Pray for Muslims

By Samer Arwani

I called my piece of art “Pray for Muslims” following whatever we had to see on Facebook after Paris terrorist attack on the 13^th of November 2015. We all feel sorry about that bloody Friday that broke our hearts especially the ones who visited Paris before and they do have unforgettable memories over there. On the other hand, at that day I personally got offended seeing “Pray for Paris” everywhere while my country, Syria, is being bombed every day since five years. Over these five years, I did not see this much attention toward the people who are getting killed there with no mercy. Over these five years I did not see a lot of people posting about Syria and about the misery life Syrian people are living over there. This paper is dedicated to describe my piece of art “Pray for Muslims” explaining my ideas and thoughts about the influence of media on the Islamic world.

            The message behind the piece of art “Pray for Muslims” is to represent the contradiction of the global media whether its social or visual media. I personally believe that the global media is redirected to serve the desires of a selected class of people who really want to destroy the peaceful image of Muslims. This controversy starts with including all Muslim countries in the list of what is known as the “third world” countries which means the poor and backward countries; however, we can clearly see that most of the Muslim countries do have an acceptable, if not a good, economical level which other “first world” countries do not have. For the sack of this argument, let us assume that we are “third world” countries. Does not this mean that we need special care from the rest of the world? Is not this a part of the equality the world is pretending to follow? Equality does not only mean to treat all people in the same way instead, it means that we should treat each person according to his or her needs in order to ensure that all people are at the same level. “Pray for Muslims” piece of art represents how the global media focuses on the smallest terrorist attack that was POSSIBLY done by Muslims and pays a huge attention toward it, while on the other hand, hundreds of Muslims are getting killed every day in different regions either because of a terrorist attack or because of army forces bombing them. I am not saying that whatever happens in the western world is something easy, and I am not saying that the number of people getting killed over there is relatively small so I do not care; I am trying to deliver the message that the value of a human soul worth too much there compared to the value of a Muslim soul getting killed over here in the region. The global media is influencing the public opinion by focusing and exaggerating the news of 30 or 40 people getting killed in the western world, while on the other hand, the media barely focuses on the hundreds of people getting killed every day in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and other Muslim countries. Now while I am writing this paper on Microsoft Office Word I just realized that Islam and Muslims in not even a world in the dictionary of Microsoft Office. I believe this is an insult to Muslims and it is a shame for Humanity.           

            describing the piece of art “Pray for Muslims”, the piece of art is a Photoshop picture that was created by taking some pictures from the internet and combining them all in one frame in order to deliver my message. The board is an A3 board (594mm X 420mm) and it was printed using the Matt technique. The reason behind choosing the Matt technique is that it provides a better visual representation especially for dark colors which were used intensively to represent the destructed building on the right side of the board. An A3 size was chosen to ensure the best quality in terms of printing to prevent any pixelated pictures. Concerning the colors choice, I intended to choose dark colors on the right side of the board to better represent the destruction and the misery lives Muslims are living in their countries. In addition, bright colors were used on the left side of the board to represent the luxurious life that does not really need to be focused on its limited needs. The left side also shows a camera lens showing how the global media is focusing on the single bomb coming toward the western world, while ignoring tens of bombs destroying cities on the right side of the board. Another message I tried to show is the fact that all the bombs in the picture (on the Eiffel tower and on the Buildings on the right side) are all coming from one direction which is the direction of the common enemy of the world who is the enemy of peace. Finally, I hope that the piece of art “Pray for Muslims” would make a difference and would make people look at the issue from a different perspective.

            I was asked to mention the artist who influenced me; however, I really had no one influencing me except Facebook pages that are full of pictures that can be of a great influence without us knowing. I do remember that I have seen something similar to my piece of art over the internet; however, I tried my best to look for it but I could not.

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            I also was asked to write a short biography about myself and I would say: my name is Samer Arwani and I am a Civil Engineering Syrian Student who is studying at the American University in Dubai. I am Currently in my last year and I will be graduating in May 2016. My fields of interest include reading political and historical books and articles especially those related to my country Syria.          

Coexist

By Georgios Kassapoglou

The artwork that I chose to create is on a news article I read last year on the newspaper. The artwork I was influenced by was graffiti on a wall in Paris. The graffiti spells out “Coexist”, using an Islamic Crescent as the letter “C”, a Jewish Star of David as the letter “X” and a Christian cross as the letter “T”. In my artwork, I want to draw the Holy Kaaba as the representation of Islam, and the message “Coexist” above it. Around the Kaaba will be surrounded by golden colors drawn on an A3 sky blue cardboard. I believe this artwork shows the relation between Islam and Peace. 

Unfortunately, in today’s world, people are easily influenced by the media. People easily believe what is being said on television and what is being written on the newspapers and formulate an opinion without bothering to look at the real facts. This is dangerous as the media is controlled by the people who profit from war and therefore that news headlines are filled with lies that incite hate and violence. Mostly, this hate is directed towards a certain group of people. Before World War 2, when media was first used as a tool to spread lies and propaganda, the hate and violence was directed by Adolf Hitler towards the Jews. This lead people to create a negative attitude towards the them and millions of Jews were massacred. Today, the hate is directed by the Western media towards the Muslim people but new tactics are being used. Organisations such as the Taliban and ISIS are created and funded by the West. This tactic has caused almost the entire world to believe that the Holy Qur'an preaches violence and that the 1.2 billion Muslims around the world are actually terrorists. The reason I am enjoying creating this artwork is because I believe that this terrorist stereotype must be eliminated as the Holy Qur'an actually preaches more peace than any other religion in the world. And this is obvious especially since Muslims greet others by saying “Al salam alaykom” which means, peace be upon you. Some people may think that the opinions of others do not matter but in this case, it really does. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims are being killed everyday under the airstrikes that are meant to eradicate the “terrorists”. Innocent Palestinians are being denied their right to live as normal human beings with human rights simply because they are labelled as Muslim terrorists. Innocent Muslims around the world are being attacked by the media because they are not doing enough to “condemn” terrorist attacks which have absolutely nothing to do with them. It broke my heart when I saw a picture of a little Syrian refugee, who is  stuck in the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian borders, carrying a sign that said, “Sorry for the Brussels attacks.” This stereotype has to stop and we must work on it from all angles, including art. My artwork alone will not make a difference on the international scale, but if everyone follows this trend, we can all make a difference together. 

The artist that greatly influenced me calls himself “COMBO”. COMBO, or COMBO Culture Kidnapper, is a French street artist who started by doing graffiti art in 2003 in the South of France. After seven years spent painting from Monaco to Marseille, he moved to Paris in 2010 and became an art director at a major advertising agency. Putting his spray paint cans aside, he then started doing wheat paste. Combo’s work focuses around culture and visual jamming, as illustrated by his cartoon series in which he manipulates iconic pictures, replacing some elements by others taken from the comics or the video games universe to change these pictures' meaning according to what he wants to express. By appealing to generation Y’s pop culture, Combo hits his target at heart and takes it back to the unfairness that makes our world whether cultural, financial or identity-related. The majority of Combo's work is made of wheat pasted prints that he unpastes and then pastes back on canvas, giving it a true street feel. Whatever their size and as an advertiser would do, he always manages to get his work to be seen by as many people as possible. Combo got noticed by the media in 2012 when he introduced himself in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to paste up real advertisements that vaunted the nuclear industry, his way to celebrate Fukushima's disaster first birthday. Strongly influenced by the cartoon and the video game universe, he also put up a massive Simpsons mural, where America's beloved animated family seems to be having a great time, picnicking on a grassy mound, all while Homer's nuclear power plant is seen menacingly in the background. The Simpsons piece, though, has somehow been the only one that international media relayed. In September 2012, he set up an exhibit for pigeons right in front of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and hung about twenty of the most famous art pieces at eyes-height of the birds. Early December, Combo collaborated with other street artists and realized a pop-up installation place de la Bourse in the 2nd arrondissement, minutes away from AFP’s headquarters, to pay a tribute to the 162 homeless persons who died in the street over the six previous months. In January 2013 he struck again in China, where he went to denunciate Google’s decision to definitively give up on getting its service back to mainland China. It’s in the streets of Hong Kong that he chose to put his work out, giving a second life to the most recognizable Google pages censored by the Party: Tiananmen Square protests, and Ai Weiwei’s recent arrest in Tibet. An initiative that led to his first solo exhibit in Paris: Golden Shield, as per the other name of the “Great Firewall of China”. Late Spring, Combo came back to Paris and settled down in the rue des Petits-Carreaux for his second exhibit, getting a lot of attention both from the neighborhood and the Internets by pasting up a +30 ft. high portrait of a dandy version of Yoda. As opposed to most of his projects since Chernobyl, Old-Up didn't have any political dimension, allowing him to get back to his roots: cartoon. Finally, on July 14th and to celebrate Bastille Day he pasted up a massive collage on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, realised in association with theFemen, a feminist protest group founded in Ukraine in 2008 and now operating out of Paris. The piece consisted in a reinterpretation of Liberty leading the people by Delacroix, in which it is not the Jacobins but women who march towards their freedom. By jamming such an iconic piece of art, Combo not only intended to pay a tribute to the activists’ fight, but also to denunciate the discrimination and other misogynistic behavior women still suffer too often nowadays. Despite his great works and efforts, I did not hear about him until I read an article about him in the newspaper. He was attacked by a gang after refusing to take down a mural calling for religious harmony in Paris. He was left with a dislocated shoulder and bruises across his face after being set upon in a ghetto in the east of the capital. He had just finished a design the featured the word “coexist”. So there was one Muslim trying to preach peace, and when other non Muslims saw him, they made war. 

Biography:

My name is Georgios Kassapoglou and I was born in Athens, Greece to a Greek father and a Syrian mother. Both of my parents were Christians and wanted to raise me to be a Christian like them. There was a point in my life where I was a strong believer and went to church every week, sometimes even twice a week. Being born in a Western country, the media there was very stereotypical and spread some lies at first. But most Greeks, being stubborn, had difficulty believing as they had many friends abroad and knew exactly what was going on. Having an Arab mother also helped me eliminate the stereotype of Muslims and terrorists. Today I am an Atheist but I still highly respect the values that Islam and all religions preach. 

References: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2947822/Graffiti-artist-attacked-gang-Paris-ghetto-drawing-word-coexist-Christian-Muslim-Jewish-symbols.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMBO

IQRA'

By Esra AlHashimi

I am Esra AlHashmi, a 20 years old architecture student. Studying architecture for 3 years taught me that buildings are frozen periods of time in the form of an object because only through buildings that you can capture how people lived through history.  I would have loved to design a structure that would tell a story since I believe that architecture is another form of art but designing one would have taken a semester on its own. Since buildings tell stories and hold memories just like pictures; I have decided to use photography as a media to my project instead.

As for my art project, I have been inspired by Julien Breton, a french calligraphy artists that creates shapes choreographed with light sticks, to produce an artwork that combines both calligraphy and photography. Taking in granted the darkness of the night while using a high intensity light, like a flashlight for example, and a low shutter speed on the camera settings, we can guide the camera to focus on the only source of light which is in my case a white flashlight. Therefore, whatever kind of movement the light makes can be well captured by the camera. The artwork project resulted in a A3 size picture titled “Iktub” which means “write” in Arabic. The picture depicts faded strays of light looking more like a candle light spelling the word “Iqra’a” in Arabic meaning “read”, the evident message of the artwork. Between almost every other letter lies a shadow of a hand in the form of a writing position symbolizing the hidden message behind the artwork which is the concept of writing.

The word “Iqra’a” meaning “read” was the first word revealed to the Prophet Mohammad from the Quran. “Proclaim ( or Read) In the name of your Lord and Cherisher, Who created..” 96:1.

So the first word God sent to us in the form of a command was Read. As a result, I was wondering why was the first word is Read instead of Al Shahada, or the command of prayer or Hijab. Wouldn’t it make more sense? But God chose to unveil first the simple task of reading or gaining knowledge by reading, which are the vital keys to human development.

Did you know that the best and highest type of worship is by seeking knowledge.

“ Allah will raise up to ranks, those of you who believe and who been granted knowledge.” 58:11 Meaning, if you only read a book for the sake of getting information you are worshiping God. But if that is true, no Muslim should be ignorant. But are they?

This is why I chose to raise this issue in the artwork. Most Muslims are looked at nowadays as ignorant people. But why is that? If the first command unveiled was read. In addition to that, most of those Muslims who are educated do not read for the sake of gaining knowledge but only for the sake of going through what is in front of them. By that I mean, most of those young adults in colleges and universities do not read for educating themselves in a field other than their owns. They only go through what is assigned for them to read by their professors.

How can we read something that isn’t written? Which is the second hidden message of the artwork symbolized by the hand. There is a surah in Quran names “Al-Qalam” meaning “pen” of which God vows by the pen.

We can come to a conclusion that there is some kind of reference to the tool used to write and its impact on the human life.

Also, writing verses of Quran is a form of worship; like calligraphy for example; which is the writing style that inspired this project; yet it’s only an inspiration as I wasn’t able to master the style.

As a conclusion, I have combined these 2 concepts in order to convey that there is more to Islam than fasting and praying. Islam is a way of living and guidance to life.

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Bibliography

"Knowledge and Action." Ahl AlQuran. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Islam in Media

By Dima Tarazi

Media is a growing industry. People watch, read and listen to the news all the time to see how their families are doing abroad, to find out what’s happening in the world and sometimes it could be unintentionally playing in the background such as the radio. In addition, since the media is what people all around the world refer to, they tend to believe everything; the true, the false, and the exaggeration. This further allows me to get into my topic, which is the media brainwashing people into believing that Islam encourages terrorism when on the contrary, Islam actually encourages peace.      

Etymology of the word Islam: (Wikipedia 1)

Word	Meaning
Islam	Submission
Salam	Well-being/Peace
(Derivation of) Salama	The stinging of a snake or the tanning of the leather
Saleema	To be saved or to escape from danger (when refering to a female)
Saleem	To be saved or to escape from danger (when refering to a male)
Aslam	To submit
Istaslama	To surrender
Musal	Undisputed
Tasleem	To receive a salutation or becoming submitted

This etymology is an important initial step for everyone to further understand what Islam as a religion is. Islam as a religion should not be the victim of terrorist attacks all over the world because people simply do not know who else to blame. Terrorist groups using Islam as a back bone for the reasons of their attacks allows the media to directly or indirectly say “the Muslims strike again”. People naïve enough to believe that this is the only truth only allows more support to further classify Muslims as ‘outsiders’ or ‘others’ giving into orientalism. Even if people do not believe the news, there’s always the subconscious where information sticks, out of hand. So the next time there is a terrorist attack, or any form of attack, people may link Islam to it automatically but unintentionally.

To some people, it stopped being a shock and started being casual to link Islam with terrorism, and media plays a big role. Media is a trusted source of information, and people can constantly back themselves up by saying “I saw it on the news today” when there would be 100 other sides to the story that are not actually shown on the news.

My art project is mainly about people being brainwashed by the media and, in this case, about Islam being linked to terrorism. My project is a Photoshop illustration of a regular everyday man who could be from anywhere around the world, sitting down watching the news when the media directly states “Muslims strike again” after a terrorist attack. The information travels to his brain and is shredded like any other piece of info which brainwashes him automatically. In addition, it’s to show people how the media operates when it comes to such a sensitive subject.

For all of the above reasons, I chose to do my end of semester art project on Islam in Media, because, in my opinion, media shapes the world and in time, people’s thoughts and this is what I see is happening in the case of a peaceful and beautiful religion such as Islam. Personally, I am tired of such stereotypes, and one of my main goals of this end of semester project is to destroy the link between terrorism and Islam and make it mostly about Islam and the peaceful religion. Moreover, to alert people to learn more before they assume anything at all in order not to make people victims for no reason. 

The Tears Of Peace

BY LEA HALABI

With the rise of terrorist attacks all over the world and the continuous blaming of Islam, the world is falling back into a stage of ignorance that was supposedly overcome with the development of minds and technology. Because of the brainwashing of many populations and the marginalization of certain cultures and religions, because of the rising terrorist groups founded and funded by the most powerful countries in today’s world, and because of the lack of peace education, it is now unsafe to live in any place on earth.

This artwork is entitled “The Tears Of Peace” or “دموع السلام” in Arabic. It is an A3 size watercolor painting assorted with the words “Islam religion of peace” cut in Arabic on a black foam board in order to put the expression in the foreground of the piece. Different colors are used in the background of the piece. The first step of the painting was to create areas with each color before incorporating them into on common background with the use of water, an essential element in the construction of the artwork. The effect of leaking watercolors is also done with water, as it helps represent the message that will be later explained. The edges of the colored shapes are enhanced with black pen that also create a sense of 3D to the painting as well as sharpness. The use of vibrant colors in contrast with the black calligraphy is an element that makes of this artwork a powerful representation of how Islam should be understood.

Doing this artwork, I was mainly looking at El Seed’s calligraffiti that incorporates both colors and calligraphy into different solid messages that reach very easily the hearts and minds of the people. El Seed is a very inspirational young artist that was able to let his name shine as a peaceful and meaningful artist in countries that are now victims of various types of terrorism and hatred.

Today, a very common stereotype about Islam is about it being a religion that promotes violence, terrorism and war. A stereotype that has been shoved into people’s minds through repetition in media, misconceptions about religious meanings, and alteration of what the holy book of Quran states. Many are being misled, and victims of a propaganda that is enforced by the lack of education and knowledge. Unfortunately, although many non-Muslims understand the message of God in the Quran and associate it with their own religion, others are marginalizing the Islamic communities and labeling them as terrorists.

In fact, a solid and recent example is the Paris attack that lead to 130 lives being lost and many damages, whether locally or internationally. France has been the welcoming crib for many refugees of war whether during the Algerian Revolution, the Spanish war, or recently the Syrian Crisis. However, with the birth of many so called Islamic extremists such as ISIS, many of the refugees are being stigmatized as the reason and actors in the destruction of the economy of the country.

Hence, “The Tears of Peace” is a representation of what the real Islam is about, a religion of peace, of joy, and comfort. As a first impression, the painting might look like a juxtaposition of colors, merged together in a very random way. However, the main idea behind that is to show in an abstract way the merging of the different continents together in solidarity, each country having their own identity (color).

When the painting is converted into a black and white picture, what people would see are mainly dark smudges that are leaking, associated with stains of blood related to what people see in Islam as a violent religion. Looking at the picture in black and white is in a way a metaphor of the cage in which some people are trapped, in which they only see the bad and evil side of what is around them as diversity.

However, the original painting is vibrant in colors and shows the right way of perceiving Islam, as a religion that is not close-minded and repressive. The leaking colors represent the joyful tears people should express when our whole world would be as one, when as John Lennon sings, “Imagine there’s no countries” in his song Imagine.

The main idea of having the sentence “Islam religion of peace” or “إسلام دين السلام” in Arabic calligraphy is to emphasize on its meaning by having it more towards the foreground of the artwork. The letter “mim” is bigger than the other letters because of its common identity in both the words Islam and Salam, as well as its meaning and value in the Quran as being part of the Muqatta'at, unique letter combinations that appear in the beginning of 29 suras. 

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My name is Lea Halabi. I’m currently an architecture student at the American University In Dubai, and was raised in one of the most humble Islamic countries in the world, the United Arab Emirates. I have always been part of a divers environment, starting from a French education background, continuing in an American university, and surrounded by people from different cultures and beliefs. I believe that today’s world is not moving forward; it is declining because of the neglect of humanity and personal rights through the hegemony of inequality and stereotypes. I still believe in the presence of forgiveness in people, but also believe in their cruelty and brutality.

Allah is Peaceful

By Fatmaalzahrah Abusief

For my artwork project I decided to divide a board into four squares and write 4 of the 99 names of Allah into those squares. I decided to apply what we learned in class about square kufi calligraphy and implement it into my artwork. 
The tools used in my project are colored markers and paint. 
The title of my artwork speaks about the theme of the project, and it is “Allah is peaceful”. Using kufi square calligraphy I wrote: “” and “الرحمان”. This idea was inspired by the currents events, specifically what happened in Paris, France. After the terrible events that occurred in Paris, people were quick to blame Muslims and Islam for these terrorist actions. However, Islam is a peaceful religion that does not encourage murdering innocents. In the Islamic religion there is no greater than God; therefore, I decided to use Allah to prove that Islam is a peaceful religion. There are 99 names that are used to refer to/ describe Allah, and each name has a different meaning. The names I choose to use in this project are names that I believe to symbolize peace. The fact that Allah’s names mean/symbolize “peace” should be proof enough that this is not a religion driven by hatred.

الرحمان - The merciful

الرحيم - The Beneficent or The Generous

التواب - The guide to Repentance

الغفور - The Forgiving

All of these names are factors that play a role in accomplishing peace. 

I was inspired visually by an Image of a portrait that I saw while scrolling through Pintrest.