Pakistani Rock Star Inspires Across Faiths

His group was banned from performing in Pakistan from 1996 to 1999 after referring to government corruption in a song and protesting Pakistan’s and India’s nuclear testing. One of Salman Ahmad’s earliest gigs was a talent show at King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, where he was studying to be a doctor. Moments after he strummed his first chords, Islamic fundamentalists barged in, smashed Ahmad’s guitar and drum set and broke up the show. Ahmad, 41, is best known as lead guitarist of Junoon, a Pakistani-American rock band that is wildly popular throughout South Asia and among the South Asian diaspora, selling 25 million albums — as many as Nirvana, ZZ Top and Janet Jackson have sold in the United States.