Graffiti artist Mohammed Ali spreads some truth

As part of the Young Muslims Project Knowledge and Arts Tour 2009, the British Council flew over the famed graffiti artist from Birmingham, Mohammed Ali. We told you about his mix of street art and Quranic messages a while ago, but yesterday we got to see the man at work.

With the help of local paint crew Phobiaklik, Ali spray painted a large mural bearing the word ‘truth’, a timely reminder for young people to be true to their beliefs—whether those beliefs are Islamic or not—and themselves.

And we also got him to spill on the infamous Mohammed Ali vs. the West Midlands Police bout. What happened was Ali spray painted a wall a ‘Free Gaza’ mural, with the help of some neighbourhood kids of various faiths. It was entirely legal, see, since Ali had gotten the permission of the old lady whose wall was being given a facelift.

The police, sincerely believing that the mural was painted by some random kids, and that it would cause racial tensions to escalate (Birmingham is famed for housing many ethnic communities, but also its disproportionately high gang-related crime rate) decided to take it down. They scared the old lady half to death, saying that she would be in danger of being Molotov cocktail-ed if the mural stayed on her wall, and got her to agree to a complete whitewash of the offending wall.

They obviously did not know who they were fucking with, apparently. Ali is something of a celebrity in his city and the people went mad with rage. Right wing red top newspapers tried to fuel the fire by trying to get Jewish lobbyists to denounce the mural, but they were unsuccessful. Armies of people lined the streets, and riots would have certainly broken out had Ali not stopped them, saying “I’ll take care of this myself.” Obviously, with his art piece being effectively destroyed, he was mad with rage, but kept asking himself what the Prophet Muhammad would’ve done in this situation.

So he calmed himself down, and walked straight to the commissioner’s office. The commissioner realised that in trying to quell social unrest, he had done the equivalent of throwing a Molotov cocktail against a rubber wall. He was red in the face, and offered his hand in apology to Ali. The benevolent Ali forgave him. See, besides being immensely talented, Ali is also a top gent.