Southwark, UK - A storytelling exhibition called Peace by Piece has opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark in south London that aims to challenge some of the stereotypes about Muslims.
A recent study by the Institute of Community Cohesion found Britain is home to the most diverse range of Muslim communities in the western world, but too often they are represented as one homogenous group linked to extremism and terror.
The exhibition displays portraits, along with quotations, to showcase the ordinariness of Muslim lives in London - the kind of thing that never hits the headlines.
"Many people have no idea really about the reality of Islam - all they know is some people strap bombs to themselves and blow other people up and that's what they think Islam is," says Erbil Celebi, a black cab driver of Turkish origin born in London.
He is one of 20 Muslims living or working in Southwark profiled in the exhibition, which is part of a government-funded programme to prevent violent extremism.
'Hugely worried'
The idea is to let Muslims speak for themselves about their contribution to British society.
"I am hugely worried about the way Islam and Muslims are portrayed," says Erbil, who believes the issue exploded on to people's consciousnesses after the 7/7 London bombings.
He says he has rarely experienced prejudice from the people he picks up in his taxi, but is intrigued that it is mostly in the media that he finds negative views of Muslims.
"There are people who don't really take kindly to Muslims and Islam, but when you speak to them...they kind of come round... It's just about education," he says.
"When somebody says Muslim they imagine a Pakistani or an Asian with a very long beard, somebody who doesn't speak English and... is sometimes viewed as being ignorant," explains Erbil.
He is hoping that by taking part in the exhibition people will see he is just like everyone else. He is pictured wearing a white skull cap and standing next to his cab.
Prayers for Queen
His prayer leader is also in the exhibition, shown praying in the New Peckham Mosque, which is in a converted Victorian church building.
"After 7/7 we lost each other. Now we have to discover each other again, but it will take a long time - maybe three generations," says Imam Ahmed Muharrem Atlig.
"Every religion can produce extremists but, at this point in history, Islam seems to have more than any other and this is a major issue for the Muslim world."
According to the congregation their Imam is so loyal to Britain that he prays for the Queen every week in Friday prayers.
Some 20,000 Muslims live in Southwark - a tiny proportion of the total number in Britain, now estimated by the government to have reached two million.
What the exhibition shows is the range of different geographical origins, ages, languages and cultures.
"People in general think Muslim women are downtrodden and oppressed and we have no opinions, no voice," says Saima Mahmood, a final year medical student from Peckham.
Saima is half Pakistani and half Scottish. She was brought up in the UK, doesn't speak Urdu and is proud to be a British Muslim.
Strong voice
She is hoping images of professional Muslim women will dispel the myths.
"I hope when they see me and the other Muslim women taking part they will come away with different ideas - that actually we are motivated, we have careers, we are working and we are making a positive contribution to society," she says.
"It's about people seeing each other as human… it is giving a platform to the moderate voice of Islam, which is a very substantial strong voice that needs to be heard," says Michael Cleere, the community cohesion coordinator for Southwark Council, who has been working on the project for six months along with photographer Rehan Jamil.
He was inspired by conflict resolution projects in Northern Ireland that brought opposing groups face-to-face, enabling them to see each other as ordinary people.
"In one sense an exhibition of this kind shouldn't have to happen," says Michael, "but the reality is that this kind of exhibition must take place because it's about capturing images of people but also helping them to tell their stories."