American Artist and Pakistani Advisor Launch New Earthwork Series The Muslim Visionaries - Portrait Of Ibn Battuta
American environimental artist Stan Herd is collaborating with Pakistani advisor Khalid Latif to launch a new series of earthworks, "The Muslim Visionaries." The initial piece is a portrait of adventurer Ibn Battuta.

LAWRENCE, KS, June 09, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In the 14th Century, when Ibn Battuta, the first adventurer to travel the continents, shared his story and the knowledge gained, it would change the way humans 'imagined' their world.

When Pakistani entrepreneur Khalid Latif read about American environmental artist Stan Herd's earthwork portrait of Emirates leader Sheikh Maktoum in the Spring of 2006, created in part, to bring attention to anti-Muslim sentiment in the States, they initiated a three year international dialogue to use art to encourage a change in relations between the West and Islamic countries, post 9/11. The American artist and his Pakistani colleague finally arrived at The Muslim Visionaries project, hoping to revive attention and renew understanding of early Muslim contribution to science and critical thinking.

A timelapse video of Herd creating the piece is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhIpx8JXhwo

"With the recent election of President Obama, who was derided for his middle name and early connection to the Muslim world through his father, the depth of anti-Islamic sentiment here was truly revealed," Herd said.

"Khalid and I are hopeful that through this project, young Americans and young Muslim students will see more clearly the early Muslim embrace of science, education and scholarly achievement, as central to a balanced and healthy life."

Herd and friends from the University of Kansas, along with students from many religious backgrounds, have completed the creation of a portrait of Ibn Battuta on Pendleton's Farm, near Lawrence Kansas as the first portrait in a series that may be created around the globe. The mosaic design was created out of fifteen different types of stone, gravel, sand, mulch and organic materials on one quarter acre of land three miles from the University.

"Khalid and I talked at least once a month the past four years and emailed over a hundred times," said Herd. "We became obsessed with this idea, and made it our combined mission to create this series to make sense of the insanity of political, religious and cultural discourse that seems to define our world today."

"We wanted to know if there could be an intelligent way out of this mess. Certainly we don't know the answer to that, but we seem compelled to throw ourselves into the breech, if not for ourselves, then for our children. "

A Muslim Visionaries Advisory Committee has been formed to assist in the project:

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington DC, the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
akbarahmed1@gmail.com

Dr. Mowafak M. Al-Jassim
Principal Scientist / Group Leader - National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) mowafak_aljassim@nrel.gov

Fathi H. Ghorbel, Ph.D., P.E. Professor, Rice University, USA Vice President, Arab Science & Technology Foundation (ASTF), UAE ghorbel@rice.edu

Dr. Syed Nomanul Haq Teaches at University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this, Dr. Haq held professorial positions at Rutgers, Tufts and Brown Universities. Dr. Haq was the recipient of the year 2000 Science and Religion Course Prize of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, funded by the Templeton Foundation nhaq@sas.upenn.edu

Prof. Dr. Farouk El-Baz research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University. participated in the Apollo program from 1967 to 1972 as Supervisor of Lunar Science Planning at Bellcomm, Inc. of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Washington, D.C farouk@bu.edu

Dr. Essam Heggy Lunar and Planetary Institute 3600 Bay Area Boulevard Houston, Texas, 77058-1113 heggy@lpi.usra.edu http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/heggy

Dr. S.T.K Naim COMSTECH Secretariat 3-Constitution Avenue G-5/2, Islamabad - Pakistan consultant@comstech.org

Patric Rozario
Senior Creative & Production Officer
United Development Company, Doha, Qatar
patric.rozario@thepearlqatar.com

Elif Andac, PhD
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
andac@ku.edu

C. K. "Pete" Rowland, Ph.D.
Chairman, Litigation Insights
Lawrence, Kansas prowland@litigationinsights.com

Kevin Willmott Associate Professor of Film
University of Kansas brokev@aol.com

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