The Future Is Muslim

Introduction

At a time when Muslim communities are spoken about and spoken for, we’re demanding the right to tell our own stories on our own terms. Listen to the podcast on your Apple or Android podcast app, or on Soundcloud here.

The Need

There is so much white noise around Muslim communities and such poor analysis, that sometimes to break through you need a different way of talking back to events and history. Satire and surrealism has always been a way to get to the truth of what is happening and why.

Stories of people challenging discrimination, stereotypes, and inequalities, stories filled with hope, strength and knowledge, these are voices from the underground demanding social justice through the subversive power of story- telling.

For those who are marginalised being heard is about survival. As Francois Matarasso writes: “Being able to represent yourself in the public space is a critical right, its one way you can defend your other rights.”

What We Did

The podcast feature sketches, followed by conversations, which explore issues around belonging and identity and the social and political pressures that are placed on Muslims to conform.

While the sketches may seem far-fetched and absurd, many of the references are based on actual events that all of us have seen in the news over the past few years, or interactions we've had in our work. They speak to the very real way that Muslims and other marginalised communities are considered and spoken about by those in positions of power.

And as this ramadan ends and everyone is trying to figure out what the new normal is, the deep-rooted systemic racism that permeates every part of society still remains the normal for Muslim and black and brown communities. These sketches are an honest portrayal of this context, a refusal to look away, so that we can then begin to define a different future.