Derek Brown: "SARAJEVO TO SULAWESI" - A Look Into Muslim Diversity

"SARAJEVO TO SULAWESI"
For 14 months in 2008 and 2009,
my partner and I traveled throughout the Muslim world. Our trip started with India, home of the world's third largest Muslim population, and then weaved through the religion's heartlands of the Gulf, Syria and Iran before crossing through Central Asia to other Muslim areas of Asia, including Pakistan, Western China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

'A Look Into Muslim Diversity'
To too many in the western world the words "Muslim" or "Islamic" conjure only strife
and fear. The Muslim world, or the Arab one, is depicted as a sort of monolithic block,
a "them" for "us" to be against. And, to be fair, such a view is believed by some Muslims to be in their interest as well - that by banding together, they might somehow overcome
or overwhelm perceived opposing forces. This worldview, one in which we are hurtling toward a cataclysmic clash of civilizations, is not only a dangerous one, but one that is demonstrably false. Through my work, I want to show the great diversity of the Muslim world, as well as examples, both current and historical, of peaceful coexistence. The
truth is of course that while the Muslim world shares certain commonalities, the countries in which there is a large Muslim population are in many ways more diverse than those of any other religion. And shifting through these commonalities and differences, one sees
the same forces at work as anywhere else, human universalities.
Understanding dissipates fear.

We're all familiar with images from the Muslim world, but so often they are ones of conflict - protests in Pakistan, destruction in Gaza or, worse yet, bearded terrorists in the latest Hollywood thriller. I don't purport to bring you the "real" Muslim world, but I believe that our observations, even if not new to you, might be illuminating simply because they show aspects of the religion and common life in the regions, things one sees day-to-day, ordinarily, outside of the lens of politics or war. And as these images barely scratch the surface of the pictures I took or of what I saw during my travels, my travels only scratched the surface of the Muslim world, albeit during 14 months of intensive travel. In the years to come, I intend to continue to expand on my travels, broadening both the number of places and the depth with which I experience, and come to a better understanding of, the Muslim world.

More pictures, and information about our travels, can be found on my partner's blog,
http://www.paulstravelblog.com.

Derek Brown,
New York City
http://www.derekbrownphotos.com

We returned to the Middle East to spend most of Ramadan in Egypt, and then worked our way to Turkey via Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Cyprus. After a brief stop in Bosnia, we headed to Senegal and Mali before crossing the Mauritanian Sahara to Morocco and then the Straits of Gibraltar to Andalucia, Spain. For good measure we even threw in a short stop at Bradford, a West Yorkshire town known for its large Muslim South Asian community, before returning to South Asia proper and finishing up our trip in Bangladesh.

By the end, we had passed through a majority of the world's majority Muslim countries, eight of the ten countries with the world's largest Muslim populations and countries containing over 70% (over a billion) of the world's Muslim population.

Derek Brown :

"SARAJEVO TO SULAWESI" - A Look Into Muslim Diversity