Islam in Great Britain through the lens of Peter Sanders: Muslims are not terrorists, says the great photographer

By Syed Akbar

For those who equate Muslims with terrorism, the photo exhibition by
internationally renowned photographer Peter Sanders is an eye opener.
Peter Sanders the other day took Hyderabadis on a journey through the
Great Britain giving a vivid photographic description of the lifestyle of
Muslims living in the West.
As they say a picture speaks a thousand words, the exclusive Sanders
photographs at "The Art of Integration Exhibition: Islam in Britain's
Green and Pleasant Lands" organised recently in Hyderabad, "spoke"
on behalf of 1.6 million British Muslims loud and clear that "Muslims
are not terrorists and British Muslims are as much British as others
living in Britain".
Peter Sanders, who has carved out a niche for himself in the Islamic
world with his classic photographs on Muslim lifestyles and
monuments around the globe, points out that there's no clash of
civilisations and there's no war between the West and Muslims. And
his photographs proved his point. The photographs are extremely and
extraordinarily beautiful and many Hyderabadis had for the first time
gone through a first hand assessment of Muslims and Islam in the UK.
"For many years I wanted to photograph Islam in the UK, but to be
honest, I was not inspired by what I saw. Then I began to meet second
and third generation British Muslims, many of them young,
professional and artistic, young people who did not have the fears and
concerns of previous generations. Within them was a confidence that to
be British and Muslim was not a problem," observes Peter Sanders.
Every photograph put up at the exhibition, organised jointly by the
British High Commission, New Delhi, and the Journalists for Peace and
Justice, Hyderabad, made it clear that terrorism does not equate to
Islam or any other faith or human value.
"Key Islamic influencers need to counter the extremists' narrative.
Mainstream message must be made more understandable, available and
attractive to meet the challenge of delegitimising extremism and terror.
Terrorists' malignant misinterpretations of Islam are rejected by
Muslims throughout the UK and abroad," says Fazil Hussain Parvez,
one of the organisers.
A notable feature of the exhibition is that the photographs challenged a
number of misconceptions, for instance, about the tendencies of some
communities not to integrate into their adopted homeland.
Peter Sanders began his career in the mid-1960s covering London's
seminal rock and roll scene, capturing now legendary music icons in a
collection that is considered a classic by collectors. Towards the end of
the 1970s, Sanders' attention turned inward which set him on a spiritual
search that took him to India and led him in the end to the Muslim
world.
"My photography has always been an extension of my life," says
Sanders, who converted to Islam before his journey to Mecca in early
1970s. "Photography is a wonderful process - a gift from God - that has
allowed me to learn so much about myself and the world around me.
It's like chasing a moment, trying to capture a beautiful bird in flight."
The exhibition begins with the Muslim roots in British soil depicting
archaeological finds that trace back to over 1000 years. The discovery
of a ninth century brooch bearing the "Basamala" an Islamic inscription
meaning "In the name of God - the most Merciful, the most
Beneficent", in south-east Ireland and of eighth century coins from the
reign of King Offa stamped with the Muslim declaration of faith, offer
glimpses of this little know Muslim history of Britain.
Peter Sanders then takes the visitors through the first mosque in the UK
(December 25, 1889), British Muslim personalities including pop
singer-turned charity activist Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), scholar Martin
Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din) and fashion designer Alia Khan, Muslim
charities before winding up with Islamic finance institutions and
Islamia schools.