Kareem Salama: The Muslim Lone Ranger

U.S President Barack Obama has a new secret weapon in his war on ‘anything that even smirks or smells like anti-American sentiment’. And it comes in a pair of perky blue jeans, a wild Western-shirt and a Stetson hat tilted at just the right angle to raise at least a couple of eyebrows.

Armed with good ol’ fashioned American gumption and a mighty microphone, Egyptian-American country singing sensation, Kareem Salama, is on a Middle Eastern mission on behalf of his Commander-in-Chief. Surprisingly enough, rooting out terrorists is not even on Salama’s agenda!

The genre of country music often conjures up images of ‘gussied’ up singers swaying to the background band music as they belt out some hard-luck inspired tune while strummin’ on a banjo or a gee-tar. The image of a devout Muslim man singing country music while dressed in clothes that would make even Roy Rogers proud is probably the absolute last thing that any country music lovin’ folk would even dare to contemplate.

However, Salama is ready and able to begin a singing tour in the Middle East to change hearts and minds, while hopefully repairing America’s poor image in the region. Ever since former President Bush launched his Axis of Evil crusade, which has cost many a Muslim their life, the United States often fares poorly in Arab public opinion polls.

The U.S. State Department is pulling out all the stops to ensure that America’s heavily PR laden Salama, a.k.a. “America’s First Muslim Country Singer” uses the power of his voice to stoke those loving feelings into the hearts of anyone within ‘yee-hawing’ distance of Salama as he performs on stage. The tour will take him clean across the Middle East with performances scheduled in countries like Morocco and Bahrain.

In his own words Salama shares, “I want to learn from the people we meet, share my music, share my personal experiences and break some stereotypes and preconceived ideas about being an American Muslim. And if I can introduce country music – that’s cool, too.” Sounds like just the right fixins’ for lyrics to a new song if you ask me!

Source: The National