Date & time
Thursday, April 3, 2025
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Arts & culture
Share this event:
Looking at the World from Inside Mosques: Questioning Prejudice Through Art Photography
Islam in the Americas Speakers Series
Speaker(s)
Marwan Bassiouni, Hosted by Chedly Belkhodja (Concordia) and Paul May (UQAM)
Cost
This event is free
Organization
Contact
Where
J.W. McConnell Building
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Room LB.1042
Accessible location
Yes
Islam comes in all shapes and colours. It is now Western and a part of the national identity and landscape of many countries.
Since January 2018, Marwan Bassiouni has visited mosques in various countries in order to document their presence in the landscape from the inside. He was led into the hearts of cities, suburbs, villages, industrial zones and remote areas, alongside rivers, lakes and mountains. Mosques were able to become a part of the Western landscape by adapting to the shapes and colors of the local architecture – by building minarets and prayer rooms out of bricks, wood and various other materials.
Through this journey, Marwan Bassiouni not only witnessed the diversity of locations in which Muslims are living today, but also the diversity within the Muslim community itself.
Unfortunately, Muslims are the most targeted minority when it comes to hate crimes, and recent terrorist attacks have contributed to an increase in islamophobia, racism and xenophobia towards Muslims. Many Western medias are biased in their representation of Muslim peoples and contribute towards negative and unwelcoming sentiments towards this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural minority demography. The mosques contained in this project were therefore left unidentified to respect the wishes of mosque representatives who feared for their safety. All photographs in this series document views of actual mosques within their original surroundings.