Defying Terror with Music

When a car packed with explosives detonated in the busy Mansour district of Baghdad, Karim Wasfi, the renowned conductor of Iraq’s National Symphony Orchestra, did something unusual. As police secured the area, he took out his cello and began to play amid the debris. “It was an attempt to overcome grotesque acts of terror by an act of beauty,” he says. Wasfi has since founded the Center for Creativity – Peace Through Arts, which brings young people from different ethnic backgrounds together to play music on Baghdad’s streets. “One positive experience was when around 14 militiamen gave up their commitment to their weapons to become musicians.”