Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
To see full gallery “Coverage” please click here. The aim of this gallery is to show muslim women in London as individuals in normal, everyday situations, devoid of any political context.
Since the horrific events in France, Nigeria and the Middle East everyone on all sides seem to be baying for blood but I don’t really feel like getting on the hate train…its not a forwards journey and it sure as shit doesn’t lead to solution city.
In London every culture,race and religion are here and everyone brushes shoulders with everyone and just gets on with it…in London you hate people because they are in your way, not cos of where they are from. London is the perfect antidote to racism as we are all on top of one another and you see that everyone is the same, just trying to get on with their own shit and get through the day with as minimum aggravation as possible. Come at me with a smile, you are my friend, come at me with hostility and that makes you a problem, not the colour of your skin or who you pray to. Who gives a shit? Are you a nice human being or not? That is all that matters.
So it seems like hostile hatred of “those who are not us” is back with a vengeance…mass bigotry returns with fervour..isn’t it all soooo 20th century? Didn’t we just do this?? Jews are leaving Europe in droves in fear for their lives, Germans marching against a religious ethnic minority… This time its the Muslims but “plus ca change” as the French would say and they should know. Have we really forgotten so much in so little time? Its barely history and already its repeating itself. Are we really going back to all that crap? As one of the holocaust survivors said in the commeroration of the 75th anniversary: “we do not want our past to become our children’s future”. The dehumanising and demonisation of an entire culture/race/religion is never a good idea as that is always the stepping stone to atrocities. History is there for a reason, lets use it.
Its not really a massive surprise, in-groups and out-groups have formed the basis for all human interaction since the beginning of mankind and can even be traced back to our primate ancestors but you would have thought after 2 million plus years we might have evolved a tiny little bit…but no, it would appear not. We seemingly must despise the different and attack the alien. They actually say if aliens did ever arrive it would be the only thing that could galvanise the populations of the world…if they were looking down at us they wouldn’t see the borders as they actually exist, maybe its worth us all trying to remember that occasionally as we cling so desperately to the way we have been compartmentalised…
We are 97.3% identical to chimpanzees so imagine how similar we all are to each other. Isn’t it time we started seeing the similarities rather than the differences? If this sounds a bit like an airhead Miss World candidate I apologise but I think having beef with entire populations for the actions of a few is way dumber. I mean, do people really believe that there are races who are genuinely more evil than others? Isn’t it pretty apparent from events that every society has its fair share of psychos?
This should be a war on violent extremists not a specific culture. Do you want to be held accountable for the atrocities committed by people just because you share the same nationality or religion? There are people who want to kill people and there is everyone else…both parties are present in every population but there are a shitload more of the latter.
Its a shame we can’t put all those wishing to kill in the name of whatever together and just let them duke it out while the rest of us moderate masses just let them pulverise each other…we need to stop being pulled by the extremes of society who just want to watch the world burn…I made a (rather rough) film a while back called ‘The General” using a schnauzer to show how we could possibly re-organise the world with this kind of thing in mind, putting all those who are similar together rather than grouping people by race. Please watch here if you want…http://youtu.be/nFpl7Xuuvm0
As a Muslim, at least be sure that those Muslim you might interact in your day to day activity are innocent, they are just trying to get the shit out of their life.
Regarding the dressing, I see it as a matter of choice. If no one is forcing her and if she feels better covering her whatever then it should be her right, just like we allow any other type of dressing.
Great vision.
All amazing photos. Most of the opinions too.
Marc, the key part of your discourse is “IMHO”, it’s your opinion. Others have other opinions, just live and let live.
I usually “judge” people by their actions, not their face, but that’s just me. As Mos Def (sorta) said, “It don’t matter what brand you are, just what your principles and standards are.”
A big part of your opinion would seem to be formulated by ignorance, as their is a bit of religious history involved regarding dressing modestly. Men have just distorted things for their own gain, once again. Why don’t you have beef with men in general rather than a whole religion/culture?
Easy to find this information if you wanted and then you would understand it. Also, muslims have/do live in places that are not dusty or desert. That’s a lack of knowledge peeking through again.
Jews (and their kippah’s) were/are accused of not integrating with populations and were/are also regarded suspiciously. It’s always the same for minorities.
Good sentiments…and I would love the world to be made up of more people like you – however it is difficult to judge someone as friend or foe when you can’t see their face… There is no need for women to cover their faces in a Western Democratic society IMHO particularly when there is no religious basis for it. If there were a practical basis for it then I could understand it (perhaps there is/was in dusty desert lands?). It is not helping Muslims to integrate in any way and certainly not helping diminish the suspicion that is growing amongst Western populations. Just my 2 cents worth… I have no beef with anyone praying to whomever they choose if thats what floats their boat but I do have a problem with anyone that judges me for not praying or more specifically not praying their way and on top of that wants to kill me for not obliging…