Interview

For the love of God: Sami Yusuf, hailed as the new voice of European Islam, tells Dena Rashed about inspiration, improving his Arabic, and life as a role model. Thur 4 Nov 2004

"It was a typical Ramadan evening: young women and men crammed into a café filled with shisha smoke and noise. A number of TV screens scattered around the room were playing the latest songs, most of them accompanied by images of young women in less than demure dress writhing in front of the camera. And then, breaking through the smog of noise, came a different song, as if dropping down from another more peaceful planet into the midst of chaos.