Muslim Live 8 coming to Wembley Stadium
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 | 11:29 AM ET
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British Muslims are planning a Live 8-style concert to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Organizers said Monday they are aiming for a sellout of London's 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, host of the event on Oct. 21.
"We are going for our own equivalent of Live 8. We are going for a concert at the end of [the Muslim holy month of] Ramadan to celebrate [the festival of] Eid," said Jehangir Malik, fundraising manager for charity Islamic Relief.
"It will be people trying to raise funds and raise the profile. We should hopefully see a sellout and it will be a milestone."
Like the original Live 8 — a series of worldwide concerts, including one in Barrie, Ont., held in July 2005 to draw attention to global poverty and urge G8 nations to increase aid — the Wembley show is aimed at raising awareness of the plight of people in foreign lands.
In this case, organizers hope to rally Britain's estimated 1.5 million Muslims around the problems in Darfur, an impoverished area in western Sudan where the United Nations has estimated some two million people — mostly Muslims — have been displaced and 200,000 killed since a civil conflict erupted in 2003.
"This is a thorny issue for us and it is clear that we have to do more," said Malik.
"It is a challenge for us because people are highly motivated and get highly charged in other areas, and we need to do considerably more."
Though the concert is targeted primarily at Muslims, organizers say they hope members of all communities will attend.
Among the performers will be Iranian-born British singer-songwriter Sami Yusuf.
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