Salam everyone. Hamed here. I’d like to remind you all that we will be having an online webinar event this evening in the Americas / morning in Asia.

You are invited to join us as we share some perspectives on transculturalism through visual narratives. There are three main speakers who will be speaking live at the event, and more speakers via video submissions.

Time:
9:30AM-12:30PM Malaysian Standard Time (July 6th)
8:30PM-11:30PM Central Time

Join here:
https://bit.ly/3QEdaBh

See you there!
Hamed

Subscribe now

In memory of Hamza Al Barzinji (1996-2016), The Hamzanama Comic Contest brings together his passion for comics and the centuries-old classic Hamzanama tradition.

A one of a kind competition that celebrates a centuries-old tradition while creating a brand new one, the Hamzanama Superhero Comic Contest collects diverse stories of heroism told in comic book form. The original Hamzanama was an epic tale that spanned numerous volumes in the life of Amir Hamza, a hero who fought for the downtrodden of all kinds.

Check out MuslimManga.org/events/ for detailed information on the contest.

The Prizes

The 1st place Champion:

• $5,000 (offered by the Barzinji Prize Foundation)

• 1 year of Sugoi membership to Muslim Manga website

• Exclusive access to Poji Tower in our Discord Server*

• more prizes by Muslim MangaTBD

Second Place Runner up:

• $2,000

Third Place Winner:

• $1,000

Fourth Place:

• $600

Fifth Place:

• $400

Five Honorable Mentions:

• $200 Each

Basic Info

The original Hamzanama was an epic tale that spanned numerous volumes in the life of Amir Hamza.

You are to create an original story, up to 20 pages that uses both text and images to tell the next chapter of Amir Hamza’s adventures as he uses his wit, heart, and strengths of all kinds to overcome adversity. Your entry must have Amir Hamza as the Hero (the only required character).

You can depict Amir Hamza in any form you wish. His unique Makkan Stone gives him the power to appear anywhere at any point in history (or the future). your story must include a truly heroic act. You can use any comic style you like (classic, webcomic, manga, etc.), digital or hand-drawn as long as you tell a complete story.

For more info & previous winners, and to participate, go to

MuslimManga.org/events/hamzanama

Please share this post with others you think would like to participate.

First, there are a few age ranges and audiences that I try to tackle with original Works, but to simplify them, the audience usually fall in the youth category (approximately ages 12 to 20), and children (approximately ages 4 to 12). Not that adults cannot gain value or relate to the works that are being made. It’s more so that the ages specified may gain more benefits from our content, as they are in a more impressionable age. As an older adult, we may have learned to access other types of media or information. Younger people can do this too, but with media focused world targeting their attention, they are particularly vulnerable in the younger age, hence why faith practicing Muslims need to have a place in the media that they consume. And so most of my work so far has targeted the youth category of 12 to 20, but I have worked on children’s books as well. More on that later.

Comic-book Writer

Let’s start with the stories I write at Muslim Manga and why it is important. I work on multiple comic series at the same time.

Muslim Manga Club

Slice of Life, school life, Comedy

This series is a story featuring the Muslim Manga mascot characters. To learn how the characters have come about, check out this article. I started writing this series partially because the story just came to me as I thought up the characters, but also to give a persona to the organization. We also continue to build a culture of sorts around the organization of Muslim Manga by continuing to create stories and content and resources featuring these characters.

Follow the adventures of Aya and her friends as she establishes the Muslim Manga club in her high-school.

“Aya is a little.. how do I say it nicely? So... very energetic. “
- Sura 

New episodes on Fridays. Subscribe to it on webtoons, so you don’t miss out.

It is important for (younger) Muslims to have characters they can relate to. Yes, there are historical figures who are of great importance, and can be of far greater guidance than fictional characters that we make in deep Islamic spheres, but for young or new Muslims who are growing up in the west or even in the east with a constant push for influence through media, the next generation of Muslims are growing up with non-Muslim characters and actors as their role models. So in that regard, I would have to ask:

1. Have a lack of Muslim characters and have our children following the latest un-Islamic trends?

2. Or have Muslim characters that help young Muslims build a connection to Islam?

Don’t you think having Muslim characters could eventually lead people to come and appreciate those important historical figures? I think so. It is a stepping stone and one that we need to spend time on creating.

The west is has an image heavy culture and perhaps unfortunately they also push that culture on others. Whether or not we like it, the influence is there. If we remain absent in media, we are failing our ummah.

While growing the followers of Muslim Manga Club series, to around 40 thousand followers, most which are on the WEBTOON platform, I can see that there is a real craving for new content by both Muslims and non-Muslims. The need for representation for young Muslims is particularly felt in the comment section of the Muslim Manga Club series.

Hana & Love

Slice of Life, comedy, Shoujo, Islamic messages

This is a lovely (pun intended) story featuring Japanese highschool characters, among them a boy who is Japanese.

Hana & Love is a romantic comedy manga by Idachann and Hamed Nouri. Hana has sworn to never love a boy until Aditya walks past her. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, Hana’s life has changed forever. Is this Love at first sight? Or Will this newfound love for Aditya end horribly?

Join as a patron to read all the episodes and help us continue to work on this series.

Talking about this story is difficult, because I don’t want to reveal spoilers.

My personal target audience for this comic is a little different from the actual audience. The actual audience tends to be Muslims who like manga and enjoy seeing interaction of a Muslim character and one who is not. This is an audience I am grateful for having. Very loving audience. But I also wanted to write a story for non-Muslims who could learn about Muslims’ beliefs through Japanese character’s eyes.

As Muslims, perhaps we have become accustomed to let others (non Muslims) write the narrative about us and to explain to the world what Muslims are like. Then we like to complain to say that we are not being represented properly. Im not comfortable accepting the behavior or complaining while sitting around and not taking active steps towards that problem we are complaining about. Instead I like to do something about it. So I’m making comics in different genres, including shoujo.

Hana & Love, also has a side story series that we update frequently.

Subscribe to the series on webtoons so you don’t miss out. New episodes are on Wednesdays and Fridays. Or Join as a patron and get early access.

Tokyo Hamedo

Comedy, Essay

Writing for comics isn’t always easy, especially for perfectionist people like me. Though, writing about myself is easier. There are some interesting moments that have taken place in my life. I figured sharing them with others in comic format would be appreciated. So I started writing these episodes.

Tokyo Hamed is a manga about the life of Hamed (with many episodes taking place in Tokyo). Hamedo is the founder of Muslim Manga and writer of Muslim Manga Club, so there are also a lot of references and behind-the-scenes stories of how Muslim Manga characters came about. It is illustrated by Ida chann and written by Hamed.

Subscribe to the series on webtoons so you don’t miss out. New episodes are on Wednesdays and Fridays. Or Join as a patron and get early access.

Compared to some of the series like Hana & Love, where I have to think about the elements of the story for an extended amount of time, Tokyo Hamedo is simpler to write stories for and thus I can release more episodes more quickly. Tokyo Hamedo is about my own life, so it is like an autobiography comic in where moments are collected and shared in 4 panel episodes. I try to make each episode funny, but there are some serious topics that are discussed and they are not always funny. Since it is about my own life, I don’t really have to think over it too much to make sure it is right and if it matches up to whatever I have planned for the story. The challenge is sometimes I remember an old story, so creating the story to be sequential in timeline is not always possible. Sometimes old stories are

Heart of Fawwaz

Shounen, Action

The Heart of Fawwaz is a graphic novel about a Muslim Malaysian boy and the friends he’ll meet. But he won’t only meet friendly students. Fawwaz also has to encounter prejudices as he starts his student life in Japan while attending Shirouki High School.

We have a new full color episode of Heart of Fawwaz available to our patrons. Become a patron today and read it!

I haven’t seen many if any boys’ comics, where a Muslim character can be in an action story and be the good guy. Building stories and comics for young boys who like these kinds of thing. Muslim writers can definitely use this genre to help young Muslim boys. At a younger age, many boys may navigate towards this genre, so why don’t we give them content that fits this genre, but from a Muslim’s perspective? There are a lot of comics, or animated shows that have un-Islamic content in them, but you won’t find out until you are already invested. This is unfortunately a reality that exists, be it on public TV or on demand services like netflix or amazon prime video. I’m trying to make an alternative option for faith practicing Muslim families.

Samurai Akiyama

Shounen, Action, historical time period

Samurai Akiyama is a story that I wrote, and voice-acted for in Japanese. The story takes place in an alternate history of late 1500s Japan, but very much based on actual ideas that were present. It is a period where practitioners of foreign religion are targeted and, unfortunately, killed. There are also movies written in this period that show the persecution of Christians. What I did was insert Muslim characters in this period and wrote a story about it.
You can watch part of the voice over version animatic here. Unfortunately, I cannot work on too many stories at the same time because of limitation of time and especially funding. If you would like to see this series continued, consider becoming a supporter of Muslim Manga.

I have noticed that we don’t really have many cool Muslim characters in media that Muslims can look at and can feel a little proud of who they are as Muslims.
For example, growing up, there were a lot of movie tropes about ninjas or samurai or even characters with guns. These movies, cartoons, and characters would be widely accepted and children and adults would build a positive feeling about. And yet, if a Muslim character has guns, then this character will be seen as villainous. I can’t quite understand the double standard there. And in other genres such as samurai or ninja, Muslims also don’t have a presence. That’s fine in a sense, because non-Japanese people were not present in such historic periods, but that doesn’t stop Hollywood from making the Last Samurai where the main character is a white American man or the 3 Ninjas movie (an old movie) where three American children are shown as ninjas.
Media can be a blank canvas. You can write any story you want. You can make alternative history stories. There is an anime called Gintama. It is in some sort of alternate Edo period of Japanese history where aliens are also present.

I’m not saying that we should adapt everything that we should adapt everything that western and other non-Muslim media has into content for Muslims, but I suggest we create content so that Muslims can be proud of their identity as Muslims.

WaSalam

comedy, memes, jokes, motivational

“Wa” means peace in Japanese and “Salam” means that in Arabic... Pretty cool name for a comic series, right? WaSalam is filled with adventures and punny madness of the super genki Aya, and Sura, her serious younger brother. Updates are on Tuesdays. Story: Hamed. Art: Zhar. This is a side story of the main comic, Muslim Manga Club. Read it on webtoons or MuslimManga.org.

Subscribe to the series on webtoons. New episodes are out on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Having relatable contents, be it memes, comics, or Islamic reminders, is something that is seen in Muslims’ social media, but I have often seen it using mass media images. WaSalaam gives Muslims Muslim friendly comedy without the influence of the original content that may or may not have had un-Islamic underlying messages.

Journey of a Muslim

Heart Warming, Comedy, Relatable

I work on this from time to time as the editor and story contributor sometimes. It is currently on hiatus, but in general on social media, this is quite a popular comic series. There are many fun relatable characters doing things that many Muslims do, going through experiences many Muslims to through.

It is good to have more stories like this, so that Muslims can both find characters they can relate to, but also find other Muslims through interacting with these episodes on social media.

Children’s Book Writer

As of not too long ago, I have also been working on a children’s book and wish to be making it into a series of books.

I have seen some Islamic and or Muslim-friendly children’s books and I find it to be a mixed bag. The more recent ones are quite good, but I find something missing and that is what I would like to address. We must build characters that Muslim children can grow up with and who can teach morals to our young ones. And our children can continue growing up with the characters even when they are youth and young adults. Most of the children’s books I have seen are one-off stories where you are introduced to the character and there might be a beautiful story, but that is it. After the book is closed, those characters remain in that book alone. I have seen maybe one Islamic children’s book that was a series with the same unique character appearing in each book. And yet that was limited to children only. We already have the characters of Aya and her friends established as characters in the comic format for youth and young adults, but I also want to build the children-friendly character version.

There are a lot of characters that we as western Muslims will recall growing up with. I will mention Elmo and Cookie Monster because I’m particularly fond of them. These are characters that as adults we come back to with a renewed interest or love. We also need Muslim characters like that. If we also look at brands such as Hello Kitty, we will see how iconic the character is. We also need that for Muslims.

There are also characters that we grow up with and even identify with their moral values, but as society changes their moral values, the updated versions of these characters have their morals updated too. So, putting our trust in characters that have their values unstable is not a good idea. Instead, putting our trust in characters that are closely associated with our values as well as built by people who we share values with is a lot less risky.

You like Islamic material for children? Go to AyaSura.com and use coupon “onmuslimmanga2022“ to get a special 20% discount for readers of this article. First 100 people. This works on the Surah Edition, the Quran Edition of the Aya & Sura Flashcards and the sticker sets.

Other areas of Muslim Manga

Besides the above areas of writing that I have been heavily involved in, there are a few other areas that are notable to mention, though it must be noted that these are not all the areas of Muslim Manga. If you are interested in volunteering in some part of Muslim Manga, you can fill out a volunteer application form.

Event Creation

Muslim Manga started by hosting community events and rewarding participants with prizes. It helped grow the community further and helped encourage people to create content and to be creative problem solvers using content creation. While unfortunately, due to time limitations, I haven’t been able to keep this up regularly, it is of paramount importance to continue it.

If you like to get involved in event hosting, donating prizes or money to cover cost of giving prizes, you can do so. To volunteer, fill out a form here. Ways you can volunteer can be to create graphics for the events, create example artwork, to use social media to share the event with people and get them involved in the event.

Muslim Manga started out by creating regular events for the community that encouraged Muslim artist to create new artworks and stories. This is something valuable to continue to give the new generation of Muslims an opportunity and platform to grow on.

Editing Other Comics

The Muslim Manga community hosts and creates opportunities for both Muslim focused manga and Islamic manga to be published and read. One such comic that I worked on the editing of, was the Pious Student.

Just as Muslim focused manga is important, content that can have Islamic reminders or Islamic learning lessons is equally important. While the majority of what I work on is Muslim character focused, that doesn’t mean that Islamic focused manga are any less important. If you like to learn more about what the difference between a Muslim manga and an Islamic manga is, read this article.

Why put money or time in such a media?

There is a lot of area in the Muslim media world, that we as Muslims are missing representation or don’t put enough effort into it. Honestly, it is almost disgusting how little effort as “practicing” Muslims, we put in this field.

From my observation over the last couple of decades, ignorance about Islam, both in Muslim families, as well in non-Muslims’, is prevalent. There is even hate towards Muslims. Muslims have even been stabbed or attacked and killed by people who hated Muslims and Islam. The answer is education, and one method of education is to have a media presence.

If we want other to do the educating, then our children will not learn the Islam that we have learned. And non Muslims won’t have the opportunity to learn about Muslim and Islam that they won’t get unless we put time and money in Muslim media. It seems like a waste that we have a knowledge and that we are not finding the proper ways to share it with others because we are procrastinating or underestimating the dangerous of doing nothing.

Sincerely,
Hamed

Membership link: http://muslimmanga.org/join/
Donation link: https://muslimmanga.org/donate/

Go to AyaSura.com and use coupon “onmuslimmanga2022“ to get a special 20% discount for readers of this article. First 100 people. This works on the Surah Edition, the Quran Edition of the Aya & Sura Flashcards and the sticker sets.

The Background

I started working on this project because I noticed that there were a few realized there was a lack of high quality Islamic educational material for Muslim children. (Muslim reverts and second generation Muslims in western countries may find these quite beneficial as well.)

The deck includes 48 vocabulary cards, 2 grammar cards, 4 additional cards to help with supplemental material. Among those, we will provide an audio version of the words to help with using these cards as a learning tool, game, or as both. If you’d like to know where the characters Aya and Sura come from, you can check out this article on where the Muslim Manga Club characters came from.

The Vocabulary

For the Aya & Sura flashcards, we researched a few Quranic textbooks and cross-checked these with how they are used in the Quran, comparing different writing styles and formats as well. We ultimately used the Uthman Taha style, as it is pretty standard worldwide and the most accurate for learning correct pronunciation.

‘For the Quran edition, we compiled a list of vocabulary that can help get a general understanding of the Quran, while for the Surah Edition volume 1, the cards included will help learners completely understand from the heart 3 Surahs of the Quran: Surah Al-Ikhlas, Surah Al-Fatiha, and Surah Al-Asr. This deck also includes a bonus random Aya or Sura sticker!

Arabic side

The Arabic side of the cards features a classic blackboard from the series Muslim Manga Club. This is a small detail, but this black board is used in every episode, specifically on the webtoons platform, where we have 39,567 subscribers on this series (as of January 26th 2022). It has been a unique part of the title page that would get updated as new characters were introduced, and the fans noticed. Given, the board developed into a special thing that our fans would look for whenever there was a new character introduced; we thought it would be cool to pay homage to that and include that as part of our flashcard designs. Many people who are new to the world of Muslim Manga might not notice, but it was a detail we kept.

On the Arabic side, we include the word written in Arabic, along with a transliteration of the word, for those who can’t read Arabic letters, as well as a unique verse from the Holy Quran featuring this

English side

On the English side, we have one unique illustration per card that will help with the understanding of the word. This side also includes the full English verse or English verse segment with no blanks. We can find the Surah name and number of that verse in the bottom right corner. In the left corner, there is a unique code for that card that can identify it when looking for online content that corresponds to it.

Transliteration

Along with the vocabulary in English and Arabic, we include a transliteration of the Arabic word. The cards use transliteration style that we have developed ourselves. We noticed that in many existing transliterations, a single English letter may be used for multiple Arabic sounds. So, we developed a style where one Arabic sound has one equivalent in our style. For example, the “a” in Apple and the “a” in father are two different sounds. We mark these differently in our transliterations. We include a quick start guide in the decks that shows how to read the transliteration.

Online content

To go along with these cards, we have created a website that hosts online recordings, game explanations, as well as more in-depth grammar explanation.
This content can be accessed by scanning the QR code present on the QR cards. A lot of time and effort has been put into these so make sure to take advantage of them. We currently have two voices for the recordings and will try to add more in the future as well.

What the QR website looks like on mobile devices

The Future:

I am trying to expand into various other areas, so I will try to continue the line of Aya & Sura flashcards that we have, but I am also working on a Children’s Book right now. I am also working towards some animated projects. If you would like to support more creative projects like these, consider buying a deck of Aya & Sura flashcards, donating to Muslim Manga or becoming a patron of our works. Giving up one cup of coffee every once can help make an impact.

We can’t do this without you. If you like what we do and what we continue to work on, there are many ways to support us. If you are not sure yet, here is an article on why Muslims should invest in Muslim-focused content.

Thank you for all your support.
Hamed

Why become a patron?

This will be a discussion about entertainment, education and building a Muslim identity as well as raising the future generation of Muslims. We are living in a highly entertainment-oriented society, globally and particularly in western countries.

“The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed of grain which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies His reward for whom He wills.”—(The Holy Quran, 2:261)

Before continuing with the article, I will share these links with you here and you can come back to them whenever you want:
Donate: https://muslimmanga.org/donate
Membership: https://muslimmanga.org/join

Western Entertainment and Muslim Education

While this discussion is a larger discussion beyond the scope of this article, it is important to note that there is a lot of entertainment in our society today. As far as Muslims are concerned, Most of the entertainment has conflict with Islamic values or has little to no proper Muslim media representation, particularly for Muslims’ who practice their beliefs.

In the education sector of Muslim societies, educating Muslim youth has always been a priority, but with the massive amounts of “entertainment” out there, a lot of which gives Muslim no identity or confidence, and of course no Islamic education, it becomes quite challenging to teach or learn about Muslims or Islam. The constant battle for our attention and, more so, our children’s attention is an ongoing battle that traditional education resources cannot compete with.

Perhaps with a balance of education and entertainment, we can both have our fun and our (spiritual) growth; however, the power of today’s entertainment, be it TV, movies, social media, etc. can have a long-lasting effect on our minds, be it in the short term or long term, so while educational resources will always be there for those who are strong enough to have self restraint against the constant influx of entertainment, can we be so certain that our children (or ourselves) are strong enough for that? I mean, really? Islamic education, particularly, has focused on traditional methods of imageless texts. While this has its strengths and uses, it poses a monumental challenge for the current generation and even more so for each generation coming up next.

Muslim Manga does the work of creating Muslim character focused stories that are both educational and entertaining. It is Muslim friendly. In boggles my mind why, but this kind of content hardly exists. And if we value the future of our Muslim society, we should invest in Muslim content. Otherwise, you lose your opportunity to make a difference and with each passing day; it becomes more challenging for Muslims to build their identity, their children’s identity, as well as having relatable content for Muslims in general. Therefore, it is vital to support Muslim Manga in this movement.

I started Muslim Manga while I was in high school because I saw nothing that resonated with me as a Muslim. I liked comics and manga, but where was I in these worlds? Where were my values being shared? No where. It wasn’t anywhere to be found. Mostly, that is the case today too, after over a decade of starting Muslim Manga. Perhaps initially, it was for me and to make the world I wanted to see, but then I realized it’s bigger than me. What drives me now is the children of the future. I feel guilt should I abandon my efforts in Muslim Manga. I don’t want to become like the generations of Muslims gone by who only focused on the material needs.

Will there be enough time?

Invest in preventative medicine, instead of reactionary medicine.

One key thing to think about is not to procrastinate on supporting. Many people may not realize the need for what Muslim Manga does until it is too late for them. To put it simply, it takes time to create and develop content, be it stories, manga, children’s books, animation, or even building community around these content for members with similar interests to grow and bond over. It takes time. All of that takes time and doesn’t happen instantly after you support us Muslim artists and writers. The mistake many people make is not planning for their children’s Islamic and spiritual growth in advance, and only think about it when it is too late.
When your children are young adults and sitting in their own room eating supper alone, while watching inappropriate content, instead of spending time with their family, then it is too late to start supporting- at least it is too late for your children. You can still pledge and support so the next generation can grow with Islamic values. But that will be done with a feeling of regret. Regret of why you didn’t help your own children.

If you want comic and halal entertainment for your 15-year-old, invest in that 5 to 7 years in advance. If you want Muslim focused children’s books for your 2-year-old, invest in that before they are born. You get the picture. Act now, instead of regretting it for the rest of your lives when it is too late.

How to become a patron

Ok, so you have read the why and you are interested in how to join and what kind of rewards you can get for joining. In this section, we shall discuss how to become a patron or financial supporter of Muslim Manga and in look in detail at the different levels of support you can give and what you get for each level of membership.

How to get started

Head on over to MuslimManga.org/join and select the membership level you are comfortable with.

There are a couple of ways to support Muslim Manga.

You may join as a Muslim Manga member, or you may find a particular series or work that you like and support that directly as a backer. Alternatively, if you just want to give with no reward, you may give monthly, yearly or one time donations.

Tiers of Memberships compared

Besides whatever spiritual and societal benefits you will get for supporting Muslim Manga, we have prepared some other rewards as gifts for your pledges to sweeten the deal for you.
There are multiple tiers of membership and, depending on what level you pledge, you can get different rewards to show our gratitude for your contributions.

Sugoi Membership

Sugoi is like wow!

At the price of one coffee per month, this membership starts at $5 per month and is the cheapest way to show your support for Muslim Manga. We will credit your name on the Muslim Manga website as one of our patrons. You will have our continued gratitude. You also get access to community made manga, early access to publicly released content by Muslim Manga as well as have access to certain exclusive content such as Hana & Love, Hana & Love 4koma, and the Tokyo Hamedo series. From time to time, we also release other exclusive content as well. A new fully colored episode of the Heart of Fawwaz will be released very soon.

• Early access to comics

• Access to Poji Tower in Nur City (Discord)

• Monthly discord gaming sessions

• Access to premium content on MuslimManga.org

• Discount on Merch

• Access to Muslim Manga Updates

• Vote for Monthly Illustration theme

• Access to purchase exclusive Muslim Manga Series products

If we get enough support, then we will also put time towards making the following possible:

• Monthly Newsletter update

Click here to get Sugoi Membership!

Suteki Membership

Suteki means wonderful.

Sacrifice 2 cups of coffee in one month, and see what beautiful art and culture can be created.
Besides comic access like you do with the sugoi memberships, you can also get access to a library of line art works for you to enjoy as is or to print and practice coloring with. We are also including resources such as tutorials for future Muslim artists to learn from.

• Everything from Sugoi tier.

• Tutorials

• Monthly Online Party (Chill and Q and A)

• Photo Updates for Tokyo Hamedo

• Work in Progress Images

• Illustrations Library

• Line-art library

• Phone Wallpaper library

• Time-lapse video Library

Unlocked in the future, if we can get enough support from lovely people such as you:

• Omoshiroi Zone on Discord

• Fonts and brushes libraries

• classes on becoming a comic writer / artist

• Live streaming of Editing work

Click here to get Suteki Membership!

Hero Membership

Heroes are heroes! And you can be one too.

Want to become a hero? Well, you can. Join the hero tier and see what other rewards we shall give you. Get started as a hero for only $25.

• Everything from sugoi and suteki tiers

• 1 free Muslim Manga style icon / avatar of YOU

• Monthly physical postcards

• Additional exclusive commission discounts

• Hamed’s sketches and updates

• Cool calendars featuring your favorite Muslim Manga characters

locked until we get more patrons

• Coming soon: Essays and newsletters by Hamedo

• Coming Soon: Tips and trivia about life in Japan as a Muslim

• fun opportunity to create fan dubs of Muslim Manga comics

• exclusive physical merch such as postcards, stickers, and or other printable

• Patreon reels / lens

• Screen-tones library

• speech bubble packs

• manga page templates

Click here to get Hero Membership!

(NEW) Ninja Membership

We will release a new membership. It is a Ninja membership because it is available to those who are stealthy enough to get it. This is a limited membership with some pretty sweet perks. For only $35 a month, you will help make a difference in Muslim media representation while also getting some pretty slick merch.

• Exclusive Muslim Manga Signature Series products (4x per year) - monthly Hero members must complete 3 consecutive payment cycles to receive; Annual Plan members qualify automatically. The products are not finalized yet, but we are aiming to make it a really cool deal for some exclusive patrons.

• Beta access to Stickers and Apps we have on iOS

Click here to get Ninja Membership!

Senpai Membership

Senpai means upperclassman, who mentors an underclassman

When you are sharing this much love with us, then you must be our senpai who is really looking out for us!

• everything from sugoi, suteki and hero tiers.

• one time animated Muslim Manga icon

• physical stickers

• monthly postcards

• one free illustration commission

• personalized feedback on art and art and manga submissions

• personal Q and A

• Updates from Hamed’s Novels and Stories

Click here to get Senpai Membership!

Sensei Membership

Sensei means teacher.

• Everything included in sugoi, suteki, hero, and senpai tiers

• Exclusive Muslim Manga Sensei hoodie

• Marked-up copy of longer comics with comments by author

• Limited Run poster print

• Spotify playlist

• Drawings from Hamed

Click here to get Sensei Membership!

Masaka Membership

• Tokyo Hamedo halal food scrapbook moments and updates

• marked-up copy of episodic comics like Hana & Love 4koma, Muslim Manga Club, and Tokyo Hamedo.

• VIP meet and greet

• Send us an email if you want to support us in even higher amounts. We can talk about some sweet exclusive perks.

Click here to get Masaka Membership!

Rewards

There are lots and lots of rewards that we share as gifts for your wonderful contribution to Muslim Manga.

Early access to comics

We post most of our comics for free on the MuslimManga.org website. However, to read these comics as soon as they are available, you can join the sugoi tier to enjoy this perk while supporting your favorite Muslim Manga artists.

Access to Poji Tower in Nur City (Discord)

We have some special VIP channels for our patrons in our Nur. City discord community. You can hang out and chat with other patrons who are awesome like you.

Monthly discord gaming sessions

In the community, we will have monthly gaming sessions that you can join or watch.

Access to premium content on MuslimManga.org

Besides the early access content, we also have some exclusive content that is available just to patrons.

Discount on Merch

As a patron, you can get an exclusive discount on Muslim Manga merchandise.

New iPhone cases we just released. Samsung cases coming soon.

Access to Muslim Manga Updates

We share updates for our patrons, be it little sketches from our manga assistants, or behind-the-scenes story of what it takes to make the manga and illustrations that you see as a final product.

Vote for Monthly Illustration theme

As a patron, you will get to vote on themes that we illustrate or use in illustration challenges that we do on social media.

Access to purchase exclusive Muslim Manga Series products

We are working on new Muslim Manga Series products and you, as patrons, would be the only ones who can get them.

Monthly Newsletter update

We will work to release more long-form updates such as this one, pending the amount of support we can get from you, our future patrons.

Tutorials

We have been releasing Tutorials to help new Muslim artists who may struggle with finding appropriate tutorials while trying to learn to draw. As patrons, you get access to these.

Monthly Online Party (Chill and Q and A)

We will work to organize monthly Q and A online meetup with some of our higher tier patrons.

Photo Updates, complimentary to the Tokyo Hamedo series

I will release photography I have taken while in Japan and share updates to life as a Muslim in Japan.

Work in Progress Images

We have a library that we are constantly adding too, filled with snapshots of our progress as we make illustrations and comics. It can be quite interesting to look into the creative process of artists and so we share this with you.

Line-art library

We have a line-art library that we share line art works in and you can print thee and practice coloring and use them to become better artists. Or maybe you just like to look at line art as seeing part of the creative process.

Phone Wallpaper library

We have some phone wallpapers you can download and feature Muslim Manga characters on your phone. Pretty sweet.

Sandpainting video Library

We also share speed painting or time-lapse videos of creating various illustrations or comics for some of our higher tier supporters.

Muslim Manga style icon / avatar of YOU

By joining the hero tier, you can get 1 free Muslim Manga style icon / avatar made of you. This is a superb deal, even if you didn’t get any other rewards. $25 for a custom icon you can use forever.

Monthly postcards

We will work on releasing personalized postcards for some very special people.

Hamed’s sketches and updates, Essays and newsletters, and Tips and trivia about life in Japan as a Muslim

Pending how much support we get from our future patrons, I will release regular sketch updates, Updates from Hamed’s Novels and Stories, Essays, newsletters posts, as well as tips and trivia about life in Japan as a Muslim besides other rewards that we are giving.

Creating collaborative art together.

I will work to make an opportunity for patrons and the Muslim Manga team to be working together on some creative project together. Stay tuned.

Animated Muslim Manga icon

This reward is just like the custom nonanimated icon reward above, except you also get an animated version to go along with it. The animation included can be things like smiling, blinking, hair movement, and potentially some other cool stuff.

Physical Muslim Manga Stickers

We have a lot of different stickers. Depending on your patronage level, you may get some of these super fun stickers.

Exclusive Muslim Manga Sensei Hoodie.

A custom hoodie made just for our awesome sensei tier supporters. The design is not completed yet, so we will share it when it is ready.


If you have questions, get in touch with us via email, comments, or messages on social media


staff@muslimmanga.org
MuslimManga.org
instagram.com/MuslimManga


Thank you for your support.
Hamed from Muslim Manga

This article will discuss the origin of many of the characters for Muslim Manga Club and WaSalam series.

Muslim Manga Club is a comic series that follows the everyday lives of the Japanese Muslim siblings, Aya and Sura, and their classmates. Aya is very much a nerdy girl who loves anime, manga, games, and lots of other nerdy fun. As Aya’s brother Sura says, “Aya is a little.. how do I say it nicely? so... very very very very very much energetic. "

Sura, on the other hand, is very much more reserved and studious. Both are practicing Muslims.

One day, while asleep in class, Aya has an epiphany. She wakes up with a sudden explosion of energy, scaring all her classmates and teachers who were very much not asleep. She shouts out “Muslim Manga!” That was it. Aya had discovered her calling. She would create a Muslim Manga club at her high school. And that is just the beginning of the story.

You can join the nearly 40 thousand followers on webtoons and read the series with its iconic 4-panel episodes.

WaSalam is a spin-off series of Muslim Manga Club, where the characters interact with each other, mainly outside of school, but not limited to that. WaSalam also heavily deals with punny jokes. The name of the series itself is a pun. 和 or “Wa” in Japanese means peace. سلام or “Salaam” in Arabic means peace too. 　　

Aya & Sura Flashcards

(Aya holding up Aya & Sura Islamic Flashcards Volume 1, used for studying Quranic Arabic. It can be ordered here.)

Throughout the years of working on the Muslim Manga Club, and even before that, through our Muslim Manga community contests, Aya and Sura have been central characters that our fans have loved. We have also recently created Aya & Sura, LLC, which deals in using our characters in various products. Our very first product was released this last Ramadhan. It is a deck of 54 cards, which helps users learn common Arabic vocabulary found in the Holy Quran. Each card comes with illustrations and or artwork, which act as mnemonics to help memorize the vocabulary and example verses using the card’s vocabulary to help learners build a connection with the Holy Quran.

How to support Muslim Manga Club

I want to share one more point with you before getting into the background of how many of the characters from Muslim Manga Club and WaSalaam came about.

If you enjoy the Muslim Manga Club series or simply wish to know how you can support initiatives like this, I would like to introduce you to becoming a backer of this series on Muslim Manga. You can do so by going here. Feel free to pledge any amount, and if there is another series such as Tokyo Hamedo, or Hana & Love that you also want to support, you can do that too! Because of generous people just like yourself, we’re able to keep pushing on forward to bringing you fantastic Muslim representation and Muslim-character-focused content.

Muslim Manga Club Characters and their Origins

Without further ado, let's begin…

Once upon a time, there was a boy, Hamed, who had finished his pilgrimage to Mecca. Perhaps like many many others, the trip had inspired him. He now was set with a new dream, one that would take him forward through the years. He dreamed of combining his interests in anime and manga with his faith…

Aya

Aya is a very energetic, positive, and just big ball of fun.

Aya’s Origin:

Last year of high school, I had already started Muslim Manga as a website for a year or so. I met another high-school student, a year younger than me, in a bilingual multicultural club. This person was gifted in the arts and drew me a sketch of a hijabi girl. I used that sketch and illustrated it as a logo in Adobe Illustrator. I wanted to have a cute chibi muslim related logo for Muslim Manga. And that was exactly that.

I don’t think the name for this character came to me initially, but eventually I started thinking of the character, more as a character, and less as a logo. Around this time, I was interacting with some members from my local Islamic community. One of the families had a cute little girl, around two years old. She wasn’t even speaking yet. Her name was Aya. As soon as I heard the name, I thought “This is it. This is my character’s name”.

The original logo designed was very cute and nice but eventually I started using different versions of Aya as the logo, versions that I designed myself.

The idea of the club that Aya forms in Muslim Manga Club didn’t cross my mind until about 2 and a half years after the first appearance of Aya on the internet. It was December of 2012 when the idea of the club was first presented to the world. It was then, when creating a small contest for our community that I first concocted the idea of the Muslim Manga club. It wouldn’t be for many years later before I started working on the series though.

As seen in episode of the comic, Aya has an epiphany about Muslim Manga. The idea of the sudden inspiration reflects that of my own when establishing the Muslim Manga community online, except I was not asleep in class when I had the vision, and perhaps I had a bit less energy bursting out of me than Aya did.

Sura

Sura is Aya’s younger brother, but he is much more studious. He also has his interests, and while there may have been hints of his interests, since it hasn’t really been revealed in the series, I won’t be giving much away. But from his first appearance to the world wide web in 2014, he was set to be the opposite of Aya. She is much more energetic and interested in the world of anime, manga and games, while he is not interested in that. He tries to stay out of Aya’s plans, but somehow he always ends up getting involved.

(Sura was originally introduced on May 1st of 2014 as part of the Muslim Manga community’s 4th anniversary contest. )

Sura’s name origin:

After Aya was around for a few years, I realized that I was getting a lot of female artist participating, but not as many male. I figured, the organization had a bit of an image problem. So I set out to fix that. I came up with Aya’s brother to fill that void. Unlike Aya, I don’t think Sura was that common, as a name. I didn’t let that stop me. I just decided that was what his name was going to be. Since Aya was from the Holy Quran, I also wanted a similar name for her brother.

Poji

Poji Poji Poji! Poji is a popular character among the Muslim Manga Club fans.

Poji’s Origin:

This character has a rather interesting origin story, which also parallels some events in the story.

I was preparing to go to Japan on a study abroad program and was planning on doing some traveling on my own after the program was over. As a student, I was trying to be especially frugal, so I was looking up inexpensive ways to stay longer in Japan. I found one solution. It was WWOOF Japan. (Willing Workers on Organic Farms Japan). This allowed me to volunteer in a place in exchange for free accommodation.

I may write a separate in depth article on this for the paying subscribers and patrons. For those of you who are, let me know via comment or email if this might interest you.

Long story short, I found a place that in addition to helping on their organic farm area, they wanted me to practice English with their children. I was thinking on how to teach children for a while in advance to my trip. One day, while buying some clothes at a clothing store, I came upon a very cute lion plushie there. And it was quite inexpensive. I purchased it for around 3 or 4 dollars. It was quite the bargain! I put the plushie in my bag and head out to Japan.

While in Japan, I was studying Japanese with other classmates from my university. As part of that program, every day, one student had to show the other students around and or give some presentation to the others. For whatever reason, I thought it might be fun to use the plushie as talking puppet. So I had a little skit to go along with my presentation. Despite the study abroad program being a Japanese language program, I noticed a lot of the students were not actually practicing Japanese, often reverting to English for communication. I did a presentation with them about being positive, and trying their best; not giving up when things get difficult. Something along those lines. At some point, I also came up with the name of Poji for the plushie. Poji was short for Pojitibu, meaning Positive in Japanese.

Now, the character in the story hasn’t exactly revealed to be very positive, which kind of makes it funny for me as the author anyway. Many of the fans probably didn’t know the back story, so the contradiction may not have been very visible. But now you know.

Poji the character was introduced in a prose version of Muslim Manga club that I wrote for a contest to introduce Poji to the Muslim Manga community in July of 2014 .

Over the years, we got a lot of submissions and illustrations of many of our characters, including Poji and Sura. One of my favorites has always been this one:

(Submitted to Muslim Manga Community by nrvrl)

So when working on the manga version, that was one of the versions we were looking at, thinking of what aspects we can implement in our story. Surprisingly, it was more difficult than I anticipated finding the right design for Poji. I was particularly picky about it, but this was one of the ones that I liked and was studying for our official design. Actually, I even temporarily used this Poji as an icon image for the Muslim Manga community.

Ultimately, Zhar, the artist of Muslim Manga Club has given life to the character more than anything by incorporating him in the story with her style.

Isa

Isa is a foreign exchange student from America. He is about 18 years old and is in his final year of high school. He has found Islam but also likes Japanese culture, hence, he gets particularly amazed when he meets not one, but two Japanese Muslims in his high school in Japan. Instant friendship. He is kind of a “Muslim + Japan” otaku (nerd) if you will.

Isa’s Origin

I realized there was an absence of a bearded character among the characters that represented the Muslim Manga organization. And beards are cool. Poji was sort of a character with a beard, but he wasn’t human. So, then I came up with Isa.

I actually did a lot of sketches myself for developing Isa. Eventually Zhar helped create the image I was looking for. The character had to be young looking, despite having a full beard.

This bearded high-school student was based on personal experience too. I already had a mustache and a beard when I just started high school. So I was always thought to be older than I actually was. Fortunately, I didn’t get any upperclassman bullies to pick up me, probably because they thought I was older than them. In my first year, I was mistook for a second year student.
In second year, something particularly interesting happened.
I was trying to skip a level of math, so I was studying it at home, learning it at a faster speed. And so by the time the second semester came, I was to change classes and attend a new math class I hadn’t attended in the first semester. On the other hand, that winter break I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. For those who don’t know, one of the rituals that med do on the trip is shaving their head. So I came back, with no hair and with a decent length beard. I walked into the new classroom, where students started to show respect me some respect, “but why?”, I wondered. Well, it turned out they thought I was a substitute teacher!
The next year, I also had an encounter where a student thought I was a 4th year student (senior student). And finally in my last year of high school, when I went to get some document from administration faculty, I was mistook for another staff member.

And so, when making Isa as a character, I may have been influenced by t a bit. I didn’t have a beard quite as amazing as Isa’s, but I wanted Isa to have that. I thought it would be fun. But the problem was, it was difficult to make a bearded character look young. Very difficult. That is where Zhar’s magic hands came into play.

Nao

Nao is also such a lovely characters than many of the fans can relate to.

Nao’s name origin
Nao also has an interesting name origin story. The character itself came somewhat organically while creating the comic for Muslim Manga Club. While developing the character of Isa and thinking of a few plot points, Nao, just popped up in my imagination somewhere along the way. However, the name came up because of a sort of pun I often used with a friend.

While chatting with a certain friend of mine, we would often spell certain words differently. Sometimes a we would joke about a typo and then from that point on that spelling became our official way of spelling that word. “Nao” was such a word. I don’t remember the exact reason why we spelled “now” as “nao”. Perhaps it was because we in a certain moment we wanted to be cute with our spelling or unique about it. And it stuck. When we needed something immediately, we used “nao!” as the term to indicate that.
I happened to also know that Nao is a Japanese name. So somehow the use of that word transitioned into me using the name Nao as that character’s name.

Makimoto Sensei (Maki Sensei, Maki chan)

As I was developing the story, it was clear that we needed a teacher character, and I had a few personalities in mind, but it took a while to figure out how this character would be. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted a male teacher or a female one. I was trying to figure out the ratio of male character to female ones. Ultimately went with what you see.

Coincidentally, after making Makimoto as a character, I came in contact with a Japanese teacher of English with the first name Maki. No relation to my character!

Uniforms

Originally, before Zhar started working on the manga version of Muslim Manga, the character had a different kind of uniform.

(Sura was quite a bit shorter than Aya in some of the original designs we were sharing with the community. Art by Ukhti63)

But before working on the manga, I had the time to think about it, and I decided that what we were working on for a few years as the uniform was not what I wanted in the manga format, so I worked closely with Zhar in designing a uniform that I would like for the characters. It ended up being a design that I hadn’t technically seen before in anime or in real life, and I liked that. It was unique and had a certain charm to it.

The Future

There is still many more chapters to come Insha'Allah and along with new chapters will come even more awesome characters with their own unique quirks. We’re doing our best to bring you more content as soon as we can. Though it does take us quite a while to bring more chapters to you, given how much work it is to make it happen, combined with all the other work we have to do. But rest assured, the story is not finished.

So you want to help support us?

If you want to follow Aya & Sura’s adventures, make sure to join the 39,700+ subscribers on webtoons. You can order a join as a super fan backer on Muslim Manga.

In addition to the newly published Aya & Sura Islamic Flashcards Volume 1, there are also tons of MMC merch available, including but not limited to some awesome physical stickers ;)

Read more

At Muslim Manga, we don't actually claim to limit our content to only "Islamic" educational material. Not all our comics, graphics, etc., are there for Muslims to learn how to be (better) Muslims or even learn Islamic jurisprudence. That is not to say we do not have "Islamic" material at all, but rather that we also have Muslim character-driven stories.

(Muslim Manga Club by Hamed and Zhar is an example of a Muslim character focused story)

With regard to MuslimManga.org's contributions, sometimes people who are just passing by, or glancing through what we have, make some incorrect assessments due to their limited experience with our content. This essay may not correct the underlying flaw that many humans have of making assumptions without proper data or knowledge, but God willing, it will help those who are still confused, and or it will be a good reference that can be shared with people who contact us with concerns in the future. 

In this article, I will be addressing some of the confusion some people have and comparing Islamic manga, Muslim manga, and Muslim's manga. However, before getting into the comparison of Islamic vs. Muslim, let's discuss what manga is to different people and what it means to the Muslim Manga organization.

”Manga” for the West vs Japan

Manga is not a rigid media form that allows for no change nor creative alterations to the form itself. Still, instead, it is a form that can be shaped by the storyteller.

Every once in a while, my email inbox presents itself with a passionate manga enthusiast who calls me out for using the term "manga" incorrectly. Such fans tend to believe that only Japanese people can make manga, and the fans tend to be too serious concerning manga terminology. I know, because I have been there before as a younger me. However, as an adult, I think "manga" is more universal than hardcore manga fans may allow for. 

In fact, the English use of the term manga is using a Japanese word and adding additional meaning to it. It is ironic because manga fans tend to focus on preserving as much of the Japanese culture and whatnot in translations. If it is anime, they may rather watch it with subtitles to hear the Japanese. Their preferences are not wrong, but it is just ironic that their idea is farther away from the Japanese version than they think it is. 

As mentioned above, there is a difference in how a Japanese individual looks at the term "manga" and how people from other parts of the world look at the same term. I can't assume that every individual in every country in the world sees it this way, but I write the following based on my experience talking with different people. 

For many western people, when they come across the term "manga" (and even the equivalent term for animation, "anime"), it is associated with a Japanese style. So for people living in a western country, manga means Japanese style comics (and anime, Japanese style animation).

On the other hand, in Japanese, the same exact word "manga" comprised of the kanji 漫(cartoon) and 画(image) simply means comic*. There is no assumption that "manga" belongs to Japan or a Japanese style. It is simply the general term used for this communication artform. Additionally, while there are many unique qualities in much of the Japanese-made manga (and anime since they share styles), there are also less common styles, albeit still Japanese-made. They are all considered manga in Japan; however, I would go off on a limb and say that if an average manga fan living in a western country reads some of the more obscure Japanese comics, they may not recognize it as manga.

*Note: Perhaps the term sequential narrative is more neutral a term, but many people may not be familiar with it. "Comic" also has certain associations or images associated with it, but in this article, I will use the term interchangeably with the more neutral "sequential narrative" term) 

Historically, Japanese comics tended to have many good qualities, compared to those that originate in other countries. Much of Japanese manga indeed has stylized drawings. Beyond that, some aspects of the style, such as larger eyes, allow storytellers to illustrate more emotion in their characters. And besides the art, Japanese manga also has a lot of strong storytelling qualities, historically not found in western comics. So there is a lot to learn from the manga form or be inspired by, beyond stylized artworks.

Side-note: Manga & anime characters have large eyes because it is a style that got popular with Osamu Tezuka, who has been called the father of manga. Unfortunately, some people have some incorrect assumptions about this. If you come across such people, you can share this bit of information with them. 

(This is an example submission from our recent event, Love for Parents Manga Contest, titled How Mom Says “I Loves You”)

As far as the Muslim Manga organization goes, manga is an art communication medium that can be used to help Muslims have representation in media while also teaching some Islamic messages. It can also be used to offer some halal entertainment for Muslims. Not every aspect of what I just wrote is found in every manga, but different artists and writers in the community have created different stories. Some of them are Islamic manga, some of them are Muslim manga. More on that later.

Building on Cultures of the Past

Of course, it is still possible to generalize particular stylized drawings and storytelling techniques to a Japanese origin. And for many westerners, this may all be defined as "manga" and assumed or viewed as Japanese only.

Nowadays, though, many non-Japanese people make comics that look just like Japanese comics, which blurs the definition of what "manga" is further. Some hardcore manga fans may find it uncomfortable that their understanding of what manga is could be changing. Still, in reality, many of the things we accept today as belonging to one culture may have come through cultural exchange. Today, Shougi (Japanese chess) is seen as being related to Japanese culture, but it comes from an Indian game. Karuta, a game that encompasses Japanese poetry, originally was introduced to Japan via Portuguese traders. Over time, the Japanese people further developed these parts of culture and made them their own. I think "manga" is in a similar situation but in reverse. Japanese people developed the craft of manga considerably. Still, the style and the storytelling techniques can be and will be picked up by more authors worldwide to start telling their own stories.

What is Islamic Manga?

Islamic manga is manga that has Islamic elements/themes in it and or teaches an Islamic message. The Islam part is a fundamental part of what makes Islamic manga. The story needs to abide by Islamic teachings and needs to either educate on Islamic teachings or inform readers about something related to Islam, whether it is Islamic jurisprudence or educating on how someone should behave based on Islamic values. Other stories could include historical stories about Islamic figures. I personally find the responsibility a little too high for me to work on such a genre without heavily consulting Islamic scholars because, in my opinion, a lot of attention must be paid to make sure that the content is Islamically accurate. If someone learns an incorrect message and applies it, assuming that teaching is correct, it would naturally have problematic results. 

Furthermore, creating Islamic material may be limited in scope, as there are different Islamic scholarly opinions on many issues.  

Of course, making such material is possible, but developing such stories should be done with care and be done so delicately. It can be challenging to do correctly, even for Muslims. 

At MuslimManga.org, we do have community comic submissions in this genre such as The Pious Student, a story about a student who wishes to control his temptations, Lovely Layla, the story of a girl who learns the meaning of hijab, and The Reason, the story of a boy who learns about the importance of reading Quran, through a discussion with his grandfather.

(This is an example submission from our recent event, Love for Parents Manga Contest, titled Play or Mom?)

What are we referring to as a Muslim Manga?

When I started the Muslim Manga organization, I knew that what I was trying to make was in-between different categories. Hence, I came up with this in-between term, Muslim manga. 

Linguistically speaking, Muslim is a person who practices Islam, and manga, as we already discussed, is a type of sequential narrative. When you put these two words together, you get a meaning that should be close to "person who follows Islam manga." As such, a Muslim manga is a manga that is Muslim character-focused. A Muslim manga tells a story through a Muslim character. The Muslim character may even be a flawed human being, as we all are. However, the message of such manga is not to normalize sinning or bad behavior. Instead, such a manga can show the development of a character from flawed to more spiritually inclined. Or perhaps a Muslim manga can be one in which the audience may be able to subconsciously or subliminally learn things about Muslims or Islam by observing the Muslim character's interactions. Of course, Islamic manga, can also be Muslim manga, but a Muslim manga isn’t always an Islamic manga.

(This is page 1 from our comic Hungry X Hunter, available on amazon for purchase)

Unfortunately, many people often have their guards on when they are faced with "educational material." People don't necessarily think they need to improve themselves. That is why it can be difficult to reach people through Islamic (educational) manga.

However, through some good storytelling and through a Muslim character-focused manga, you can thaw out someone's frozen heart. 

Similarly, historically many Americans did not like Japanese people. Still, with the introduction of their media, including anime and manga, Japanese people could subliminally teach things about Japanese culture and beliefs through the media. The hate for Japanese people is also gone. Similarly, Muslims can make manga about Muslims and have similar effects on future generations. 


One new Muslim character-focused manga that we published on Amazon is Hana & Love, and the collection of side-stories found on Instagram, which can be controversial for some Muslims, especially if looked out of context.

What is Muslim’s Manga?

Muslim's manga is a manga made by a writer/artist who is Muslim or at least claims to be a Muslim. It doesn't have to be a practicing Muslim, and the content doesn't have to be Islamic based or Muslim character-based. 

I need to make this distinction because from time to time, I get comic submissions from people who think that the Muslim Manga organization accepts any art or story just because the contributor is "Muslim", and not because of the content of their comic. This is not accurate.  

For someone to have their content on our website, the story and art must fit within one of the above categories of Islamic manga or Muslim character-focused manga. On the other hand, non-Muslims can make a Muslim character-focused manga that is publishable on the website too, assuming it has gone through proper Muslim editors.

Personally, I have difficulty understanding why Muslim writers/artists might choose to make stories that are generic or, worse, unIslamic*, when they have a rich cultural and religious background to create beautiful stories that the world is yearning for.  

Here is a message to such for them: Even if you, as a writer or artist, have no moral aspirations of creating a better future for the next generation of Muslims, as I do, just think about consumers. Readers have been receiving the same kind of recycled material over and over again in popular media, with small parts being tweaked here and there. I think consumers are thirsty for something new, and a Muslim writer/artist can deliver on that. 

*Note: Filled with content that would be Islamically questionable.

Where can you read more manga by Muslim Manga?

In addition to the website and social media, you can now read our comics, such as Hana & Love and Hungry X Hunter on Amazon.

Hana & Love Chapter 1 was just released yesterday on 12/12/20. It has beautifully illustrated drawings on every single page. Don’t believe me? Download a free sample of it to your cellphone or ebook reader and get a feel for how amazing it is. If you like it enough, consider buying it and supporting Muslim Manga in this way. Your contributions will help us make more content like this as well as maintain a community that encourages Muslim representation by Muslims through comics.

In addition to Amazon, you can also buy Hungry X Hunter on Comixology, and can read more of our content on our website, instagram, and webtooms, among other places.

Thank you for reading this article. I hope it helped inform you how we differentiate things, and if you like to read more articles from us, please make sure to subscribe.

Subscribe now

And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at info@muslimmanga.org or @MuslimManga on social media.

Final Note: It usually takes me about one or two days to write articles like this. If you are getting value from these, we would appreciate it you leave comments, share the posts on social media, and forward these newsletter emails to other people who you think can get value from them. Thank you!

The Overview

The primary target audience for the event was Japanese and all the programs and presentations were optimized for Japanese people. Presentations were all in Japanese or accompanied by English translations via translators or subtitles, in the case of video presentations. 

The program included a mixture of in-person presentations, recorded presentations,  Q and A sessions, as well as a gallery of comics and artwork by the Muslim Manga community and by guest presenters. Presentations were from Japan, the United States, Germany, and Iran, Bangladesh, and The Philippines, and comic submissions from the same countries plus from Malaysia and Indonesia as well.  In-person presenters included the editor from the Banmikas team, responsible for the Quran manga, and Manaru Tenkawa, a manga professional with a Muslim character-focused manga, Hana Hana. Video presenters included Soufeina Hamed (AKA Tuffix), the author of Wiggle Wissal, The Sign as well many as many other comic-strips, and Ahmad Phillips, the comic artist, and animator of The Muslims comic and animation. 

The goal of the forum was to establish an understanding of the work that is already being done in the field of Islamic Comics or even Muslim based comics, and to then discuss why and how to make such manga, based on the target audience, whether it is a Muslim audience or non-Muslim Japanese audience. The Manga x Muslim World forum was very much geared to be an educational experience on these topics.  

The Begining

While in Tokyo, I found a group of friends who were very much multicultural Muslims and were very passionate about promoting the understanding of true Islam.   I had the backing of these friends and their connections while preparing for this event.  Actually preparing for the event started while I was in the United States visiting some family members.  I had taken a little vacation from work and was relaxing.  All of a sudden I was contacted by one of my friends with this idea of doing a forum/conference.  I always thought of doing some sort of presentation or showcase of my work in Japan, but I hadn’t quite visualized how to go about it, until that moment.  

Contacting Guests

I started contacting a lot of people who I thought would be interested in participating in this event, including friends and acquaintances from the UK, Malaysia, and the United States.  There was a lot of back and forth emails and messages going and some people who got busy for whatever reason and others who just bailed out at the last minute, but alhamdulillah, we did get many wonderful guests who accepted to participate. 

Manaru Tenkawa

On a prior trip to Japan in 2015, I spent 2 months traveling from the North of Japan to the south, making a documentary about Japan and Islam, interviewing both Japanese Muslims, immigrant Muslims, as well as Japanese people who had come in contact with Islam or Muslim culture in some form or fashion. Through this project, I met Manaru Tenkawa. 

Her manga, Hana Hana tells the tale of an Arab Muslim high school student who travels overseas to Japan. Tenkawa-san also does a lot of workshops in Arab speaking countries. I kept in touch with her every once in a while and asked her to join us in the Manga x Muslim World Forum and she accepted.  (By the way, it is just a coincidence that this manga’s character’s name is also Hana. The story is not related to Hana & Love. )

Team Banmikas Editor
Another person we invited was the editor of the Quran manga, published in Japan.  I remember reading about this manga years ago and the internet was filled with rumors and speculations.  Some Muslim commenters on internet articles or social media were “offended”, assuming and accusing the manga makers of drawing the Prophet of Islam. Other western non-Muslim commenters were mentioning how this would be super controversial.  Apparently, all these comment warriors never actually dug below the surface level.  No one read the manga. I guess I can’t blame them.  The comic is available in the Japanese language only and few people would want to pay for the comic if they can’t understand it.  As far as I understand, the so-called controversy was just limited to a few internet articles and their comment section.

On the other hand, there is a problem with the comic, but it is not what you think, and there are a few interesting discussion points around the creation of this particular manga. So first of all, contrary to the western internet speculations, the writers and editors were extremely cautious about how they would create this manga, trying their best not to offend any Muslims.  They consulted with multiple Muslim organizations as well while making the manga.  One particular issue was of course not being able to show the Prophet of Islam’s face.  Luckily for the manga makers, there was already a precedent in the manga publishing world with manga character who’s face would never be shown.  This character would always wear a mask, and if his mask was ever removed, there would just be light shown.  Something similar is drawn in a lot of Middle Eastern countries when drawing the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) for Islamic education material.  They would never draw his face out of respect for him.  This manga did something similar to that.  The issue with the comic is the choice of art style. One concern I heard is that the manga is drawn in a very cartoonish almost dishy-like style.  The problem with that is that it gives the illusion of mythology or fairytale, instead of historical. 

The Flyer

Contacting guests was one thing.  The other was to reach out to media outlets and inviting Japanese audience members as well. We also created a website and flyer for the event.  The flyer itself has a little comic in it. 

The comic had many iterations before it made it to the final version.  The flyer comic has quite an interesting story to it. It shows two people, one Japanese otaku who is familiar with all the types of manga, including “Muslim Manga”, while the other character is a Muslim who doesn’t really know much about manga.  They bump into each other and the otaku guy drops his book. This is where these two worlds kind of collide.  

After that was prepared, we had to prepare a gallery filled with comic submissions.  This included many cute episodes from the Journey of a Muslim series as well as Muslim Manga Club, Hungry X Hunter, and many submissions from the Unity in Diversity Manga Contest. Many of the submissions were printed on special paper and put in glass frames.  Others were printed on canvas and framed just like that. 

Unity in Diversity Contest

To go along with the conference which was being planned for many months in advance, we started the Unity in Diversity Contest on Muslim Manga.  I started this in the early phases, in the summer of 2018. 

To participate in the event, the submitters were tasked with creating a manga consisting of at least 10 pages. The theme of the contest was “Unity in Diversity”. Participants’ works had to include one or more of the following topics.

• Muslims growing up in a Muslim predominant country.

• Muslims in a non-Muslim predominant country.

• Life of a Muslim in Japan.

• Racism among Muslim communities.

• Racism targeted towards Muslims.

• Life of a Muslim revert.

• Life of a Muslim Refugee.

The winners of the contest would get a graphics tablet and have their works featured in the gallery in Tokyo.  

The winners

There were many great submissions, but ultimately winners had to be chosen and the winners of the contest were United Heroes, Return, and Refugee Olympics.  

United Heroes is a Sports Manga. Made by Marzieh Meisami Azad and Yegane Khashkhashi Moghadam. It has become the Champion winning the Unity in Diversity Manga Contest! A story showing the struggle between one’s dream and staying true to oneself. Read the manga here.

Return won second place at the Muslim Mangas Unity in Diversity Manga Contest! A relatable story by Kolah showing the struggle many female Muslims face, when looking for a job. Read the manga here.

Refugee Olympics“ is a heart-touching Manga made by Mar and Khai Akhiar. As a result, it won third place in the Muslim Manga Unity in Diversity Contest!

Follow your dreams! But starting with the usual Sprinting, our hero is running into a dark corner of a dark memory… Read the manga here.

Hungry x Hunter

To go along with the Unity in Diversity contest and the upcoming Manga x Muslim World Forum, I worked with my artist partner, Zhar, to create a new one-shot comic, titled Hungry X Hunter.  One of the reasons I wrote the story for this manga is because after lived in Japan, I felt that one of my previous stories, The Will of Fawwaz, may have been perceived as portraying Japanese people negatively because there are some characters who are a bit Islamaphic. Here is a summary of the manga:

Zahara accompanies her brother Zohair to Tokyo to help him settle in before his university life starts. When the two arrive, they struggle to find food. Read this story to find out how people of different cultural, religious, and language backgrounds connect over food.

You can buy it on Amazon Kindle and Comixology today.

The Day of the Event

On the day of the presentations, I got up early and was practicing my presentations, but I was nervous.  Once I got to the venue, I realized there were also NHK news reporters there who just came for my presentation.  That didn’t help with being nervous.  But a funny story happened there.  At first, I was standing by the podium which was on the right side of the stage, and so the reporters set up their equipment angled to record me there, but when I saw other presenters were more relaxed and confident and in the center, I did the same.  So, I might have caused a minor annoyance with the reporters who positioned themselves specifically to get the right side of the stage.  But I saw the footage.  It looked ok!

In our presentations, we divided up Islamic manga into four categories, a follows:

• Fiction

• Historical/Cultural

• Muslim daily life

• Islamic teaching

We also discussed two different audiences, a Japanese audience, and a Muslim audience, and how each audience had their own needs or requirements as far as content goes. 

One of the first presentations discussed the 4 Islamic manga categories created by Japanese authors, including The Heroic Legend of Arslan for fiction, Satoko and Nada for the Muslim daily life category, and the Quran manga for the Islamic teaching category. As for the manga created by Muslim authors, we discussed Samurai Akiyama, the Gold Ring, and The Pious Student, among other titles.  

We divided the two audiences and the Islamic categories into 3 zones.  We classified zone 3, which was the fiction and historical/cultural for a Japanese audience, as the easiest zone for non-Muslims/Japanese people to make. We classified, zone 2 which covered fiction and historical/cultural for a Muslim audience as well as Muslim daily life for both Muslim and Japanese audience as the zone which was a little more challenging to get right, but not quite as difficult and challenging as zone 1, which is creation Islamic teaching manga, both for Japanese audience as well as for a Muslim audience. 

Controversial Cartoons

Obviously in this day and age, due to uproar around the world with regard to controversial cartoons, a lot of Japanese comic artists may be cautious, uncomfortable, or even scared when attempting to draw anything Muslim related. 
All of the three zones that we mentioned assume that the intention of the maker of the manga is positive.  If there is no offense or evil intent, then there is nothing to be worried about. 
A lot of the controversy that happens in the world with regard to Muslims and cartoons these days. This is because certain western cartoonists intentionally provoke the Muslim community as a whole with offensive material. The purpose of such vulgar and hateful material is indeed to offend and hurt Muslims. If anyone’s intention is positive and amicable, then there will be no controversy.

The three Zones and Muslim Sensitivities 

Zone 3 is the easiest zone to make, as it would cause no offense to Muslims, as this category doesn’t need to be accurate and the audience is not Muslim, so they wouldn’t notice any mistakes that you might make with regard to the character or world you have made, as far as how realistic it is or how culturally correct it is. 

Zone 2 is primarily with a Muslim audience.   If you want to connect with a Muslim audience who has lived as a Muslim for many years, then you have to be very careful, otherwise, you risk a disconnect with the audience.  They won’t necessarily get offended, but instead of having the audience emerged in your world, you will have them thinking about the mistakes you made and how “that is not how Muslims are”, etc.  Zone 2 also includes Muslim daily life for a Japanese audience.  This is partly because Muslims care about how they are portrayed, given how the world has so much misinformation about Muslims.   Muslims want to be portrayed fairly and accurately. Zone 1 is the most sensitive area because it is dealing with teaching Islam.  Not only would Muslims be concerned about the validity of the information being taught, but also as far as manga goes, there are a lot of sensitive things that are not even allowed to be drawn in Islam, such as God or the Holy Prophet.

Examples of Sensitivities 

I wrapped up my presentation by going over some examples of scenarios and discussed the level of sensitivity involved. Here are a few of the examples I brought up

1. Danish cartoon of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as a bomb. 
   This is highly sensitive and offensive. Obviously, this cartoon or anything similar to this is created for mockery and with the intention to offend Muslims, so it is no surprise that this would be categorized as highly sensitively. The Prophet of Islam is illustrated which makes Muslims uncomfortable, and moreover, it is illustrated poorly and offensively, linking the Prophet of Islam, the epitome of peace, love, to violence, bloodshed and vulgarity. 

2. Jo Jo’s Bizzarre adventures anime scene where the evil character is seen reading the Holy Quran.

   This is quite sensitive too. Through visual composition, it is linking the holy Quran with an evil character.  Moreover, in the original manga version, the text was not the Quran.

3. Portraying the Prophet of Islam beautifully:
   This one might be something some of the readers may disagree with, but we discussed that this is something sensitive because as Muslims we do not do that and that we are not happy that that is done, but we also discussed that it is not necessarily offensive.  Sensitive, but not offensive.  

I’d like to end this newsletter by sharing a couple of video presentations by Tuffix and Ahmad Phillips.  Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos like this as well as other content.

Watch Ahmad Philips’s Manga x Muslim World Presentation on youtube.

Watch Tuffix’s Manga x Muslim World Presentation on youtube.

Thank you for reading.
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This is a romantic comedy manga made in an online collaboration by two people in two corners of the earth. Here is a summary:

"Hana has sworn to never love a boy until Aditya, a half Indonesian half Japanese boy, walks past her. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, Hana's life has changed forever. Is this love at first sight? Or will this new-found love for Aditya end horribly?"  

History of my Manga Collaborations

This was not the first collaboration I partook in. Before Hana & Her Love, I worked on two other collaborative projects. In 2012, I worked on Samurai Akiyama, a partnership with Nurel Yana, and in 2013, The Will of Fawwaz with Nurul Izzah.

(Samurai Akiyama Art by Muslim Manga artist Zhar)

I have always been trying to include Islamic elements and multiculturalism in my stories. I usually like to take the artist's ethnicity and cultural background I am collaborating with into consideration when writing the stories. For the Will of Fawwaz, I knew that my artist partner was from Malaysia, so I had Fawwaz, the main character be from Malaysia. I tried this again with Hana & Her Love. And yet, although the is half Indonesian, the artist was not from Indonesia. She is from Malaysia. So why didn't I make the character half Malaysian? Well, there is a funny story behind that.

The HAHL Collaboration

The work known as Hana & Her Love resulted from collaborative work between myself and Harihtaroon; however, that was not where this collaboration in craft began. Hana & Her Love was initially being drawn by another artist, who was from Indonesia. I originally wrote the story with the first artist in mind. So I made the character half Indonesian. Unfortunately, the artist sketched the first 7 or so pages of the storyboard and then abandoned the project. As fate would have it, I came across the very talented Harihtaroon, who agreed to work on the project. I gave her the script, and she brought the whole world of that story to life with her talented hands.

(Hana & Her Love Cover Art by Harihtaroon)

After posting the manga on the website and sharing it on social media, it went viral- or at least viralish. It received a lot of attention and praise. It very quickly built a fanbase. Some of the passionate fans continue to ask for updates even to this day. 

We were both encouraged to start working on the next chapter.

The project was basically volunteer work for both Harihtaroon and me. While it was quite the addition to our portfolio, real-life was catching up with us. It was becoming harder to put in the effort needed for the project to stay alive.

Given that I was quite passionate about my story, I didn't want the project to end. After a few years of stagnation, I reached out again to Harihtaroon to restart work on the project. Unfortunately, due to different priorities in life, and different focuses, the continuation never happened. But I didn't want to give up on the story.

The Voice-Over Project

(Art by Muslim Manga artist Zhar)

Similar to the voice-over animatic I worked on for Samurai Akiyama, I also worked on one for Hana & Her Love. I worked together with some of my very talented Japanese friends and created a voice-over for Hana and Her Love Chapter 1. The main voice-over talents involved in the project were studying in acting or vocal art, so their contribution was high quality and top class.

The NHK Interview

In November of 2018, I gave a talk on creating manga for a Muslim audience at the Manga x Muslim World Forum in Tokyo. While there, I caught the attention of an NHK reporter.

(Art by Muslim Manga artist Zhar)

In the following December, I was later interviewed on my Muslim Manga efforts and particularly about Hana & Her Love. The TV station even put their own voice over production on top of pan and zoom animations made from pages from Hana & Her Love. Actually, a lot of popular Japanese anime gets recorded at NHK studios. Some notable titles include Attack on Titan, Pokemon, and Card Captor Sakura. I was kind of dreaming that a famous voice actor from a popular anime also worked on Hana & Her Love. However, the team behind producing documentaries and television interviews has their own people for offering narration and voice acting. And so, that was what was used. I don't want to diminish the quality of efforts or quality of the interview voice-overs. It was actually very high quality. So, in the end, I got two voice-over productions by this point. Neat!

The program was broadcasted a couple of times in January. There were regular TV hosts who were talking about me. It was an interesting experience to go through. It was a bit surreal. I know deep down that getting 15 seconds on fame on national TV is nothing compared to having one's actual vision accomplished. Still, it is an interesting experience to go through nonetheless.

The Remake

(Art by Muslim Manga artist Idachann)

Fast-forward to 2020, all the planets in the solar system aligned. Finally, the spark that was responsible for the remake of Hana & Her Love came about. A lot of these sparks, for lack of a better, just happen without any conscious effort from me. I can't take credit for the remake becoming a reality other than never giving up on the story.

It almost came up randomly. I found myself in a stagnated area in manga production, so I reached out to a new artist I thought had potential. That artist was Idachann. I wasn't thinking about a Hana & Her Love remake/continuation when I approached her. However, through discussion with her and seeing her potential, I realized that we can work on the new Hana & Love together.

Series Name Change

During the many years of hiatus from the comic's production, I had the opportunity to think a lot about how I might change things in the story to make it more to my liking. For multiple reasons, I thought Hana & Love was a better name. I had initially thought about this, even during the production time of chapter 2 of Hana and Her Love, but I had already released the comic under Hana & Her Love. At that point, I didn't think I could just change the name that easily.

However, given that I was restarting the project, I felt I wanted to do things the way I envisioned it. I changed the name of the story to Hana & Love.

The Direction

Hana & Love Chapter 1 was written left to right; however, this was not my intention. I had intended to have the manga made in the right to left format. Chapter 2 was then written right to left, which may have created an awkward transition from chapter 1 to 2. The art was beautiful, which may have kept people distracted from the fact that the reading direction changed. 

I am about to get into some really specific linguistic discussion for why I choose to keep the manga written from right to left. If that is too nerdy for your tastes, you may wish to skip the rest of this section. Be warned. Your brain might hurt. 

1. My target audience is not only LTR (left to right) language speakers but also RTL (right to left) language ones. 

2. Some RTL language speakers wouldn't naturally be able to read their language if the RTL text was artificially inserted into an LTR format (i.e., Japanese). 

3. Japanese manga have historically been written in RTL, and the RTL page-format, even in translations to LTR languages. In other words, there is already a culture for this established. There is no precedent of the reverse being established. For languages such as Japanese, this would be impossible to work naturally, due to the orthographic direction being complex. Additionally, there is also no real gains from trying to establish the reverse.

The Series & The Pricing

This might be confusing, but there will be not just one new Hana & Her Love series, but two. The two series are Hana & Love and Hana & Love 4koma.

• Hana & Love: This is the series that is the remake and continuation of Hana & Her Love. This is the main story.

• Hana & Love 4koma: This series will be a collection of side stories/moments between the characters from the main story, Hana & Love.

Because producing manga projects like this, take real effort, time, and commitment, I have decided to keep Hana & Love as a paid-only option. So there will be two ways to read this manga.

1. Becoming our monthly supporter patron at the Sugoi tier or higher. This would include the other benefits that come with that pledge level. Some small percentage discounts may be offered for years subscriptions.

2. Purchasing the comic at one of the sites that we publish it on, such as Comixology, Amazon Kindle, and via Muslim Manga's online store. The manga is not available yet, but you can buy another manga published through our organization if you want to support us now. The manga is called Hungry X Hunter and is available on ComiXology and Muslim Manga Shop now.

Hana & Love 4koma will be freely available on MuslimManga.org, and social media, with early access available to supporters.

What Next?

For more updates, follow us on social media. 

Instagram @hanaandlove

Instagram @MuslimManga 
Facebook @MuslimManga
Twitter @MuslimManga

You can get in touch via email at MuslimManga.org/contact 
or WhatsApp (+14693333315)

In short, Nur City is the name of Muslim Manga's community. It seemed vital to have a platform where our fans and community members could interact with one another, allowing us to grow together, personally, and creatively. Nur.City is the evolution of that community vision that has come about through the years.

Some history

Around the summer of 2015, Muslim Manga started productivity-focused community for volunteers on a platform called slack. To help with team-building, as well as giving creative boosts to our helpers, we also had a "random" channel, where people can chat about non productive things, or really anything they wanted to chat about. This area was especially active, and I then realized that there was a void in terms of an outlet for our larger community, who may not be interested so much to volunteer. It was clear to me that in the day and age of so many messaging and social networking apps, the mobile experience was vital. As a college student who was not so familiar with programming, I had to find a way to create or emulate an messaging app experience for the Muslim Manga audience.

Soon afterwards, I came across what was at that time a new forum software called Flarum. If you are not familiar with what a forum is, it is a type of site that caters to discussion based communities. Muslim Manga has also had forum sections in the past, but, in general, forums tend to have a dated look and had not been that friendly for mobile users. Flarum looked and felt to a certain extent like an app, but it ran on a browser. I quickly claimed the website www.nur.city and installed the magical forum software and started promoting the site as Muslim Manga's community.

When I was designing this community, I had a game in mind. I wanted to gamify our community . The first step on that idea was to create a citizen application process. New members had to apply for citizenship to join our city. I then created different city elements as categories for discussion. There was a help center that was called "hospital", and a "bank" that had discussions for resources our citizens could use.

Eventually as the community grew, it became a little more challenging to manage the forum website that I had made. There was more than I wanted to do through the community and the limited resources on the website platform were becoming indeed very limiting to what our community potential was.

So in our latest step for our community, which was formed about 1 and half years prior to the writing of this post, we switched to use a platform called Discord. This platform has allowed us to connect better with and really engage with younger generations. We have special Muslim Manga emojis that our members use, and we have a lot of community challenges and events that the members are both involved in the management and participation of those.

What to do in Nur City?

Similar to physical cities, as well as certain games, Nur City also has a lot of places you can go to.

Once you get through immigration in the city hall, after applying to be a Nurizen (Nur City citizen), you will first see the intro garden, where you can introduce yourself to the community, and then you will also see the beautiful plaza. The plaza is the most bustling place in Nur City. Nurizens from around the globe gather there, and different hours of the day and just have fun hanging out together.

There is also Nur City Media (NCM) the Culture Center, and the Omotenashi Mansion that are accessible to you once you become a citizen.

• Nur City Media (NCM) is a place to get the latest updates from Muslim Manga and other noteworthy pieces of information.

• The Culture center is for getting updates from the latest Muslim Manga series, such as Muslim Manga Club, WaSalam, and Journey of a Muslim.

• Ometenashi Masnion is a place where Nurizens gather and play games, such as role playing, drawing shiritori, and complete the manga, to name a few.

You get access to these, just starting out. Of course if you want to explore and get access to more parts of the city, you can do that too. Depending on what you do, you can get access to the Poji Tower, Majime Tower, and the University of Nur City (UNC).

• Poji Tower is a special tower for our patrons to chill at. It is filled with cool rewards channels and other secret patreon only areas. To get access, you will need to become a patron of Muslim Manga

• Majime Tower is a an area for productivity. The productivity part of Muslim Manga evolved into the Majime tower of Nur City. Majime means serious in Japanese, and this is the area for people who are serious about their community contributions. To get access to this part, you will need to apply on MuslimManga.org/apply

• And then we have the University of Nur City (UNC). To get access to UNC, you will need to submit your college application essay. After you have been accepted into the university, you will gain access to different departments of UNC, particularly, the Japanese department, and the many many clubs we have at the university.

Among the clubs available at the University of Nur City, a few of the popular ones include MIC (Manga Illustration Club), Memers, a club for sharing memes, and NurLingGo, a club for discussing linguistic things, including the building of the Nur City Dictionary. The dictionary contains words created and used in the city, as well as examples sentences to help new citizens acclimate into the city as soon as possible.

How to become a Nurizen

I am sure you have already realized, but Nur City is a really fun and happening place. To get started, sign up for discord, and then head over to www.nur.city and click on apply for citizenship link to get started. This will take you to our discord server. Once you are in the server, you still need to do one more step in order to become a citizen. You will need to submit a sketch / doodle of yourself in what you imagine Nur City to be, or you need to write a haiku poem on the same topic.

To view a list of the prompts and read the poems, please visit MuslimManga.org/challanges/ramadhan2020
and to view the community’s latest community art submissions, please check out MuslimManga.org/latest. This includes all the submissions that have been sent to the website.

Ramadhan themed JOAM
In addition to the community engagement initiative, we have also been working to deliver Ramadhan themed episodes of our ongoing series, Journey of a Muslim (JOAM).
Of course, our patrons got early access to those comics, and the rest of our community received the updates via instagram, and webtoon. We created 4 new episodes of JOAM this year, but we also re-shared some of our older episodes of Journey of a Muslim and WaSalam because they are still funny and relevant, and since our community is growing larger, there are many new community members who did not see the older episodes.

If you are new the the word of Muslim Manga, please do follow @MuslimManga on different platforms to get regular updates about our comics and initiatives. If you follow us here, you will receive our updates newsletter.

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