Writing a Muslim Character

themagnuswriters:

themagnuswriters:

The Mods of the Magnus Writers discord server and community are putting together a variety of resources for Magnus Archives fan creators; these have been collated from articles on the topics, our own experiences, and the experiences of the members of the Magnus Writers discord. These are definitely not comprehensive or the only viewpoints out there, and are by no means meant as a way to police fanworks, but as a way to support and inspire fan creators in creating thoughtful and diverse works. Please note that external links will be added in a reblog to outsmart tumblr’s terrible tagging system, so make sure to check those out as well!

This resource in particular was put together by Mod Jasmine: hi, all! 

While there are no canonically Muslim characters in TMA, Muslim headcanons are common in fanworks—particularly for Basira, and sometimes Jon (which I love to see!). I have cobbled together this post from my own experiences to help support and inform fans in these areas, and as part of my diabolical plan to get more Muslim!Basira and Muslim!Jon fics to shove into my brain.

First, two gigantic caveats:

• I was raised Sunni Muslim in Egypt, which is a majority Sunni Muslim country, and still live there. This means my experience will be very different from someone raised in a majority Christian country like the UK, and different again if they are not Sunni and not Arab.
• I am currently ex-Muslim. This does not mean I bear any ill will towards Islam or Muslims, just that it wasn’t for me, and I felt it was important to be upfront about that. I’ll be linking to resources by practicing Muslims in the reblog to this post, whether to add to my opinions and experiences or provide you with a different opinion. I am not here to put my voice over that of Muslims, just to do some of the work so they don’t have to. Obviously, if any Muslims have any additions or suggestions for this post, I’m happy to accommodate them.

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with the basics of writing a Muslim character.

(Warning: this is absurdly, absurdly long)

Keep reading

Please see the below links for the articles referenced throughout this post, as well as a few additional resources:

Background

• My Experience as a Black British Muslim Woman

Prayer

• How to Pray Salah, Step by Step

Everyday Life

• Islam and Alcohol
• On Hijab Scarves
• The Workings of Hijabs
• More on Writing Muslim Characters

LGBTQ Muslims

As a warning, some of these resources contain instances of queerphobia and Islamophobia, so proceed with caution.

• On Non-Binary Muslims
• Like many gay Muslim people, I have no faith in Pride
• How Queer Muslims are Working to End Stigma This Ramadan
• I didn’t know that being asexual was a thing, until someone asked me what I actually wanted
• How I Came Out of the Closet, Converted to islam, and Found my True Self
• How a Pilgrimage to Mecca Helped Me Embrace My Queer Muslim Identity
• Queer Muslim Masterpost

If you want to do some further reading, check out Writing With Color’s Muslim Characters roundup.

You could also take a look through this tumblr.

And finally, as a reward for sticking with me this long, here’s a bonus TMA comic that asks: are statements halal?

crybabyxula:

theproblematicblogger:

feminists-against-feminism:

dreamy-hates-everything:

feminists-against-feminism:

unstumpabledeplorable:

berqamot:

theproblematicblogger:

So I have a question for my followers: are there any conspiracy theories you’re 100% convinced are real

Canadian prime minister Justing Trudeau is the illegitimate son of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Castro with Treudeau’s parents

holding Justin’s older brother as a baby

Supposed parents are both white, yet Justin has Brown nipples

See, the nipples angle is just not something I would’ve thought to pursue

1000$ says his brother, who actually looks like his father Pierre, has pink nipples.

Do we have a picture of Fidel’s nipples? My searches have yielded fakes and forgeries.

I know that this is a common response, but this post knocked the wind out of me, as if I had been punched. Let’s put aside the political ramifications of this conspiracy theory, and let’s focus on the fact that Justin Trudeau’s nipples are what betrayed his parentage

kasseiopias:

rick riordan singlehandedly saved 2020

kendallroy:

lesser-of-two-weeaboos:

kendallroy:

must a fictional relationship be “healthy” or “functional”? is it not enough to simply watch two made up people destroy each other, hand in unlovable hand???

the reylos found this one. post cancelled pack it up gays we gotta evacuate

i’m the op of this post and i endorse reylo, bye

FUCK YOU DISNEY

living-force:

elfwreck:

dancinbutterfly:

levynite:

Anyways, y’all better start saving your fave fanfics and fanart under the Disney labels cause it looks like they’re trying to curb fair use/fanworks and I’m sure there’s going to be mass panicked deletions even though it’s probably unnecessary cause AO3′s legal team will fight for us.

You know that 400K yall were so fucking mad about OTW raising?

Yeah, its gonna pay for the travel expenses and court costs that the legal team at AO3/OTW when they protect your shit from getting C&Ded.

DO NOT DELETE YOUR STUFF! IF YOU GET CONTACTED BY DISNEY - GO TO THE ORGANIZATION OF TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS , CONTACT THEIR LEGAL ADVOCACY DEPARTMENT! ASK FOR HELP!!

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS *WHY* *THEY* *EXIST*

Note that Disney would have one Hell of a time serving C&Ds to authors at AO3 - because there is no “contact author” option other than leaving a comment.

They’d have to contact the SITE, which is to say, the Organization for Transformative Works, to deliver a C&D order or a DMCA takedown order.

And the OTW is not going to remove fics because someone sent a letter that says “actually those characters belong to me and you can’t use them that way.” The OTW was created to FIGHT that kind of claim. They are ready. 

Don’t delete your fics out of fear. WE OWN THE SERVERS. They can’t threaten the hosts into deleting anything.

And if Disney thought they had a strong legal case against fanfic, they’d’ve shut down the archive a decade ago, when it was penniless and unknown, instead of waiting until it had won several battles in Congress and got worldwide acclaim for a Hugo Award.

This is important!

twilightslut:

Stephenie Meyer announcing Midnight Sun, a new Twilight book, on May 4th, a day typically associated with Star Wars?

The P O W E R

owlmylove:

not 2 be controversial on main but i think it’s pretty sad the first major generation to grow up online is projecting their adolescent self-hatred onto the “cringe” generation of tiktokkers

theoverlordmisha:

sighinastorm:

sighinastorm:

darthvaderofmiddle-earth:

sighinastorm:

sighinastorm:

There’s a tornado warning out (two, technically), so of course I went for a walk outside to see if I could spot it.  Never have I seen so many of my neighbors at one time, when there wasn’t a firework show or a picnic.

There was a tornado warning and a bunch of people gathered outside to set off fireworks. I wish I was kidding.

How cool would it be to shoot fireworks into a tornado?