ISL • AM • ERICA: NEW MUSLIM COOL

Words by Luqman Abdul-Salaam | Images by Ridwan Adhami, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Radcliffe Roye, Kauthar Umar, Akintola Hanif, Na'Aisha Austin & Khalid Hussein El-Hakim

“For young Muslims in America, style is often a delicate balance between seeking God’s pleasure and seeking the ‘cool,’’’ says Suad Abdul Khabeer.

Khabeer was a program advisor to the 2009 PBS documentary New Muslim Cool and its planned companion book, isl • am • erica , which explores the multifaceted, multi-ethnic identity of young Muslims in the U.S.

New Muslim Cool, directed by Jennifer M. Taylor, chronicled three years in the life of Jason “Hamza” Pérez, a Puerto Rican-American Muslim rapper coming of age in a post 911 era. isl • am • erica analyzes a broader community of young American Muslims, who are devoted to their faith, hip-hop, and defining American Islam for themselves.

Since 2009, a consortium of photographers throughout the U.S. has worked on the book, documenting the way American pop culture has affected Islamic youth and vice versa. We thought it was important to record how this young community changed visually and in their artistic expressions throughout the election of President Barak Obama and events like the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring.

Photographs, essays, interviews, and poetry tell the story of a racially and ethnically diverse counterculture movement -- from African-Americans in their teens and twenties, whose parents or grandparents adopted Islam -- to Middle Eastern immigrants and their children.

Young Muslims, whether they are MCs or aspiring clergy, have to deal with stereotypes of terrorists and perceptions of Islam as a rigid culture that allows no room for style and self-expression. But isl • am • erica presents Muslims who blend Arab keffiyehs and Timberland boots, Cazal glasses and “Allah” medallions, stiletto pumps and traditional hijab.

“Islam isn’t new to America; at least not urban America,” says isl • am • erica editor Kauthar Umar, also a co-producer of New Muslim Cool. “The book and the film challenge stereotypes of America’s urban youth and Muslims. It makes you reconsider this ‘clash of civilizations’ between Islam and the West.”

Although Islam and hip-hop might appear to be contradictory, both have a long history together, dating back to the birth of the genre over 30 years ago. “Allah’s name has been in hip-hop from the beginning,’’ says Amir Sulaiman, a Muslim writer who has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry, and is also included in the book.

“Hip-hop culture didn’t start off talking about sex and money but was used as a way for Black and Puerto Rican youth in the inner-city to express joy and pain and to fight oppression,” said Muslim MC, Quadir Lateef, who is also featured in isl • am • erica. “In Islam you’re supposed to fight for the oppressed, give to the poor and equalize society. So that resonates with young, poor Black kids,” he adds.

isl • am • erica includes interviews with emcees, DJs, B-boys and girls, graffiti writers, slam poets, fashionistas, stand-up comics and activists,all of whom lend their voices to the dialogue about Islam in America.

It’s an ongoing project that shifts along with the political climate of our country, and it won’t end until the story is told.