WI: Harrison embraces Arab rather than Indian culture/music?

During the filming of HELP! in 1965 George Harrison reportedly discovered a passion for Indian music and culture during a restaurant scene.

What if instead of the plot revolving around a parody of the Thuggee, the writers saw fit to add something of an Arabian twist to the antagonists, leading to the restaurant in question becoming something a bit more North African (ala Rick's in Casablanca). It's not far fetched, the film was something of a rock and roll Goon Show answer to Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers, who also did A Night in Casablanca roughly twenty years before.

George Harrison discovers the oud and rebab rather than the sitar. The dumbek and riq rather than the tabla. Dhikr rather than meditation. Halal rather than strict vegetarianism. Islam rather than Hinduism...

Arab music is not incredibly dissimilar from Indian music, especially not to Western ears, so much of the rhythms and scales Harrison and the other Beatles begin to experiment with will still for the most part fit within OTL's more Indian sounding Beatles songs.

The big butterfly is the Beatles brief flirtation with Islam, a flirtation which for Harrison becomes a lasting devotion.

So what are the effects even up to the modern day of a Muslim George Harrison, The Beatles experiment with Islam, and Arab music incorporated into Western popular music rather than Indian?

With a massive boost in Western popularity, is Islam and the Arab world in general viewed differently by Anglo-American society?

Is that society viewed differently by the Arab World?

Discuss.
 
An interesting idea. I think it has the potential to make a profound difference on the "counter-culture" in the West of the 60s-70s, and through this modern mainstream culture. Many elements of Indian culture were adopted by Western counter-culture like buddhism and yoga and just some of the general aesthetics. These things weren't directly related to Harrison, but I think the Beatles did a lot to make Indian culture seem cool in the eyes of your average American or Western European.

If George Harrison got into Arab culture instead, there would still be Indian practices that become popular in the west but there might also be Arab ones. There seem to be a fair amount of Westerners who at least partially identify with Buddhist and Hindu "spirituality", especially amongst hippies and such. If this was Islam instead, I think it would make for a very different view of Islam in the west.
 
First, I think it's important to note that the counter-culture did some exploring of Islam and the cultures associated with it. Morocco in particular was a haunt for more adventurous hippies in the late 60s. But I agree, having a Beatle might create a real cultural breakthrough.

Listening to Harrison give interviews, it really seemed like he was looking *something* to match the ideas in his head, so it's unlikely Harrison or the Beatles change much, and the sort of ideas they help popularize in the West will be similar too. Specifically, they were looking for mysticism, pacifism, and something very drug-friendly. If the Beatles as a whole are going to come on board, they're also going to have to find an ideology that promotes equality among the sexes. From what I've heard, there are strains of Sufism that could fit the bill, but I admit I don't know much about them.

Assuming there is a brand of Islamic philosophy that can fit the bill (mystical, drug-friendly, and "feminist") things could get very interesting.

Most westerners would be familiar with a type of Islam that promotes liberal ideals, even if that type is not very widespread in Muslim countries. You might see the Muslim/western culture war start earlier, with invasive hippies calling for Muslims to embrace the teachings of (whomever they've latched onto.)

You'd have another weird point of melding for liberal white Americans and the African American Islamic movement. Hard to even imagine what would happen there. Probably not much at first, but some engagement could happen.

As this POD does nothing to stop certain Muslim states from supporting extremist versions of Islam, similar tragedies to OTL would still take place in the world. But instead of blaming the religion as a whole, it's just possible that there is enough increased awareness in the west to place the blame squarely on the sponsors of terrorism.

This means a less tenable relationship between the US and a place like Saudi Arabia. Enough to cause a true breach? Unlikely, but not impossible. More frightening is the possibility that Sufis are persecuted even more in Muslim countries as "agents of the west" or something.

I also think Israel maybe doesn't get quite the same blank check they've got ITTL, but at the same time a stronger pacifist strain of Islam in the west can only help them. Muslims practicing violence are even more anathema to the western world if they're generally considered peaceful as doves when found in western countries.
 
Cat Stephens was pretty big before he became a Muslim. Any similarity that can be played there?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
And don't forget the huge Pakistan immigrant population back home in UK, maybe the young Pakistanis would find it easier to blend into British society now that they have a Beatle who "gets" their culture, somewhat.

Though I admit I'm not too familiar with how the counter-culture movement has affected Indians' standing in the West in OTL to comment on what the effects of George going Islam would be ITL.
 
And don't forget the huge Pakistan immigrant population back home in UK, maybe the young Pakistanis would find it easier to blend into British society now that they have a Beatle who "gets" their culture, somewhat.

Though I admit I'm not too familiar with how the counter-culture movement has affected Indians' standing in the West in OTL to comment on what the effects of George going Islam would be ITL.

Again though, I don't think the Beatles would be "getting" anybody's culture on statistically-significant level. They went out and found Indians open to the things they approved of. Unless a significant number of British Pakistanis are embracing drugs, aestheticism, and the 1960s version of gender equality, there's not going to be much in the way of a crossover.

I think you're right in that it does give young Pakistanis a perhaps more palatable entry point into British culture. They can keep their religious identity at the cost of their cultural identity and probably a break with their parents. But then the rest of young Britons were breaking with their parents anyway. Could significantly improve race relations in the UK.
 
Top