Crescent Times: How and when did the group get together - the SBS doco has 4 members so I guess there have been some changes along the way?

We all met at a Muslim youth camp back in 99, we shared a passion for hip-hop and we were all students of knowledge.

We were all teenagers at the time and were invited by the camp administrators to form some entertainment, we put a small rap together, which worked pretty well. We all got along, the camp participants and admin loved the piece and so The Brothahood was born. Back then it was only the 4 of us, we have known Timur for a long time, he started as our manager and has now become a vital part of the group.

Alhamdulilah we were all born Muslim. We are a diverse group which is the unique thing about us. Many friends come together because of their racial identification with each other. We came together because of our islamic identification. Jehad and Moustafa are Lebanese and are brothers. Hesham is Burmese, Ahmed is Egyptian and Timur is Turkish.

We are all working/studying fulltime, although we would love to make The Brothahood a fulltime thing if it was possible.

The majority of responses and feedback from the community has been positive overall. We do have our critics and we agree to disagree. There are different opinions when it comes to the topic of Music in Islam. Some scholars say that all music is totally forbidden whilst others follow the opinon that if the music is used for da’wah purposes and does not include haram references (drugs, violence, materialism) then it is permissible.

Just how much you can do if you try to set your intentions right and put your mind to something. I’m not saying that we are big but when we started this as teenagers we never ever thought we’d get to perform in front of thousands of people and meet top scholars from abroad. Alhamdulilah, it is all from Allah.

I think there are some identity issues, young muslims who feel unaccepted in Australian society because of how Muslims are generally portrayed in the media and the stereotypes and labels we are given. This leads to feelings of being outcasted and alienation. Our music tries to instill the pride of being Muslim into hearts, to motivate the youth to become future leaders and helps deal with racism and misconceptions.

Nothing is as it seems.