16 July 2010

North Carolina Muslims Express Identity in Self-Portraits

Artist Todd Drake works with Muslims to dispel media misperceptions

By M. Scott Bortot
Staff Writer

Washington — A photo exhibition in North Carolina is letting that state’s Muslims tell their stories one image at a time.

The “Esse Quam Videri Project” (Latin for “to be, rather than seem to be”) is a collection of self-portraits by Muslim Americans on display at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill.

Created by artist Todd Drake, the show of 20 photographs (www.muslimselfportrait.info), aims to increase understanding between Muslim Americans and their neighbors while drawing a portrait of North Carolina’s Muslim community.

Tamir Mutakabbir, the imam of Masjid Al-Muminum in Statesville, North Carolina, was so impressed by Drake’s project he decided to participate.

“He had a mission of more than just art. He wanted people to have a better understanding of Islam,” Mutakabbir said.

Images are just one dimension of the show. Each participant is asked to supply a narrative about their Muslim identity. Some are stories of celebration, others are stories of struggle. What emerges is a picture of how Muslims see themselves in the fabric of America.

Mutakabbir, who grew up in Florida during the civil rights movement and was influenced by the teachings of Malcolm X and Warith Deen Mohammed, said his photograph represents his growth as a Muslim.

“I read the Quran. I learned that there is no place for hatred and that it is best to forgive,” Mutakabbir said. “I told Todd that I felt like Superman because I don’t hate anybody. I don’t have problems with Christians or the Scripture or Europeans and I just felt really free and I felt like Superman.”

Drake, an artist-in-residence at the UNC Center for Global Initiatives, aims to challenge the media-generated image of Islam.

“We’ve got this enormous monolith that has been created in the minds of non-Muslims about Islam, so I’m looking at art as a kind of way to deflate that,” Drake said, adding that Muslim Americans are just like everyone else. “They love basketball, the give back to their community, they are struggling with discrimination, they have dreams and they are seeking world peace — these are all the messages that I think people are presenting.”

For UNC student Nushmia Khan, expressing Muslim identity through the project was challenging.

“I remember when I had to sit down and decide and just think about what I wanted to do for my self-portrait, I couldn’t think of anything that was very meaningful,” Khan said. “But the more I came to think about the way my identity was being shaped by being a Muslim, by being an American, by being a Pakistani, the more it made me realize what it is that makes me who I am.”

Making each image is a story in itself. In some cases, North Carolina Muslims heard about the project and sent Drake portrait photos or even drew their own image. In most cases though, Drake met with the subjects and they crafted the photo together.

Khan worked with Drake to create an image that showed the forces shaping her identity.

“It is supposed to represent the different cultural forces that were pulling me,” Khan said. “One of them was supposed to be pulling me toward the American identity and the other one was supposed to be more toward the Pakistani identity and I’m supposed to be trying to find a balance between them.”

If Khan’s image represents a quest to find balance, then Jamal Kalala’s photo speaks about integration into the small town of Taylorsville.

A Syrian-American doctor originally from Aleppo, Syria, Kalala is pictured with a woman who is both a patient and a neighbor. He makes visits to elderly, homebound patients and has earned the respect of his community. Residents sometimes bring him fresh fruit and vegetables as thanks for his services.

Concerning questions about religion, Kalala sometimes has a little fun.

“When people ask me what church I go to, I tell them I am a Southern Baptist Muslim,” Kalala said.

The first time Kalala heard about Drake’s project, he was at Friday prayers in Imam Mutakabbir’s mosque. He said Americans who visit the exhibition will learn a lot.

“Muslims, might appear a little bit different from them, you might not see the hair of a Muslim woman because she covers it, but that does not make her different than somebody good like anybody else,” Kalala said. “It also might open the door to someone who might say, ‘Wait a minute, I need to have another look at those kinds of people.’ They might start to make friends with them, they might do business with them ….”

Should this happen, the project will meet its goal of creating understanding.

The current show will close on September 9 and reopen on September 11 at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. Drake said plans are in the works to take the show to Arkansas and Indiana, and he hopes to tour it nationwide and overseas.

In the meantime, Khan said, the exhibit will tell people about the place of Muslims in America.

“I feel that it is bringing awareness to the new culture that is forming in America, the American Muslim identity,” Khan said. “It is kind of showing that Muslims are getting assimilated and integrated into America and we are no longer from some random country.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)