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A Journey Through Militant Islam

Abbas's photographic portrait of the Muslim world 'Allah O Akbar: A Journey Through Militant Islam' spans 29 countries and four continents

Abbas

Allah O Akbar Students of the Al Azhar college attend Friday prayer in the auditorium, transformed into a mosque for the occasion. Jakarta, Indonesia. 1989. © | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A woman and a car. Both wear the nigab, the veil which covers the body as well as the face. Marrakech, Morocco. 1991 © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar After a demonstration at the Amjadiyeh Stadium in support of te Constitution and of Shapour Bakhtiar, who was appointed Prime Minister by the Shah before the left the country, a woman, believed to (...)
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Militiamen in charge of the protection of oil fields, praying. Ahwaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran. 1979. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A Mujahid of the Hezbi-Islami (Islamic party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) guards the road to the capital. Near Kabul, Afghanistan. 1992. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A Sadhu (Hindu monk) and pilgrims bathe in the river. A cow drinks from it. Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. 1990 © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar On the beach, a woman wears the traditional nigab, made of a burnous and a face veil, next to another in swimming trunks. Jdida, Morocco. 1991. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A student wearing the nigab, the full Islamic veil in front of a microscope in the biology department of Cairo University. Cairo, Egypt. 1987 © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A wedding by proxy: the woman's fiancé, who migrated to Germany, is present in the photograph only. Kabul, Afghanistan. 1992. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Uigur Muslims on streets lined with poplar trees. Kashgar was on the famed silk road. Kashgar, Xinjiang province, China. 1989. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A young girl in the Jalabiya refugee camp for Palestininans. Gaza, Palestine. 1991. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Young and old Hassidic Jews. Jerusalem, Israel. 1991 © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Schoolchildren of the al-Arqam Islamic fundamentalist sect. Near Ipoh, Malaysia. 1987. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar At the Zakaria Muslim Girls High School, funded by the muslim community, girls in hijab (islamic dress) play touchball. Batley, Yorkshire, UK. 1989. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Village of Severi Two boys stand in front of the mosque. They are on their way to the Medersa, the Koranic school, where they learn to read and write on the wooden tablets they are holding. These t (...)
Abbas | Allah O Akbar Baobab trees stand guard, monstrous and familiar giants, over tombstones in the Catholic cemetery of Fadiouth. Fadiouth, Senegal. 1988. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas Hajj pilgrimage. Pilgrims from all over the world pray on Mount Rahma. Plain of Arafat, Saudi Arabia. 1992. © Abbas | Magnum Photos
Abbas | Allah O Akbar A talibe (student) holds a tablet inscribed with surates from the Koran. The dead bird hanging on the line is used for witchcraft. Black Islam cohabits with animism, and carries many pagan rites in (...)

Allah O Akbar, begins the call to prayer that resonates from minarets in towns and villages from Sinkiang to Morocco, from Paris to Timbuktu. No matter where in the world you are, the message is the same: God is great. It is also the war cry of Islamic militants throughout the lands of the faithful.

Abbas traveled throughout the Islamic world for seven years to take the photographs for this book. Driven by a desire to understand and expose the internal tensions within Muslim societies, he highlights the conflict between a rising political movement looking for inspiration in a mythical past and a desire for modernization. The quality of immediacy in the work and the subtly of its composition provide a constant visual stimulus; the sequence of dramatic and often disturbing images confirm Abbas’s reputation as one of the few photographers who can raise photojournalism to an art form.

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