A BRITISH Muslim artist whose spellbinding collection of modern Islamic art has taken the world by storm is set to showcase his exhibition in Birmingham this month.

Birmingham-born Mohammed Ali has spent the best part of his adult life creating a modern form of Islamic art through the 80s urban art form of graffiti.

His work has been showcased across the UK as well as far a field as Dubai.

Before jetting off to Denmark later this month, Mohammed will showcase his work at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Hockley, as part of a year long Art & Islam project currently held at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Speaking to The Asian Today, Mohammed said his work, dubbed "urban Islamic art", portrays universal positive images of Islam.

"This is one of the sole purposes of why I do what I do", he said. "I was inspired to do this because of all the negativities surrounding Islam. My work is an attempt to use an alternative means of communication to present to people through my own personal creative expression that Islam is everything but what they show us on TV. "It's the complete opposite of that and I wanted to express that side of it. My work is completely aimed at trying to challenge the negative perceptions of Islam that is so frequent on our TV screens."

Once a part of the underground graffiti scene, Ali now produces works on canvas that challenge assumptions made about graffiti as merely a form of vandalism.

For Ali, his exhibition 'AerosolArabic' is a reflection of the energy of today's urban Muslims through the conjunction of beautiful scripts and the graffiti medium.

He aims to inspire young Muslims to re-connect with their faith and take pride in their identity.

Despite initial scepticism towards his love of the arts from family members, Mohammed's work has been accepted by both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

He told The Asian Today he wasn't surprised at how much interest his work has generated across the world.

"I'm not really surprised at how much interest there is towards my work because Islam is a hot topic at the moment", he said.

"My work is the opposite of all the negativity we're seeing today so there has been a lot of support towards what I'm doing both from Muslim and non-Muslim communities."

For further information on Mohammed Ali's work log onto www.aerosolarabic.com, or visit www.bmag.org.uk/artislam for details on his forthcoming exhibition.