During the day, he recites the adhan (call for prayer in Islam) and leads people five times for the daily Muslim prayers, and at night he gets together with his friends and band members to play some rock music. He is Ahmet Mhusin Tuzer the official Imam of Pinarbasi, a small Mediterranean town in southern Turkey, and also the one who formed the FiRock band influenced by teachings of Rumi's Sufism and Pink Floyd music. Tuzer became one of Turkey's most famous Imams making headlines in local and international news outlets after performing his first concert in the city of Kas a few miles away from Pinarbasi. Last August along with his band members, including Dogan Sakin, who was the founder and guitarist of famous Turkish rock singer Erkin Koray's band "Kramp", they performed the band's first recorded song "Mevlaya Gel" meaning Come to the Creator. However, being a muezzin and a public servant with a religious duty, Tuzer received mixed reactions over forming a band and performing live in a concert. He received death threats via social media from Islamist extremists. He was also told reportedly intimidated by a radical Islamist group in the city of Mardin when he was planning to sing there. To make things harder for the "Rock 'n' Imam", as he is widely referred to, the Diyanet, the religious authority responsible for hiring and observing all Imams and religion-related public servants, launched an investigation, after receiving a request from Antalya's Mufti Ahmet Celik, into whether Tuzer could still continue serving as an Imam along with his new musical ventures. "People told many good things about me to the inspector who is in charge of handling my investigation. They said to the inspector that they started having interest and seeking more knowledge and information about Qur'an ," Tuzer told Islamist Gate in an email interview. "They also said that we need more Imams like myself as I'm social, intellectual and respectful to everyone. It is a good thing having this kind of Imams representing the true tolerant and open-minded nature of Islam." His band, FiRock, signed an agreement to make their first album in January. "We are trying to make music that will create different, meaningful, spiritual and enthusiastic sense of feelings with the mix of Rock and Sufism that greatly get along with one another. We are not only addressing one community. We are trying to address everyone. I'm not only playing music. I'm also trying to pursue a mission. The fundamental objective and wish that I have with this mission is to embrace everyone with the universal enlightenment of Islam," he explained. The young imam- musician has been invited to sing at the Ultima Festival in New York by composer Catherine Christer Hennix, who is the founder of the "Choras(s)San Time-Court Mirage" concert. Tuzer and his band recited the call to prayer and Qur'anic verses, accompanied by drone music, during the opening ceremony of the concert on April 23. "Catherine is one of the pioneers of drone music, listened to me on NPR and was impressed by my music. She asked me whether I could do a vocal in her band. I started seeking information about her. I accepted her offer because she is sincere and a person who respects values of Islam. I accepted it because her music is meditative not rhythmic. She even came to Istanbul to meet me. We went to Cerrahi monastery," he noted. "This concert was really important event particularly with respect to showing that Islam is a religion that loves and respects everyone and can get together with other people and music with its values." On his future plans and whether he would get a foothold in the music industry in Turkey, Tuzer says he is not seeking profit from his concerts, which are not commercialized in nature. "Our project is very spiritual. We are addressing the mind and soul," he says. And he wants to conclude the interview with quotes from the 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din al-Rumi. "If you read Qur'an with your eyes, you can see writings. If you read it with your mind, you see enlightenment and If you read it with your heart, you can see love."
