THE UNITED STATES OF ISLAM
▶ A photographer decided to put America in the picture about Muslims – by snapping them in all 50 corners of the country. Rupert Hawksley reports
It is easy enough to be angry. But it takes real courage to do something about that anger. In 2015, a young photography student in Brooklyn called Carlos Khalil Guzman decided he could no longer stand idly by as physical and verbal attacks on people of Muslim faith increased across the Unites States.
Guzman felt that this was, in part, because elements of the media – emboldened by the rise of Donald Trump – were unfairly representing Muslims. Key to this was the repeated call for them to apologise for every act of terror.
“As Muslims, we know that terrorist attacks have nothing to do with our religion,” says Guzman, 29, who converted to Islam in 2012 after engaging with Middle Eastern politics at college. “I thought, you know what, we should be proactive about this. It’s time to reclaim the narrative that the media hijacked.”
Guzman began working on an ambitious photography project called Muslims of America. His aim is to take 114 portraits – the number of chapters in the Quran – of Muslims from all of America’s 50 states, in order to illustrate the astonishing range of people who identify as Muslim. He has so far taken 73 portraits and hopes to complete his undertaking by the end of the year. It has been a remarkable, life-affirming experience. “If you look at the portraits, it’s a microcosm of diversity in the United States,” he says. “You see men, women, people with tattoos. [Many of these portraits] are of people who don’t conform to the stereotypical notion of Muslim conservatism. Islam is our religion but we can also be teachers, doctors, engineers and artists. Being Muslim is just one of our identities.” On his website, Guzman writes: “We are your neigbours, co-workers and classmates. We come in all shapes and colours.”
Each portrait in the series, which Guzman drip feeds onto Instagram, is accompanied by a verse from the Quran, or a hadith – the traditions or sayings of the Prophet Mohammed. These are chosen by the subjects of the photographs – friends; friends of friends; strangers Guzman has met on social media – who also explain why that particular passage is so important to them.
“Many of my subjects have had similar life experiences, but they often use different passages from the Quran to deal with those experiences,” Guzman says. “That’s interesting because it shows that the whole text can help you. There isn’t just one passage that will help you deal with, say, depression.”
Look through the portraits on Guzman’s website and you will quickly find your own favourites. I was immediately struck by a photograph of an African-Arab student from California called Sadiya. There is a steeliness to her gaze; a quiet determination – almost confrontational – in the way her left hand lifts her chin. “We were all created the same way by the same creator,” she says. “And for people to belittle one another because of their ethnicity, nationality, country, is just ridiculous.”
But it is as a series that Muslims of America is most effective, and Guzman hopes to exhibit all the portraits side by side once the project is finished. Ultimately, it is the sense of normality that is so poignant. “Take away the whole idea of the word ‘Muslim’, look at these people, and what you have is the fabric of the country,” Guzman says.
Depressingly – though perhaps inevitably – the response to Muslims of America has not been completely positive. “I have had a few people going onto my website and replying with your typical “you’re going to hell” messages and all that stuff,” Guzman says. “But for the most part, Muslims appreciate the fact that I’m letting them tell their stories.”
Guzman believes that projects such as these are needed in the US now more than ever. “Since Trump took office, it’s definitely getting worse. And not just for Muslims,” he says. “We cannot allow racism to be normalised, we have to fight back.”
In his own rather quiet way – simply by taking photographs of normal people across America – Guzman continues to play a vital role in what feels like a particularly vital battle.
For people to belittle one another because of their ethnicity, nationality, country, is just ridiculous SADIYA College student