91Èȱ¬

91Èȱ¬ World Service
Last updated: 11 august, 2009 - 16:13 GMT

AerosolArabic

Mohammed Ali has two passions in life: his faith - and graffiti.

Although born into a Muslim family, he didn't find his faith until he went to university.

Inspired by the New York street art movement, he decided to fuse graffiti art with the Islamic calligraphic tradition, in order to create murals with a message.

Mohammed feels that Islam is often portrayed negatively.

But not everyone likes his murals. Although he only paints where he has permission, sometimes his work can be painted over.

Recently, the police in Birmingham, UK, painted over a mural Mohammed had created about the Gaza conflict.

This caused outrage in the local community.

Firefighters in New York also thought that a mural featuring the word 'salem' - which means 'peace' in Arabic - was actually a depiction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Mohammed wants his work to connect communities and works with people of different faiths to create his work.

He told Outlook's Jonathan Charles that his next set of murals is planned for London's East End.