Just before September 11, I interviewed Hakim, one of the most popular vocal stars in the Arabic-speaking world. Hakim grew up in Cairo, and for the past decade he’s been a chart topper in Egypt with his synth-driven streetwise shaabi pop style. But his newest release, the brisk, punchy, two-CD The Lion Roars: Live in America (Ark 21/Mondo Melodia), wasn’t, as its title suggests, recorded anywhere near the city of his birth. In fact, it’s drawn from a set he played earlier this year in the city of New York.

The proceedings kick off with a playful musical quote from James Brown’s " I Feel Good " before racing on with all the exuberance of today’s Egyptian pop. Over the phone from Cairo, Hakim explained that Live in America is meant to deliver a message to his Egyptian fans. " I’m now crossing borders. I’m big in the Arab world, and this takes it to the next step. Because remember, it’s not just any Arab singer who can come to America and have success. "

When Hakim spoke those words, he was about to embark on another US tour, this time on a double bill with Khaled, the grand man of Algerian rai music. That tour, which was to include a stop at the Orpheum on September 22, has now been postponed till February, and an unprecedented period of advancement for Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African music in this country is now frozen beneath a gray, fretful cloud of doubt.

Just how good things were looking for Arab-related music? Well, the summer had already seen national tours by two rai greats. Rachid Taha, promoting his genre-bending rai/rock album Made in Medina (Ark 21/Mondo Melodia), garnered rave reviews from the New York Times and other media outlets; and Cheb Mami toured in support of Dellali (Ark 21/Mondo Melodia), his first release since his phenomenally successful collaboration with Sting on the song " Desert Rose. " Palestinian oud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen unveiled his long-awaited classical/jazz fusion band Qantara in spellbinding concerts, and the group’s adventurous debut, Blue Flame (Ark 21/Mondo Melodia), was generating Grammy talk. " Arabic Music Moves West " was the headline splashed across the front page of the August 11 issue of Billboard. And the very week of the World Trade Center attack, this country’s most widely circulated world-music magazine, Rhythm, hit the stands with an October issue devoted almost entirely to Arabic music.

Also this past summer, two savvy world-music labels, Putumayo and Six Degrees, released Arabic-music samplers. But most of the credit for the Arabic-music boom has to go to the California-based Ark 21 imprint Mondo Melodia, which released its own Arabic-music sampler, Desert Roses and Arabian Rhythms, earlier this year. Mondo Melodia CEO Miles Copeland, the brother of former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, has been concentrating on promoting Arabic music on his label since the success of Sting’s " Desert Rose " (he managed Sting for years). In 1999, he hired Arab-American veteran world-music producer Dawn Elder as the label’s vice-president. Speaking to me in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Elder described the label’s approach this way: " We didn’t just want to put records out. We wanted to introduce artists and build careers for them in the United States. We began touring bands in conjunction with the releases of their albums, and building a team that would reach out to all forms of broadcast and print media. "

This marked the first time that a major US label had shown such a commitment to Arabic music. And it was working. " On September 10, we were doing extremely well, " says Elder. " Finally, after two and a half years, we had made a substantial move into the mainstream. " The Hakim/Khaled tour was to be a crowning moment. Hakim is a giant in the Middle East, and Khaled in North Africa. Elder says that it’s always been her strategy to unite these two traditionally separate audiences, including their American branches. " Hakim and Khaled were going into some of the larger arenas and mainstream theaters in America, and the tickets were over half gone in each of the cities, and close to sold out in some. " CNN was going to cover the tour, and Hakim and Khaled were set to appear at the CMJ Conference in New York, and the Public Radio Conference in Baltimore.

But as the ruins smoldered in New York and Washington, this new Arabic-music coalition struggled to take stock. On September 20, Mondo Melodia announced the postponement of the Hakim/Khaled tour, citing safety and logistical concerns, as well as a sense that the artists’ celebratory music did not suit the present mood of national mourning. This feeling came especially from the singers themselves. In the press release, Khaled wrote, " Out of respect to the American people, it would be unsuitable and inappropriate to perform on stage during this sad time. "

" Even American music and jazz events were canceled, " says Simon Shaheen on the phone from his apartment in Brooklyn. Shaheen put off a major appearance in Detroit after the attacks (he and Qantara will come to Boston on December 7). " Many musicians didn’t want to play. It wasn’t right for them. Two of the Qantara musicians said to me, ‘If we have to play in Detroit, we will do it, because we are professional musicians, but down in our guts, we are not in the mood. We really want to stay in New York and meditate.’  "

Shaheen did perform at Riverside Church in Brooklyn at a memorial service for the New York victims. " The whole purpose of the event was to be with the people, and to express the pain, the sorrow for those who lost their lives. I hope that these things won’t be repeated. I understand that people say this is a form of expressing sentiment. They call it retaliation, or whatever. But in the final analysis, whether it happens in America or in Africa or the Middle East, it is against humanity. It’s against the will of the individual to survive with beauty and with peace. "

In his press statement, Miles Copeland observed that " both the countries of Hakim, Egypt, and Khaled, Algeria, have suffered greatly from the pain of terrorism. " Reporting on the canceled tour, the Los Angeles Times pointed out that many US-based musicians from the Middle East and North Africa came here to escape persecution and turmoil back home. This makes the perception that Americans are turning against them doubly painful. Banned Iranian singer Andy — now a US resident — says he now feels " burned from both sides. "

But how serious is the long-term damage to Arabic music and musicians in this country? Elder is optimistic. " I feel that right now people are still reeling. I do think that there is somewhat of a short-term setback. But in the long run, I have faith in the American public, and in their need to be open-minded. Music could actually end up being the healer. "

Shaheen has experienced the jitters rippling through Arab-American and other communities. He chuckles over a friend who was debating whether to shave off his beard. " But for the long run, I think everything will be back to normal. I don’t believe that people in America, of different descents and origins, will act in a shallow fashion. Because when you talk about art and culture and music, you are talking about deep involvement in the fabric of a society, and deep exchange between different peoples. I don’t think they will jeopardize such a thing. "

Many who work to promote world music in the US are expressing a new-found sense of mission these days. In Boston, World Music’s Maure Aronson reminds me that he got his start promoting shows in South Africa amid the threat of petrol bombs. He did cancel concerts in the week after September 11, but any change in the public’s hunger for world music or in his organization’s will to provide it is, he says, " unthinkable. The first thing I said to my staff is that our concerts are now more important than ever before. And I have made calls through to agents of artists that I have coming up — whether they are from Spain, Brazil, or South Africa — expressing my strong feelings that they have to get on a plane, and they have to come the United States, and they have to perform. "

Aronson asserts that America remains one of the safest countries on earth, and that fear must not become an obstacle to presenting world culture here. " It cannot. That means that the perpetrators of terror have won. That is the world they would like to see us living in. No thank you! "

Ever a champion for her cause, Elder speculates that the arrival of Hakim and Khaled and their passionate, romantic music in February could be just the thing to bring people together. And she argues that whatever happens, Americans are likely now to be more, not less, curious about the cultures of North Africa and the Middle East. " People are going to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. I really need to know more.’  "

Simon Shaheen and Qantara, with special guest Cheb Mami, come to Berklee Performance Center on December 7; proceeds will go to a fund for victims of the September 11 attacks as well as the victims of hate crimes. Call (617) 266-7455.