THE music of Islam has been celebrated in Oxford for the fifth year running.

Hundreds of people headed to the Oxford Muslim Music Festival yesterday.

The event was organised by the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford and was held at Oxford University’s 18th century Holywell Music Room.

Meco chairman Dr Taj Hargey said the festival, which is the only one of its kind in the world, was a “wonderful success.”

He said: “Everything went very well and we had a nice cross-section of Muslims and non-Muslims attending.

“I think the festival is a wonderful addition to the cultural landscape of Oxford.

“It’s all about bringing people together through music, which transcends all barriers and brings about social cohesion.

“Visitors have loved the acts on offer today. All of them have been excellent.”

One of the top performers was Turkish musician Latif Bolat, who specialises in the “ancient Turkish mystic devotional music genre”.

All-female Muslim rap group Poetic Pilgrimage, the Sudanese Sufi choir Bur-haniyah and lute player Sahria Saad, from Iran, were also among the acts performing.

Other musicians travelled from Algeria, Somalia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to take part.

Dr Hargey said: “Unlike some Muslims, who have been wrongly conditioned by a fundamentalist clergy and a fashionable ideology into believing that music is reprehensible and impermissible in Islam, Meco has furnished irrefutable textual proof that the Holy Koran itself does not support such a bizarre ban.

“Meco is the only Muslim organisation in Britain that openly celebrates the rich and wonderful musical heritage of the Islamic world every year.

“Meco has boldly pioneered these annual live concerts featuring talented Muslim artists and is fully committed to bringing Islam’s inspirational sacred music and devotional songs to a wider and appreciative audience of both Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Meco was created to create a “distinctive and progressive” Muslim centre in Oxford and aims to be “multi-cultural, non-sexist and inter-denominational.”