The Muslim Protagonist

Columbia University hosted the second annual symposium, The Muslim Protagonist: “A Synthesis of Journeys” this past weekend, sponsored by Columbia University’s Muslim Student Association. The event featured Muslim writers, artists,  and other emerging creative voices.

An event like this is evidence that Muslim cultural creatives are moving into the space of cultural producers rather than just cultural consumers, inshAllah.

You know the cool part? Our influence is global. And as we celebrate our own identity, we also intersect with humanity on issues of personal struggle, postcolonialism, loss, joy, creativity, carving out our own space, and the big one — love.

The existence of successful Muslims writers, filmmakers, designers, artists and musicians demonstrates to the world (and to ourselves) that we are fully and gloriously human.

The event featured an exciting array of personalities. LoveInshallah has celebrated some protagonist voices on the site:

• Haroon Moghul is a Salaam, Love! contributor for his essay, “Prom, Inshallah,”  He was recently featured on NPR discussing Salaam, Love! He also writes for the Huffington Post and he is a Senior Editor at The Islamic Monthly, among other things. Check out his Twitter, @hsmoghul

• Jennifer Zobair is the author of Painted Hands, a novel set in Boston exploring the intersections of a group of Muslim female friends. She has contributed to LoveInshallah with her essay, “Something Borrowed, Something Pink” and an interview about her novel.  She recently started the site, story and chai: reading and writing the Muslim narrative, which celebrates and promotes the Muslim narrative. (LoveInshallah columnists Aisha Saeed, Deonna Kelli Sayed, and Salaam, Love’s Mohammed Shamma have contributed to this exciting new site.)  Some retweets from Jennifer’s twitter @jazobair:

• G. Willow Wilson is a superhero. Literally. She is the proud momma of the new Ms. Marvel, as well as the author of Alif the Unseen, the graphic novel, Cairo,  and the memoir, The Butterfly Mosque.   She was a Friday Love post, and you can keep up with her at @GWillowWilson, particularly if you like scifi and all sorts of magical things:

• Michael Muhammad Knight  (@MM_Knight) sat down with LoveInshallah for our first author interview podcast, discussing Tripping with Allah: Islam, Drugs and Writing. He was dropping knowledge at The Muslim Protagonist Conference, as retweeted by LoveInshallah’s own Ayesha Mattu:

• LoveInshallah has crossed-posted Wajahat Ali’s writings, such as his poignant “Remember Dhadhi,” and his sweetly romantic, “How to Get Married in a Month: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Loved Sarah Kureshi.”  Currently, Wajahat is co-host of Al Jazeera America’s,  The Stream.

Check out The Muslim Protagonist on Twitter (search for #muslimprotag to see the lively discussion). Also, don’t miss cartoonist Connie Sun’s artistic rendering of the event.

What emerging artists, writers, musicians and personalities do you feel are changing the narrative?