International conference responds to 21st-century challenges to traditional Muslim religion – University of Alberta

(Edmonton) An unusual international conference that organizers say has never been held before, which examines the challenges and transformation to the traditional Muslim faith, starts April 29 at the University of Alberta.

The conference, entitled “Sounds and Spaces of Muslim Piety: Tradition and Transformation,” will try to find answers to such broad-ranging questions as why musical instruments, such as the piano, are not used in Muslim religious practices; how traditional Muslim practices can be preserved and should they be, and what happens when Sufis—practitioners of Islamic mysticism—migrate away from their shrines in India to the west.

via http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/en.