JZ: First of, I would like to thank you for giving us the time and chance to have this interview with you, I’m sure I can speak for all Jorziners when I say that we all hold nothing but great respect and love of your work and writings. You are mostly recognized by the wide selection of books you’ve written during your career, including ”Why They Don’t Hate Us”, “Overthrowing Geography”, “An Impossible Peace” and “Heavy Metal Islam”. As well as being an accomplished scholar, musician, writer, and activist. What could you tell us more about Mark LeVine the human, his upbringing, his history as a musician as well as a writer? How was he first introduced to music? What inspired him to write?

LeVine: Well, the famous comedian Steve Martin began his first hit movie, "The Jerk," with the line "I was born a poor black child"--a clearly ridiculous statement since he was so obviously white. But the point was that you could look one way because of your skin color or ethnicity, but feel most at home in a very different culture. For me it was a similar situation. I was a Jewish kid growing up in an increasingly poor, mostly black and hispanic neighborhood, and also one where an increasing number of Arabs (especially Palestinians) came to live as I grew up (Paterson, NJ). Everyone hung out together; the idea of not hanging out with someone because they were different or from a group that was supposed to be your "enemy" never made sense.

From the time I was little I was attracted to black and latin music as well as rock, and also to the sounds of the Middle East, which I heard, in a round-about way, through the sounds of Jewish prayers, which had melodies that quite naturally are quite similar to the melodies of call to prayer.

It was strange. It seemed that the whole world could be your home: the US, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, through music. And the best groups to me--Led Zeppelin, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and the other classic hard rock/early metal bands--all either had or veered towards some Arab/Muslim melodies in their music. I early on recognized in my ear that there was a close connection to the "blue note" of blues, rock and jazz on the one hand, and the ruba' or quarter tone in Arabic music, and that the spirit at the core of both was very close. So it made it easy to move into Arabic music later as a musician.

JZ: A lot of your books and ideas are based on the Middle East and it’s culture, why is that?

LeVine: For two reasons: First, after a decade playing music in the US with lots of great people I got very tired of the music business here and wanted to do something new. At the same time I was in graduate school studying for a PhD in Middle Eastern history and had already been traveling to the region for a few years. So as a scholar and a musician and as a peace activist I've been focused on the Middle East for most of my adult life.

JZ: Besides music, what do you think of the Middle East’s status, do you think it’s improving in any way?

LeVine: I don't think you can generalize too much. That's always a recipe for getting things wrong. I think that on the political and economic level, for most people living from Morocco to Pakistan the situation has either not improved much or has gotten worse. There is a growing middle class of people who have benefited from some of the economic reforms that have opened economies a bit, but the mass of people have not. And the idea that the Gulf countries, especially Dubai, with their huge natural wealth and/or small local and large expat populations, can be a "model" for the rest of the region, is nonsense.

And yet in some ways globalization has been a very positive force. Technologies such as satellite TV and the Internet have spread to most classes, at least in the cities. People are communicating with each other across cultures--look how it's impacted the metal scenes across the Middle East. And while Dubai isn't the model for the future, standing there last year at Desert Rock Festival watching Iron Maiden play before 20,000 Middle Eastern metalheads was an amazing experience that proved to everyone there that we are all much more alike than most of us imagine. So I'm hopeful that music and culture can help bridge the anger and ignorance that divide the Muslim and Western worlds. But on the other hand, there's so much invested--in terms of money and power--in the status quo, that no one with a vested interest on either side will give up their power without a fight. So it's up to the musicians and other artists to figure out a way to lead the fight, and join with activists, scholars, journalists, on both sides--secular, religious, European, Arab or American; everyone has to be part of it.

JZ: “Heavy Metal Islam” was your latest book, could you tell us a little bit more about it, and why did you chose this title and not a less controversial one?

LeVine: Well, obviously for most people in the West, and even many in the Muslim world, the idea of heavy metal and Islam coexisting seems ludicrous. It even shocked me when I first learned of it almost a decade ago. Yet metal is quite big around the Muslims world, and is increasingly accepted, and that fact told me something that made me optimistic about the future. My goal was to show readers that Muslim and Western cultures are not that different, and that what most of "us" in the West imagine the Muslim world to be is wildly inaccurate. There's nothing like playing someone an Iranian or Jordanian death metal song to shake them out of their prejudices. But more than that, I wanted to share the stories of all the great musicians and fans I've met around the Muslim world, and their music, and to perhaps even open up conversations between musicians across the region who haven't had the chance to meet or learn about each other because, sadly, I often have it easier traveling around the Muslim world, than people from the region do.

JZ: And would you say that you’ve achieved what you were aiming for when writing?

LeVine: I'm pretty happy. I think based on the mostly good reviews that people in the US realize the point that we need to reconsider what we imagine the Muslim world and its cultures to be. And even more exciting is how many musicians and fans from the region are contacting me, and wanting to meet up with people from the book. So perhaps in my own small way I'm helping to spread the metal scene around the region.

JZ: You’ve had a lot of feedback from both religious parties and metal fanatics, are you satisfied with the level of sales for this book, and how was the feedback you got?

LeVine: Yes, I'm satisfied. I don't know the exact figures and don't really care. What’s important are the connections. Also, I think there is still a lot of fear and latent hostility between the metal scenes and religious activists. This is for obvious reasons, since there were the horrible "Satanic metal" affairs in the region in the late 1990s and 2000s that saw metalheads arrested and even threatened with execution. But there is a new generation of activists within the Islamist movements around the region who are in the early-mid 20s, who are much more open and less judgmental and realize that they have to be tolerant and accepting of everyone if they want to have any freedom for themselves. And in places like Morocco and Egypt you even begin to see people coming together across the cultural divide. The fact that this book talked about these issues and helped people to think about the "other" side with a little less fear was important for me.

JZ: Do you think this book will have a role in helping out the metal scene in the Middle East?

LeVine: This was certainly one of my goals! And I think it's worked for the reasons I've already stated. As important, people in the US now know more about it. Both the regular public, and as important for me, musicians. Being able to give Robert Plant some great Pakistani rock album I found before coming to see him in Dubai last year while I was in Peshawar (of all places), or meeting up with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden or the guys in Anthrax or other well known bands and spreading the word about the Middle Eastern metal scene and even the possibility of playing there to bands like that, it's very important for me. So I think it's helping to raise awareness of the scene.

JZ: You’ve mentioned Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Pakistan in your book, why didn’t you discuss other countries from the Middle East such as Jordan, U.A.E, K.S.A, and Tunisia?

LeVine: For the simple reason I couldn't include every country. I had to choose the countries that I knew best in terms of music. I've been to Jordan a bunch of times, but not as a musician. Also, the book could only be so long and the publisher wouldn't let me include anywhere else! Perhaps Volume II!

JZ: Do you think that you’ve covered the whole Middle East fully, if not, do you plan on writing a second edition?

LeVine: Well, like I said, there's always Volume II... For me, seriously, this book was just a beginning. Through the website and articles and interviews I'm trying to spread the word and share as many stories as possible. So I encourage musicians from around the region to send me their stories which I put on my website, http://heavymetalislam.net. If you try to tell every story all at once you most often wind up with a mess. So I'm happy with what I had as a start and a springboard for a lot of other stories that have yet to be told.

JZ: I have read in HeavyMetalIslam.net that you are working on a documentary for the book and Middle Eastern metal scenes, can you tell us more about the documentary making and it’s release due date??

LeVine: We already shot in Morocco at the big Boulevard festival this past June. We'll be in Egypt shooting, insha'llah, in December. It depends on the financing, but so far it's going well. If everything goes according to plan we'll finish it by the end of next year and it will come out in 2010.

JZ: After all your trips in the Middle East what do you think of the Middle Eastern metal and rock scenes in general and comparing with other world’s scenes?

LeVine: I think it stands with any metal scene anywhere else. You know, every scene has some great bands and a bunch of mediocre bands. What I love about the best of the Middle Eastern scenes and bands is that they blend, more or less obviously, so-called "Western" and Middle Eastern sounds and styles. That's what makes the music so exciting to me. It's a hybrid that makes music that is greater than the sum of its parts.

JZ: In your opinion, what do you think is the reason behind struggles and problems in the Middle Eastern metal scene?

LeVine: Every scene has its ups and downs. Believe me, metal bands here don't have it that much better. I just helped bring over an Iranian metal band I met in Tehran, Tarantist, and they did their first gig at the famed Whisky a Go-Go on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, and I think they made like $10 dollars when all was said and done. It's not easy anywhere. The music business is changing so much and it's so much harder to make a living at it unless you're incredibly lucky, even if you're incredibly good. So it's really about whether metal will continue to speak to young people around the region. Hiphop is taking some of the audience in a way, because it also appeals to young kids who are angry at the situation in which they find themselves, whether it's economically, socially or politically. To be a metalheads is more of a commitment as well, metalheads stick out a lot more on the streets of Cairo or Baghdad than someone in baggy pants and a backwards baseball cap! And it's expensive to put on metal shows--amps, instruments, sound systems, etc. But in many places the scene is growing and as important, governments are becoming more tolerant of it, which is great for fans and musicians alike.

JZ: Based on what you have seen and read, what are the weakness and the strength points of Middle Eastern metal scene? How do you suggest working on solving its problems and focusing more on positives?

LeVine: Again, you can't generalize. Every country is different. The main issue is what the main goal of most of the artists and fans in a particular scene are. In some countries, like Iran, where the government still cracks down on the metal scene quite hard, the main issue is how to be left alone, or how to have small, mostly underground concerts yet still have a growing scene. Other countries, like Egypt, are just beginning to open up, so the question is how to grow the scene without losing credibility, how to keep the anger and rebelliousness that makes metal great, and can have a powerful political meaning even if it's not open about it, without pissing off the government and causing another crackdown. Other countries, like Morocco, Dubai, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, and Pakistan, have pretty much free scenes that don't face much harassment at all. And here the main issue is how to "make it" without selling out, and how to break internationally as well as in your home country. My sense is Jordan is somewhere between the second and third group, in that it seems the scene is relatively open but there aren't really a lot of good places to play yet and no music business infrastructure to help grow the scene to the next level. So it seems that in this case--in fact, in all the cases--it comes down to the old metal credo of DIU, do it yourself. The more the scenes can stay self-reliant and not depend on anyone and anything outside themselves to stay healthy and grow, the better the chances are that they'll produce good music without having to compromise. In the end, that's always been the prescription for great rock n roll, whether in Amman or London or Los Angeles.

JZ: This was one of my favorite interviews to do, thank you again for everything you’re trying to do, and please do keep on spreading the word about the Middle East, it’s culture, it’s people, and it’s music.