Turkish imam draws interest to Islam by singing hymns with street musicians in US

By Fatma Sevinc Cetin

ANKARA (AA) – A Turkish Imam or prayer leader at a well-known Islamic center in Maryland, which serves the Muslim community in the Washington metropolitan area, gained attention on social media after appearing in a video with a street musician in New York singing a hymn.

Dursun Sahin, the Imam at the Diyanet Center of America in Lanham, Maryland, has gained social media attention with a video in which he sings a hymn alongside an American street musician.

Along with his theological studies, Sahin's musical education enables him to reach out to people's hearts.

He graduated from Samsun Imam Hatip High School and attended Istanbul University's Faculty of Theology.

Driven by his interest in music, he pursued a master's degree in Turkish Music at the State Conservatory of Necmettin Erbakan University in Türkiye’s central Konya province.

He has served as an imam in various mosques across different provinces in Türkiye, including Istanbul’s Uskudar Cinili Mosque, for 22 years.

For the past six months, he has been the Imam at the Diyanet Center of America.

He captures the attention of passers-by and sparks their interest in Islam by singing hymns to the tunes of a street musician at iconic locations in New York.

Sahin told Anadolu that the video in which he spontaneously sang a hymn in the "Nihavent Makam" – a traditional Turkish music scale – with a street musician in New York went quickly viral on social media and received a lot of appreciation.

"When I heard the musician, the Nihavent Makam came to my mind. I suggested that we sing something. The musician added some embellishments in between, and it turned out beautifully," he said.

"I don't think it would have been as good if we had prepared. It was completely spontaneous, and we didn't expect to receive such a positive response. Everyone began taking out their phones to record, and they applauded when I was finished. They said they wanted to visit the mosque," Sahin recalled.

"I recite the call to prayer in five different maqams at the mosque, which draws a lot of attention. I've seen this arouse curiosity about religion in both Uskudar and America, with people influenced by the sound looking into what the Quran says," he explained.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz.