By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter

As the crisis continues in Egypt, the musicians of the country are left between a rock and a hard place.
On the one hand their heart bleeds for the number of innocent Egyptians being killed in the ensuing chaos resulting out of the military takeover in their country, while on the other hand they feel a sigh of relief at being free from the Muslim Brotherhood-led regime that was allegedly against the promotion of art and culture.
Hisham Abul Fateh is the leading member of the six-member ensemble from the Cairo Opera House, which is currently in Doha to perform at the St Regis Hotel’s special Ramadan tent evenings.
In an interview with Gulf Times, the middle-aged musician said these were turbulent times for every Egyptian in the country and around the world. There are people being killed and the economy is in the doldrums.
But as a musician, he is happy that the Muslim Brotherhood regime has been ousted.
“Music and the Muslim Brotherhood are just two very different things. They never have and never will be compatible,” he said.
“They were just against any kind of art in the country,” he claimed.
The cello-playing artist Hisham recalled the euphoric feeling when Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in Egypt. He said that singing songs about the revolution was not new in Egypt and the country had a rich tradition of producing records and artistes who touched the hearts of millions of people with their messages of love, peace and revolution through music.
He said singers such as Amal Maher, Mai Farouk, Reham Abdulhakim and upcoming artistes such as Hazim Shaheen are popular in Egypt for singing songs filled with revolutionary fervour.
However, he said, once the Muslim Brotherhood took over, things started to become tricky for artistes all over the country. According to Hisham, the Cairo Opera House, which comes under the Egyptian ministry of culture, faced its biggest test when its director Ines Abdel-Dayem was ousted.
“It was just wrong to remove Ines Abdel-Dayem out of the opera house just three months after the Brotherhood took over. She is a highly accomplished artist; why was there a need to replace her was beyond our understanding,” he said.
It seems there is now a reversal of fortunes and Ines Abdel-Dayem has been named Egypt’s new culture minister.
Hisham said that his group was not new to Qatar and had performed a number of times in Doha.
He said that he also appreciated the work of Qatari musicians and composers and he had already collaborated with quite a few of them to produce some records.
“I wish to further promote this collaboration between Egyptian and Qatari artists,” he said.