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 Instead, as news spread on Sunday that an American man
claiming allegiance to Islamic State had killed 49 people in a
packed gay nightclub in Florida, the band found itself at the
crossroads of tensions between the gay and Muslim communities,
spilling out on social media and in online commentary.
Mashrou' Leila has broken ground in the Arab world with an
openly gay lead singer and stances espousing gender equality and
sexual freedom. In doing so, the band embodies the two
communities most shaken by Sunday's shooting - lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people targeted by the Orlando gunman,
and Muslims who feel unfairly blamed for the violence
perpetrated in the name of their religion.
"We come from a part of the world where I've always felt not
accepted because of my sexuality," Hamed Sinno, Mashrou' Leila's
lead singer, said in an interview on Monday.
Seeking out information in the hours after the attack, Sinno
said he came across comments on social media that he felt sought
to pit Muslims and gays against each other.
"By the time they even started getting the names of the victims
out, the media had already spun it as this whole LGBT community
versus Muslim community" phenomenon, he said. "So many of us are
at the intersection of these two communities. Suddenly I felt
excluded, I felt I wasn't allowed to mourn."
Sinno said the band had already experienced several brushes with
anti-Muslim bias in its two weeks in the United States. An
airport security guard told them that if Donald Trump won the
presidency, "all of this is gonna change," apparently referring
to the Republican presidential candidate's pledge to ban Muslims
from entering the country if he is elected.
The band's danceable tunes have earned them an avid global
following but also condemnations from Arab leaders who say their
lyrics go against the region's traditional values. In April,
Jordanian authorities banned the group from the country, band
members said, though they later relented after an international
outcry.
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One song, "Shim el-Yasmine," describes Sinno's desire to introduce
his male lover to his parents, while "Lil Watan" skewers political
apathy in the Middle East.
It is wrong-headed to blame Sunday's attack on Islam, said Sinno, a
U.S. citizen. The FBI said the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, called
during the massacre to pledge allegiance to Islamic State, the
jihadist group that later claimed responsibility for the attack.
But the depth of Mateen's commitment to Islamic State was unclear.
His father said the attack was not motivated by religion and
suggested it was rather his son's anti-gay sentiments.
"The issue is not Islam more than any other religion," Sinno said.
"Most of the attacks that happen against the queer community in the
U.S. are not by Muslims, they're by Christian fanatics."
In front of a sold-out crowd on Monday night at the Hamilton venue
in downtown Washington, D.C., the band briefly addressed the
tragedy, the worst mass shooting in modern American history. Staff
at the Hamilton said they decided to up security measures following
Sunday's attack, and patrons and their bags were carefully screened
before entering the concert.
"There are a bunch of us who are queer, who feel assaulted by that
attack who can't mourn because we're also from Muslim families, and
we exist," Sinno said to cheers from the crowd, before the band
launched into the next song.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Frank McGurty and Cynthia
Osterman)
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