A Muslim singer releases his own Christmas album

A Muslim has recorded a Christmas album through which he seeks to bridge the divide between three faiths—Christianity, Judaism and Islam–and hopes to help contribute to peace in the world.

Shawn Rae, through his album A World Christmas, Love Knows No Borders, said he hopes as a Muslim that this effort will bring together the three Abrahamic faiths through the music medium, PR Newswire said.

Rae has several videos on YouTube which show his music style to be a blend of Bollywood with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. His voice is raspy although its strength and range is not as strong. His hair and mustache resembles that of Ringo Starr when he was a Beatle.

According to PR Newswire, a cross-cultural group of writers, technicians, musicians and vocalists put the album together. The music arranger, Charles Calello, has worked with Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow, among others.

Included in the album is Feliz Navidad, which Rae sings in English and Spanish with background echoes in Hebrew, French, Arabic, Greek, Urdu, Iraqi, Chinese and Italian, PR Newswire said.

Another song, My Grown-Up Christmas List has the lyrics, “No more lives torn apart…wars that never start…right would always win…and love will never end, PR Newswire said.

Rae was born in Pakistan and raised a Muslim. According to his website, he is a speaker, designer and humanitarian. His website also features jewelry, perfumes and a gift shop.

Rae came to the U.S. when he was 18 and has lived here for 30 years. He told News 10 ABC, “In our world today there are a whole lot of things that are happening that are making people edgy, and I thought it was very important to sing a Christmas album from the Muslim world to ratchet down the rhetoric, because I think human people want to have peace and harmony.”

Rae told News 10 ABC that the album was inspired by a dialogue in 2007 between Pope Benedict XVI and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, making it the first time a Muslim king visited the Vatican in 1400 years.

PR Newswire said the meeting between King Abdullah and Benedict was considered as groundbreaking and promoted discourse among Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Rae has a number of albums which he sells on his website. He said in News 10 ABC that his Christmas album is also available in Amazon and on iTunes.