Australian atheist photographer Matt Palmer seeks to share the message of humanity with the world in his photo series, “Faces of Islam.”

He shares stories and quotes from a ‘diverse group of everyday Australian Muslims with the community and the world’. Some of the quotes are about Islam, but many explore other aspects of the person’s life — their career goals, hobbies, fears, and dreams.

“‘Faces Of Islam’ is a project first and foremost about other human beings. People we work with, our neighbours, business owners, mothers, and community contributors,” Palmer told The Huffington Post. “So the interviews were focused on really finding out who these people are and finding that human element and shared experiences that we can all relate to and connect with.”

Palmer said he came up with the idea for the project after the Paris attacks. He noticed that there was a lot of misinformation being spread about Muslims on social media.

“In our age of technology it’s never been quicker for the wrong information to spread, and people defend those fabrications of information even when confronted with overwhelming fact,” Palmer wrote. “That’s just not treating other people fairly and with human decency, and as we would like to be treated ourselves.”

Although he’s an atheist himself, Palmer said that he firmly believes that everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, and that people should be “represented fairly and with human kindness.”

He photographed 40 Muslims from a wide variety of backgrounds — from refugees to Indigenous Australians, to Muslims who can trace their heritage back to the very first fleet of Europeans to land in the country. The youngest person he talked to was 3 years old and the oldest was 75.

The effort has helped him learn more about his Muslim neighbours.

“I still have the same healthy scepticism of religion in general as I believe everyone should, but first and foremost I am a supporter of good people,” Palmer wrote. “And I’ve found many who are Muslim and many who are in our community.”

Courtesy Huffington Post