Muneera Williams: The reaction to Poetic Pilgrimage is extremely polarised: courageous, oppressed, fresh, blasphemous, eclectic, brainwashed, arrogant are just some of the words that have been used to describe us. […] What is even more unfortunate is that in some circumstances there is an element of racism hidden under the cloak of righteousness or even Islam. Some people are silent to the fact that there are Muslim cultural expressions, and musical traditions all around the world, there is not a “Muslim” country that doesn’t have a musical heritage, yet when it comes to people of the African diaspora, our music is deemed as something innately deviant and wrong. The fresh breeze of diversity and difference is sometimes muted by people’s culturally biased interpretation. Poetic Pilgrimage is no exception and our work has been removed from mix tapes, we’ve been kicked off tours, and generally accused of leading the heedless to the gates of hell by Muslim promoters, and largely other Muslim women. We had to become thick-skinned very early in our career. Coming from a Caribbean culture, we are used to being celebrated for being women, and now in some circles we are celebrated and in others we are condemned, by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. More here.