008, he released ''Sparks of Ancient Light'' produced, like his most recent albums, by Laurence Juber. Here he weaves tales of William McKinley, Lord Salisbury and Hanno the Navigator.

Stewart and guitarist Dave Nachmanoff released a live album, ''Uncorked (Live with Dave Nachmanoff)'' on Stewart's label, Wallaby Trails Recordings, in 2009.

Stewart and Nachmanoff played the Glastonbury Festival 40th anniversary in June 2010 on the Acoustic stage.

Stewart sang a duet with Albert Hammond of Hammond's "It Never Rains in Southern California" on Hammond's 2010 album "Legend."

In 2011, Stewart sang a duet with his guitarist and opening act Dave Nachmanoff on Nachmanoff's album "Step Up". The song, "Sheila Won't Be Coming Home", was co-written by Stewart and Nachmanoff.

Residence

Born in Scotland, raised in Dorset and gaining fame in London, Stewart moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. He married in the mid-1990s, and he, his wife and their two daughters moved to Marin County, California.

Use of historical and literary sources

Historical references

Stewart's historical work includes such subjects as:

World War I pilots - "Fields of France", from the album ''Last Days of the Century''

The career of Admiral Sir John Fisher of the World War I Royal Navy inspired "Old Admirals", from ''Past, Present, and Future''

The Wehrmacht's invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II is the focus of "Roads to Moscow", from ''Past, Present, and Future''. There are references to both Wehrmacht General Heinz Guderian and also to the German Tiger tank and to the brutal treatment of returning Russian soldiers, which is drawn from the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book ''The Gulag Archipelago''.

Both the Basque separatists in Spain and the crisis in the former republic of Rhodesia are referenced in "On the Border", from ''Year of the Cat''

The Soviet Union is the focus of "In Red Square", from ''Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time''.

The English sailor Sir Richard Grenville is profiled in "Lord Grenville", from ''Year of the Cat''.

The French Revolution is addressed in the song "The Palace of Versailles", from ''Time Passages''.

Henry VIII of England (misidentified by Stewart as Henry Plantagenet (Henry II)) and Thomas More (Henry VIII's chancellor) are referenced in "A Man for All Seasons" from ''Time Passages''.

The assassin of Jean-Paul Marat is the subject of "Charlotte Corday", from ''Famous Last Words''.

The subject of Nazi war criminals hiding in South America is featured in "Running Man" from ''24 Carrots''.

The scandals of the foreshortened Warren Harding administration are the subject of "Warren Harding" from ''Past, Present and Future''.

Ernst Röhm, leader of the Nazi SA, is the subject of "The Last Day of June, 1934" from "Past, Present and Future."

Literary sources

"Sirens of Titan", from ''Modern Times'' is a musical precis of Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same title.

On occasion, Stewart has set poems to music, such as "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" (lyrics by the poet Pete Morgan) on the 1970 album ''Zero She Flies''. During his 1999 UK tour, Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed this song in the Leeds City Varieties Theatre show of 7 November 1999.

Discography

Studio albums

''Bed-Sitter Images'' (1967)

''Love Chronicles'' (1969)

''Zero She Flies'' (1970) #40 UK

''Orange'' (1972)

''Past, Present and Future'' (1973) #133 US

''Modern Times'' (1975) #30 US

''Year of the Cat'' (1976) #5 US (RIAA: Platinum) (BPI: Gold) #38 UK

''Time Passages'' (1978) #10 US (RIAA: Platinum) (BPI: Silver) #39 UK

''24 Carrots'' (1980) (with Shot In The Dark) #37 US #55 UK

''Russians and Americans'' (1984) #83 UK

''Last Days of the Century'' (1988)

''Famous Last Words'' (1993)

''Between the Wars'' (1995) (with Laurence Juber)

''Down in the Cellar'' (2000)

''A Beach Full of Shells'' (2005)

''Sparks of Ancient Light'' (2008)

Live albums

''Live/Indian Summer'' (1981) #110 US

''Rhymes in Rooms'' (1992) (with Peter White)

''Uncorked'' (2009) (with Dave Nachmanoff)

Compilations

''The Early Years (1977)

''The Best of Al Stewart - Songs From the Radio (1985)

''Chronicles... The Best of Al Stewart (1991)

''To Whom it May Concern 1966-1970 (1993)

''Premium Gold Collection (1996)

''Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time'' (1996) (limited distribution of B-sides and rarities)

''On the Border (1998)

''Singer Songwriter (2001)

''The Very Best Al Stewart Album Ever (2002)

''The Essential Al Stewart (2003)

''Introducing... Al Stewart - Running Man (2003)

''Greatest Hits (2004)

''Just Yesterday (2005)

''A Piece of Yesterday - The Anthology (2006)

''The Definitive Pop Collection (2006)

Charted Singles

Year of the Cat (1976 #8 US, #31 UK)

On the Border (1977 #42 US)

Time Passages (1978 #7 US, #1 US Adult Contemporary)

Song on the Radio (1979 #29 US)

Midnight Rocks (1980 #24 US)

References

External links

Official Page

Dutch Fan Page

German Fan Page

German Fan Page (alternative link)

Comprehensive discography

Al Stewart Friends

The Al Stewart Mailing List

Blogcritics.org Al Stewart Collection: Interviews, Discography, more

Al Stewart and Awaken evenings

Category:Scottish folk singers Category:Scottish male singers Category:Scottish rock singers Category:Scottish pop singers Category:Scottish singer-songwriters Category:People from Glasgow Category:People from Wimborne Minster Category:Scottish agnostics Category:British soft rock musicians Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:People educated at Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire)

de:Al Stewart es:Al Stewart fr:Al Stewart it:Al Stewart he:אל סטיוארט nl:Al Stewart no:Al Stewart pt:Al Stewart fi:Al Stewart sv:Al Stewart uk:Ел Стюарт

name	Reggie Watts
background	solo_singer
birth name	Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts
birth date	March 23, 1972
instrument	Voice, loop sampler, piano, synthesizers
genre	Observational comedy, surreal comedy, electronic music, trip hop, soul
associated acts	Maktub, Soulive
website	http://www.reggiewatts.com
notable instruments	Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, Electro Harmonix 2880, Iphone }}

Reggie Watts (born March 23, 1972) is a Brooklyn-based comedian and musician. His shows are mostly improvised and consist of stream of consciousness stand-up in various shifting personae, mixed with loop pedal-based a cappella compositions. He also performs regularly on television, radio, and in live theater. His comic skills come into play in improvisational performance, as well as performance of written music.

Early life (1972–1990)

Born in Germany as Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts, Watts is the only child of Christiane and Charles Alphonso Watts; his mother is French and his father is African-American. His father was an officer in the United States Air Force and the family lived in Germany and Spain before relocating to Great Falls, Montana, where Watts was raised and graduated from Great Falls High School. Watts also took piano and violin lessons from the age of five until he was 16.

Seattle (1990–2004)

Watts moved to Seattle at age 18 where he briefly attended the Art Institute of Seattle before eventually studying jazz at Cornish College of the Arts. He went on to play in a number of Seattle bands of wildly varying styles/genres, including Hit Explosion, Swampdweller, Action Buddy, Chiarrscuro, Clementine, Smell No Taste, Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, Das Rut, Synthclub, Elemental, Eyvand Kang Seven Nades, Free Space, etc. He became the front man for soul, rock, and hip hop group Maktub, with which he has recorded five albums.

In Seattle, Watts became interested in alternative performance styles. He composed musical scores for Northwest dance choreographers KT Niehoff, Amy O'Neal, Maureen Whiting, Pat Graney and Beth Huerta. He dabbled in sketch comedy with future theatrical collaborator Tommy Smith.

Watts' genesis as a solo performer started to emerge at the beginning of 2002. While touring years earlier with the Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, Watts was forced to downsize his effects pedal from a Roland Space Echo tape delay to a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler, a smaller device that makes it easy to travel. He began using the Line 6 in live shows with Maktub, in order to replicate the duplicate harmonies from the recorded material. Then he experimented with improvising entire songs in solo acts with the Line 6, playing initial gigs at small Seattle venues and artist bungalows. Inspired by ''The State'' and ''Wet Hot American Summer'', he began infusing spontaneous comedic material with the beat box-driven musical compositions.

Brooklyn/Manhattan (2004–present)

Wanting to concentrate on solo comedic performance, Watts moved to the Lower East Side, New York City, in 2004. He shot comedic web shorts for Superdeluxe, Vimeo and CollegeHumor, where his video "What About Blowjobs?" became a viral hit. He also formed a theatrical collaboration with playwright Tommy Smith, and began developing web philosophy/content with online entrepreneur Jakob Lodwick, with whom he recorded the EP ''Pot Cookies''. Moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2006, Watts started to branch out into performing for television and film, while continuing to pursue live performance and the creation of new performance technologies.

Solo performance

Watts was the opening act for Conan O'Brien on ''The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour'', and appeared as the musical guest on the sixth, twenty-eighth, fifty-first, and 108th episodes of ''Conan''. He also recently recorded material for his Comedy Central special ''Why Shit So Crazy?'', released as a dual DVD/CD package.

Watts' recent solo comedic experience includes gigs at Fusebox, SXSW, Bonnaroo, Brian Eno's Luminous Festival at the Sydney Opera House, The Louvre, Montreal Comedy Festival, PopTech!, Soho Theatre (London), Vancouver Comedy Festival, CollegeHumor's "CH Live" stand-up comedy series, The Edinburgh Festival, Bumbershoot, The Sydney Festival, Sasquatch, Outside Lands Festival and cities throughout the world including Amsterdam's Boom Chicago, Paris, Cologne, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Cape Town and Reykjavik, among others.

Watts frequently collaborates with performers/musicians around the globe. He appeared as part of the Ensemble cast of UK beatboxer Beardyman's Complete and Utter Shambles show at the Udderbelly during its residency at South Bank. He was the opening act for Regina Spektor on her European tour; he recorded vocals for Spektor's song "Dance Anthem of the 80s". He collaborated with French singer Camile Dalmais in a performance at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He also contributed two tracks to DFA Records' ''Spaghetti Circus''. He also performed with dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem during their first two farewell shows at Terminal 5 in New York City, and again at their final show at Madison Square Garden.

Television/video

On screen, Watts has appeared on ''Conan'', ''Late Night With Jimmy Fallon'', HBO's ''The Yes Men Fix the World'', Comedy Central's ''Michael and Michael Have Issues'', Iceland TV, UK's "Funny Or Die," PBS' revamped ''The Electric Company'' and the music video "What About Blowjobs?" for CollegeHumor.

Waverly Films recently shot a one-hour special on Watts called "Why Shit So Crazy?". Created as a dual DVD/CD, the special features Watts in live performance at New York venues Galapagos, The Bellhouse and Le Poisson Rouge, intercut with brief sketches and a music video of Watts' "Fuck Shit Stack". As a composer, he wrote and performed music for comedian Louis CK's show, ''Louie'', and created the theme song for ''Comedy Death-Ray Radio'' and Kristen Schaal's ''Penelope Princess of Pets''. In 2010, Watts appeared on the Movie Network/Movie Central/HBO Canada produced Funny As Hell, a comedy series taped during the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Quebec.

In 2012, Watts will co-star as the music portion of the new "Independent Film Channel" show titled "Comedy Bang Bang", based off the comedy podcast of the same name (formerly "Comedy Death-Ray Radio").

Theatre

Starting in 2007, Watts began creating experimental multi-media theater with long-time friend and playwright Tommy Smith. They have generated four pieces, ''Transition, Disinformation, Radioplay'' and ''Dutch A/V''. The collaborations between Watts and Smith feature a wide array of performing artists including dancer/choreographer Amy O'Neal (locust), comedian/actor Beth Hoyt, singer Orianna Herrman (Oracle), journalist Brendan Kiley ("The Stranger"), aerial artist Jeslyn Kelly (''Fuerzabruta''), and projected imagery by ex-Wooster Group video artist Joby Emmons.

''Transition'' played at The Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time Based Art Festival and On the Boards (Seattle); it was also the winner of the MAP Fund Award and Creative Capital award. ''Disinformation'' was seen at the UTR Festival, PICA: TBA, The Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), The Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), and ICA (Boston). ''Radioplay'' premiered at Ars Nova (New York), and played at Seattle Rep (Bumbershoot), IRT Theater (New York) and Redhouse (Syracuse). ''Dutch A/V'', a live environmental film performance and winner of the MAP Fund Award, was workshopped at IRT Theatre (New York).

Watts and Smith also regularly host ''Occurrence'', a cabaret of alternative performers, which has been seen at Ars Nova, Galapagos, The Tank, Leftbank (Portland) and various other venues. A recording of their show ''Transition'' at On the Boards helped launch the first-ever live performance download website, OTBTV.

Awards

He is winner of the 2005 Malcolm Hardee "Oy Oy" Award, the 2006 ''Andy Kaufman Comedy Award'', and the 2006 Seattle Mayor's Arts Award. He was also awarded the 2008 MAP Fund and the 2009 Creative Capitol Grant for the performing arts, and won the 2009 ECNY Award for Best Musical Comedy Act.

Personal life

Author Alice Walker is Watts' second cousin but he has not met her.

Discography

''Simplified'' (2004)

''Pot Cookies'' (EP) (2008)

''Why Shit So Crazy?'' (2010) With Wayne Horvitz

''4+1 Ensemble'' (Intution, 1996 [1998])

''From a Window'' (Avant, 2000)

Filmography

''Tell Your Friends!'' (2011) as Himself

''The Yes Men Fix the World'' (2009) as Himself

''Steel of Fire Warriors 2010 A.D.'' (2008) as Mutantzoid Underling in Bar

References

External links

Reggie Watts Website

Official "Fuck Shit Stack" video

Official "What About Blowjobs?" video

ReggieWatts/TommySmith Theatre

Reggie Watts recording music for John Mulaney's "New In Town" at MetroSonic

Category:Living people Category:African American comedians Category:African American singers Category:American male singers Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American people of French descent Category:People from Great Falls, Montana Category:Cornish College of the Arts alumni Category:1972 births

fr:Reggie Watts

name	Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq
residence	Leicester, United Kingdom
birth date	1971
birth place	Gujarat, India
occupation	Islamic scholar
religion	Sunni Islam
website	http://www.akacademy.eu
footnotes	Ul Haq speaking on Surah Hujarat at Azhar Academy, London on 24 November 2008. }}

Abu Yusuf Riyadh-ul-Haq (born 1971) is an Islamic scholar based in the United Kingdom. He is internationally recognized as a prominent scholar of Islam in the Western world and considered an authority on various Islamic fields including hadith. Over 400 of ul Huq's lectures are in circulation with the earliest recordings from 1994. The Al Kawthar Academy was founded under the guidance of Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq.

Preaching and teaching

After his graduation, he became the Imam of Birmingham Central Mosque and then began teaching hadith at Madinatul Uloom Al-Islamiyyah. Until 2003, ul Haq served as the honorary headmaster of Madinatul Uloom Al-Islamiyyah in Kidderminster, where he was previously ''sadr mudarris'' (head teacher/dean of the faculty). Since graduation he has devoted himself to the work of deen and remained actively involved in da'wah and teaching. He has taught and commented on numerous classical Islamic works and has lectured extensively on a range of topics including Quranic tafseer, hadith, aqeedah and fiqh. He has also travelled widely, teaching and lecturing in various countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. Many of his sermons and lectures are recorded and are widely available. He has also authored two books, 'The Salah of a Believer in the Quran and Sunnah' and 'The Causes of Disunity'. A poem written by ul Haq called 'Whispers of the Night' has been published on many websites and blogs.

Sahih-al-Bukhari

Since 2001, Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq has been teaching an abridged version of Sahih-al-Bukhari to the general public. The collection of hadith in Bukhari are considered the most authentic collection in Islam. This is the first time ever that these hadith have been taught in English in a systemic, detailed and thorough manner. All rulings derived from the hadith are explained according to the understanding of the main schools of fiqh. Ul Haq teaches these hadith through an unbroken and authentic chain of narration or sanad. He narrated his complete sanad in Lesson 3 of the Bukhari series before teaching the first hadith. The lessons are currently held at Al Kawthar Academy in Leicester and number over 240 that have been delivered to date,. Many video excerpts from the Bukhari lessons are on Al Kawthar Academy's Youtube channel.

Lecture series

The earliest spiritual discourses by Riyadh ul Haq which are available online date to around 1994. Prior to commencing the weekly Bukhari classes, he taught lessons of Tafseer, Fiqh and Aqeedah. He has given many general talks often on topical subjects relevant to Muslims in the West. These lectures have been given across the UK and in many other countries often at conferences and seminars where ul Haq is an invited and keynote speaker. In early 2009, ul Haq addressed the credit crunch issue from an Islamic perspective.

Since 2008, ul Haq has been delivering a series of talks on 'The Mothers of The Believers' and also a series of talks on 'The Lives and Learning of the Companions'.

Intensive study courses

In November 2008, ul Haq delivered an intensive study course entitled 'The Etiquettes of Seeking Sacred Knowledge'. The course held over two consecutive weekends and was organised by Al Kawthar Academy. The location of the course was Azhar Academy, Forest Gate, London. This was the first intensive study course taught by ul Haq. Al Kawthar Academy organised a second intensive study course entitled 'Fundamentals of Understanding the Glorious Qur'an'. This course was held at Azhar Academy, London on 27 and 28 June 2009. Ul Haq delivered a third intensive course at Azhar Academy entitled 'Ramadhan Dawn till Dawn' on the 8th and 9 August 2009.

Further, he has devised a syllabus for a part-time Alim course which is based on a classical curriculum and is designed to help beginners progress from an elementary stage to a very advanced level in Arabic and Islamic Studies. The course covers an in-depth study of Arabic language and literature as well as Islamic theology, Qur'an, hadith and fiqh. Ul Haq teaches this course in Leicester, UK.

Influence and international recognition

Ul Haq is listed in the 2010 Third Edition of 'The 500 Most Influential Muslims' published by Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre This publication is the third of an annual series that provides a window into the movers and shakers of the Muslim world. It highlights people who are influential as Muslims, that is, people whose influence is derived from their practice of Islam or from the fact that they are Muslim. It gives valuable insight into the different ways that Muslims impact the world, and also shows the diversity of how people are living as Muslims today. Ul Haq appears in a section of the publication where '450 leaders are categorized by their diverse fields of work and appear unranked'. In the publication, it is stated "Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq is a very influential speaker and leading Deobandi scholar in the UK. He has been markedly influential through his work with the Al Kawthar Academy in Leicester. Al Kawthar is a leading Islamic educational institution at the forefront of knowledge proliferation through diverse media forms."

Allegations of extremism

In September 2007, ''The Times'' carried a news item by Andrew Norfolk accusing Riyadh ul Haq of being the "homegrown cleric who loathes the British" and a commentary article from the same author claiming there was a "hardline takeover of British mosques" led by ul Haq. In an opinion piece by the same author on the same date there was a claim that ul Haq was in line to become the spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain, despite allegedly having extreme views. However, the hundreds of hours of recordings of ul Haq's lectures in the public domain may suggest otherwise. Simultaneously, Andrew Norfolk published a further "comment" piece in the Times calling the Deobandis historically anti-British, but also aired the opposing views of Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, the chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s interfaith relations committee. Mr Mogra graduated from the same Deobandi seminary in Bury, Greater Manchester, that Mr ul Haq attended. Mr Mogra has a vision of a pluralistic, tolerant Islam "starkly at odds with mainstream Deobandi thinking", believing that for British Muslims "our loyalty to Britain must be unquestionable".

The next day Andrew Norfolk published two more opinion pieces, also in ''The Times'', the first describing two British Muslims in a "sinister" Karachi madrassa of mutually opposing view points, the student there being "desperate" to come home to Yorkshire. The second opinion piece named another world respected Deobandi scholar (Justice Muhammad Taqi Usmani), this time from Pakistan calling for followers to live peacefully in countries such as Britain only until they gain enough power to engage in jihad or battle.

Amongst the immediate responses, ''The Guardian'' carried a "Comment is Free" opinion article by Inayat Bunglawala, media secretary for the Muslim Council of Britain, calling Norfolk's work a "toxic mix of fact and nonsense". The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK) claimed on their own web-site that the Berelvis were coming out in defence of Riyadh al Haq. Two days later, MPACUK called the attacks on ul Haq a "decapitation strategy".

References

External links

Al Kawthar Academy - Lectures of Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq, February 18, 2009

Category:Living people Category:Indian imams Category:British imams Category:21st-century imams Category:1971 births Category:Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom