Al Salam

Roy Yacoub

El Seed is a French-Tunisian street artist, whose work is based on Calligraffiti, which is composed of both Arabic calligraphic traditions and graffiti.  El Seed is also known for promoting a universal message against both stereotypes and tolerance, while limning a strong Arab identity. He aims to bridge the gap between the Western and Eastern world. El Seed has influenced and inspired me with his work, he shows everyone who appreciates art a beautiful piece with a hidden strong message, that brings people of the same interest together. His work in public areas speaks to people who come across it in a powerful yet graceful way. Even in the harshest times, for example during the Tunisian revolution El Seed did not stop his drive to continue exhibiting his passion through art in the streets of his home country. El Seed has taught me never to give up through rough times and instead rise up to a challenge and stand for what I believe in.

  

I have deconstructed a stereotype about Arabs and Muslims in the Western world. Nowadays, a lot of people in Europe and Northern America have a misleading perception on Arabs and especially Muslims. They assume that all the Arabs around the world support the violence that is occurring and do not support peace amongst each other. The Western world for a long time now has been blindsided by the stereotype of Muslim Arabs being considered as terrorists. This conception truly affects the image of true Arab Muslims and what they stand for, as their religion is based mainly upon peace and forgiveness, rather then the act of violence. Extremism exits in all religions, and the acts of such extremists should not be generalized as the acts of their respective religions.

With all this in consideration, I have decided to take the most common word between all religions, “Peace”.  This word represents what all religions are truly about and what brings us together as one big community in the world. El Seed, uses his philosophy of simple Arabic words with strong meanings in his artworks. In addition, this word has played a major role in my personal life and I can reflect on the passion of El Seed’s artwork. I believe we are all equals in this world, and life is a beautiful thing to appreciate, and we should all cherish the opportunity given to us, rather than judge people of different ethnicity or religion. I hope one day we can live in a world that’s full of peace and happiness amongst everyone, because only then would stereotypes come to end.  With how things are going in our current lifetime, it is truly sad to see how people are jumping to conclusions about one another. I would like to end this report with a simple hope for peace in mankind.