You literally went to my school and your performance are amazing. It’s my first time reacting to your performances

What is the tunning?

You're doing an amazing work there! Healing a society corrupted by capitalistic propaganda is a noble task. A job ministries of culture in every land should be doing. And one day they hopefully will, given time and resolve of the heroes like you. Live long, stay cool and keep it on. Let those children grow up and make this world a better place. Bless you good man!

Oh Karim, you're such a crack up! I didn't know you could play the buzuq. You're quite good, actually.

I loved listening to the variou maqamat played back to back...like being in your workshop. Thank you , Karim! 😁

<3 <3 <4 thank you Karim!!

<3

للبيع هذا البزق؟

<3 Karim you are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 much love =)

j'aime bien ça le melange parfait entre les rythme orientaux et l'occidental hip hop c'est bien improvisation parfaite merci

Bravo

Great!

I bet this guy is a cool uncle to some kid :P you sir, have a lot of skill 10/10

Wow,I love it much... B3autiful music...

Gracias maestro Karim por todas tus enseñanzas!!!

What amazing job! My huge shukran from Brazil! =)

Amazing!

You are awesome!

Thank You Karim....excellent discussion on a much topic that needs to be more widely discussed!

Karim this is SO cool!!!! I love it. :D

Very creative! Nice selfie assaya. ;)

Super cool and love the camera angles :)

I love it😍👏👏👏😍 💝💐🌹💐 thank you so much. will done my brother👍👏👏✌

حلوة ياكريم!

Thank you for this excellent, educational and funny talk.

Excellent presentation to educate and enlighten!

so amazing!!!

Gracias Maestro por la gran oportunidad de acompañarlo en este video. Saludos desde Colombia.

Fantastic!

You're amazing, Karim!. Loved it!. Thank you for your work. A great teacher and superb Embassador of the Arabic Culture. Hugs from Panamá.

I told you before you are our Ambassador. Brilliant and so thankful to have you in our camp. You are a very special person. May God be with you always.

OOOoooOOOWWWFF :) Very good job

Thank you for this very important work!

It would be great if you could speak at all the schools, colleges, and churches.

A brilliant, interesting presentation!

Very well done!

Keep up the excellent and important work. Thank you!

Love your work Karim I've learned a lot from your Darbuka CDs. Keep it up.

amazing... beautifull... the most beautiful, I watch in my life... congratulations

YES!

¡Hermoso!

Thank you for this talk! Raks sharki is a gateway drug indeed. ;-) I'm lucky to have done most of my Arab dance study in France, where most star professional dancers and teachers are of Arab descent. It's going to be painful back in North America.

Amazing! I got up to dance 😍

From the opening imagery, Karim Nagi's "Oriental Magic Carpet" video commands attention. There is an immediate reminder that the people of the Middle East have long been portrayed as children, ignorant, and without civilization. The scenes flash across his body, beautifully edited vintage footage of robed men, flying carpets, cartoon camels, belly dancers; scenes from cartoons, movies, and Orientalist art represent aging stereotypes that still flavor Western perceptions. Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Open Sesame (Street). Clever wordplay draws attention to the infantilization of ancient cultures. Checking off Princess Jasmine, the Dance of the Seven Veils, and seven women for one male remarks upon the exotification of non-western women through the white western male gaze. Soon enough, the darker side of the stereotypes surface, as he calls out Baghdad as the home of 1001 nights, and more recently, air strikes. Using humor as a guide, he presents a lyrical journey through the various western images of the Middle East: greedy, questing for oil, money grubbing, dangerous, and yet sexy. Using familiarly exotic sounds and visuals that contain stereotypes so deeply ingrained in Western culture as to be instantly recognizable as "Oriental", Karim Nagi sets up a startling juxtaposition with not just his lyrics but his physical presence, breaking up the visuals and breaking down complacency. This contrast draws attention to the people behind the stereotypes as well as the complexity of the relationship that exists between the East and the West. The song, and the video, takes a hard look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the complex relationships that exists in the world today as well as the history behind them. This is more than entertainment. This is education.

I saw Oriental Magic Carpet performed live by Karim Nagi at the Zahde show we photographed in Elgin Illinois and it was a big hit with the audience. The song has a sense of fun about it from the opening phrases where he pairs lyrics like “Open Sesame” and “Sesame Street” back to back in what seems like a very light and nonsensical way. Cartoon images of magic carpets and Ali Baba come to mind instantly but as the song unfolds, another layer of meaning emerges. The lyric is not a narrative but a series of phrases that seem to deliberately play upon the images I have of the arab world. 1001 nights, genies, oil rich sheiks, handmade rugs, these are the images brought to us by the silent film era of Hollywood and the occasional references to the middle east in history or pop culture. Sand, camels, and war round out the modern era and as the images come to me, it all seems very superficial. Because it is. Almost as I’m thinking this, the lyric addresses the issue head on. Without being overly blunt, the song gently reminds me that the west has never really interacted with arab world in a meaningful way. Antiquities were acquired by the British, textiles and art were prized and imported for their artistic value, the petroleum trade flourished, but the culture and religion of that part of the world was not imported by the west. It remained part of “The Orient”, a land that was far away, exotic, and foreign almost beyond understanding. As Karim Nagi entertains us…wait, did he just say something about a sorcerer and a genie weaponizing Tahini? It starts to sink in that his humorous wordplay is sometimes intentionally absurd, but not all that far from my own level of understanding. A lot of the superficial impressions in my mind are outdated by a century or more and were probably just caricatures even back then. Except for a some dance and music, my impression of the arab world is as likely to be informed by Abbott and Costello or The Clash as any real knowledge of the region. Even though I lived in Dearborn Michigan for a few years, my limited knowledge of middle eastern culture is largely owed to a love of Lebanese food, Turkish coffee and pastry shops. At the same time, the song and the live performance is delightful and Karim Nagi has an openness that’s very welcoming and engaging to everyone in the room. Here I am at an Egyptian music and dance recital getting some culture and I find myself nodding and smiling as he shows me something about myself that’s not really very flattering when it comes right down to it. But there’s an infectious happiness here, it’s not an affront, it’s a more of an invitation to rethink something that may have been overlooked. The song is a lot of fun and the audience claps along but it also makes me think a little more. We’re enjoying a bit of Egyptian dance, some great music and drumming, but what does it mean? That’s one of the things that art can do I guess, offer up a small seed of understanding that can be just a passing thought or can branch out to a greater understanding of different cultures and people. I love the floating veils, the music, the costuming of these shows, enough that I try to follow current events in Egypt from time to time. There are English language newspapers online and it’s easy to use Google Earth to fly around over the pyramids whenever I want to. In reality, I guess I already have a “Magic Carpet”, the ability to fly over Egypt and have a window to that part of the world that was unimaginable to people of a hundred years ago. Karim Nagi uses music and wry humor to remind me that I should probably use it once in a while.

This amazing video - the editing is first rate - as are the song and lyrics... is about how the West sees the East. The West sees East (the Orient) as the exotic Other, where we get our oil, and where we claim our interests over those of the local populations. The Middle East is portrayed from the 'West's' view as an amalgam of images, characters, and 'tropes', implying that these are incorrect. While I agree with all this, don't forget that the greatest storytellers of all time (in my opinion) come from the Middle East. We can vilify exploitative Orientalism, but let's not forget that the West didn't invent the Arabian Nights. These characters, images, concepts, etc. come FROM there and inspire artists and writers and musicians and storytellers generation after generation. Let us appreciate these tropes and celebrate them, not exploit them. And most of all, I think this video is saying at the Middle East and the Arab World is a whole lot more interesting and complex than these images and ideas from the Arabian Nights. Sure, Scheherezade herself thought them up, but we can expand our awareness of the region. Thank you for this sophisticated swirl of a song!

Oh my goodness, Karim!!! This is such brilliant satire!! I appreciate the fact that you can use humor to poke fun at how some in the Western world do NOT understand the Arab culture and just go on stereotypes. It's funny yet clever. Very well-done!!! Love it!!

Aywa! Can't wait to dance with you again soon! :-)

Wonderfull!!

Very cleverly written!! Well done!