The An­na Cathe­ri­na Is­lam­ic Com­plex, one of Guyana's lead­ing Is­lam­ic cen­tres, will be the venue to the eighth an­nu­al Eid Fest Pro­gramme, held to ob­serve the Eid-ul-Fitr Hol­i­day (the fes­ti­val mark­ing the end of the Holy Month of Ra­madan). This year's pro­gramme will con­tin­ue to car­ry an in­ter­na­tion­al theme with at­ten­dance of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Mus­lim or­gan­i­sa­tions in Suri­name, T&T, Hol­land, Eng­land, Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and Cana­da. The event, which was first ob­served in 2003, is host­ed by The Mus­lim Youth League of Guyana, The An­na Cathe­ri­na Is­lam­ic Com­plex and the Guyana Unit­ed Sadr Is­lam­ic An­ju­man.

The lead­ers of all Mus­lim or­gan­i­sa­tions, as well as the ja­maats from across Guyana have been in­vit­ed to be a part of this unique pro­gramme which will be held on Sep­tem­ber 4, at 1.30 pm, at the An­na Cathe­ri­na Is­lam­ic Com­plex, West Coast De­mer­ara, Guyana. Al­so in­vit­ed are mem­bers of gov­ern­ment, mem­bers of the op­po­si­tion par­ties, mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, oth­er re­li­gious and so­cial groups and a wide cross sec­tion of peo­ple from civ­il so­ci­ety. Spe­cial guest for this pro­gramme is world renowned Qasee­da (Mus­lim de­vo­tion­als) singer from Trinidad Jameer Hoo­sein. Born in 1939 in Freeport, Trinidad, Hoo­sein grew up in a fam­i­ly where his fa­ther, the late Ho­sein Ali, and his un­cles, prac­ticed singing in the vil­lage for wed­dings etc.

He be­came very fond of singing from his ear­ly years un­der the watch­ful eyes of the late Isaac Yankaran in the Naya Sangeet Or­ches­tra. From there he moved on to the Nau Jawan Or­ches­tra, un­der the lead­er­ship of Chan­der Bali, and lat­er moved on to the Naya Za­mana Or­ches­tra. His fi­nal band stint was with the BWIA Na­tion­al In­di­an Or­ches­tra un­der Mae­stro Har­ry Ma­habir. Jameer spent more than 20 years singing film songs in bands, un­der the best mu­si­cal di­rec­tors, in­clud­ing Us­tad Nazir Mo­hammed. It's no won­der that Hoo­sein is con­sid­ered as the mas­ter of melody. He not on­ly mas­tered the art of play­ing the har­mo­ni­um but up to to­day is con­sid­ered as the king of clas­si­cal, Ghaz­al and Qasee­da songs. Hoo­sein won Mas­tana Ba­har in 1972, the cov­et­ed mu­si­cal crown of our twin-is­land re­pub­lic; and the clas­si­cal singing cham­pi­onship in 1998, mak­ing him the most ac­com­plished clas­si­cal singer. Clas­si­cal singing is in­dige­nous to T&T and Jameer Ho­sein, the crowd pleas­er, is its lead­ing ex­po­nent.

In 2000, Hoo­sein teamed up with Guyanese born mu­si­cian, Amar "Vin­od" Bis­ram and the An­gels Caribbean En­ter­tain­ment Group and record­ed a re­make of his first record­ing-Mus­lim In­spi­ra­tional Qaseedas and Ghaz­als. In 2005, he vis­it­ed Guyana for the his­toric "Evening of Ghaz­als & Qaseedas," pro­duced by Vin­od and The An­gels En­ter­tain­ment Group. The Sep­tem­ber 4 pro­gramme will be al­so fea­ture sev­er­al Guyanese singers such as Mo­han Nan­du, Reyad Raza­ck and Mo­hamed Shahid. From Suri­name, na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed Qasee­da singer, Izhak Yan­ki will be com­ing to par­tic­i­pate in the event al­so. He will be ac­com­pa­nied by a large Suri­namese del­e­ga­tion led by Had­ji Djameel Ashurf and Had­ji Ab­dool Basheer Khod­abux. An­na Cathe­ri­na Is­lam­ic Com­plex's Eid-ul-Fitr Cel­e­bra­tions are said to be among the best in Guyana and the ac­tu­al day' cel­e­bra­tion and vis­it­ing the homes of mem­bers is con­sid­ered the largest such ac­tiv­i­ty in­volv­ing hun­dreds of Mus­lims.