| July 21, 2004 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contact: Mel Lehman ML9612921@aol.com Kulna Sawa/Together Not Involved in Air Incident on Flight 327 Kulna Sawa/Together was not in any way involved in the recent incident on Northwest Flight 327 in which a passenger wrote on the web about her experience, according to Mel Lehman, Manager of Kulna Sawa’s Concert for Peace Tour which is scheduled for November. “Kulna Sawa is coming to build dialogue and understanding between Americans and the people of the Middle East through their music,” said Mr. Lehman. The passenger expressed feelings of fear, although the Middle Eastern passengers in question did nothing to endanger the flight. The Kulna Sawa/Together is based is Syria and their music combines the traditional sounds of their homeland with newer influences of American pop and jazz, he added. “Kulna Sawa/Together will be presenting a positive picture of Middle Eastern culture and people,” said Mr. Lehman, who is based in New York City. “Unfortunately, incidents such as this often get news coverage, and ordinary people from the great historic civilizations of the Middle East somehow get overlooked,” he added. The group Kulna Sawa, which means “All of us together” in Arabic, will be coming in November on a Culture for Peace Tour which will visit churches in some 20 cities in the east and midwest of America. The members of Kulna Sawa/Together will be donating their services during this unique peacemaking effort and will not be performing for profit. The 11-member band is made up of highly accomplished young Christian and Muslim musicians from Syria. This mixture of Christian and Muslim reflects Syrian society which has a large population of Christians. Ever since St. Paul’s famous conversion “on the road to Damascus,” Syria has played an important role in Christian history. The tour is being sponsored by the Culture for Peace Program which is a part of the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT). RASIT is a non-governmental charitable organization which has been serving education and science since 1969. The Culture for Peace program of RASIT was formed in 1996 to create dialogue and understanding between East and West through a cultural exchange to build respect for each other’s culture. HRH Princess Dr. Nisreen El-Hashemite, Executive Director of RASIT, believes that this tour will help Americans better understand people in the Middle East. “We want to also take a U.S. band to the Middle East soon to help people there understand Americans better,” she said. “By getting to know each others’ culture, we’ll build understanding and respect and peace between East and West,” she said. Dr. El-Hashemite is an internationally recognized scientist and has won awards in the fields of arts, literature, humanitarian affairs, and science. The Culture for Peace Program works to build an understanding and dialogue through all aspects of life: the arts, culture, education and science. Culture for Peace is a part of the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT) which has been serving education and humanity since 1969. For more than 30 years, “whenever and wherever there is human need, RASIT responds.” RASIT believes that international peace and tolerance can be achieved by building cooperation and understanding between individuals, organizations, and universities which will help in narrowing the gap between developed and developing countries. “In this time of global tension and conflict, it is more important than ever that we work to build understanding between and respect for the various cultures of the world,” Dr. El-Hashemite said. “The Concert for Peace Tour believes that by bringing people of different cultures together to perform and listen to music, the universal language, we will be taking an important step in building trust and peace in our audiences which they will carry out into the world in which we live together.” The North American tour is currently scheduled to visit churches in the following cities, with several more to be added: Philadelphia; Boston; New York (two concerts); Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Grantham, Pennsylvania (near Harrisburg); Omaha, Nebraska; Chicago, Dearborn, Michigan; Goshen, Indiana; Rockford, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Harrisonburg, Virginia; Hyattsville, Maryland (suburban Washington, DC) and Richmond, Virginia. A website with more information about the November tour of Together/Kulna Sawa including audio and video clips is under construction and will be available shortly. -End- KULNA SAWA/Together in their first U.S tour for PEACE HOME |