It took over nine years for Sandow Birk to design and create what is being referred to as an illuminated manuscript of the Quran in English.
Although a non-Muslim, Birk wanted to undercut cultural prejudices about one of the world’s most important religious texts, which Americans tend to associate with the Middle East and with violent extremists like ISIS. By doing so, Birk hopes to familiarize both the content and book itself to non-Muslim masses in the west.
The illustrator and graphic artist added that,
[one] could make the argument that the Koran is the most important book in the world right now, and it has been for the last 20 years,” Birk says. “And for Americans to not know what it says is a mistake.” While Christianity is seen as a universal message, he says, despite its Middle Eastern origins, Christian Americans don’t see Islam in the same way.
As reported by The Atlantic, American Qur'an places translated chapters and verses beside illustrated drawings, connecting passages with some of the most quotidian of American experiences: shooting hoops after school, fixing a flat tire, burying a loved one. To keep in line with Islamic practice, Birk did not use representations of human historical figures or animals in his work but kept the traditional formatting and structure, including margin size, ink color, page headings, and the medallions marking each verse.
Before being released to the public the work was featured in galleries across America. One religious cleric, Mohammad Qureshi of the Islamic Center of Southern California, refused to visit the California gallery in 2009 where Birk showed pages of American Qur’an stating, “The Koran is accessible the way it is, it's been accessible for 1,400 years.” Usman Madha, the director of public relations at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, told The New York Times in a critique of Birk’s work, “There is no such thing as an American Koran, or European Koran, or Asian Koran.”
Still, there seems to be only minimal backlash about the project itself, and the fact that a non-Muslim is behind it.
Sandow Birk was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1962 and much of his work centers around the theme of social issues, inner city violence, and graffiti.