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GREENSBORO — When the Arab Spring began to unfold, Todd Drake figured his government-sanctioned trip to do an art project in Bahrain would be canceled.

On the contrary.

“They said, you’ll be of more service now than ever before,” Drake recalls. “I think the State Department was trying to heal the wounds. I think they were trying to show there is a way to allow dissent.”

Drake started the project here four years ago, with the aim of breaking down stereotypes of Muslims. Called “Esse Quam Videri: American Muslims’ Self Portraits,” it showed the richness and diversity of Muslims living in North Carolina. In taking the “Esse Quam Videri” project to a Muslim country in turmoil, Drake captured self-portraits of a diverse, and sometimes divided community.

Though he was given artistic freedom, he also was warned not to talk about certain subjects. He came back, grateful for the freedoms he enjoys in his own country, to find his country proposing the military detention of American citizens suspected of terrorism. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law Dec. 31.

“Now, I’m really concerned about where that’s going to go,” Drake says. “I fear that we’re headed toward completely shunning the Muslim community in this country.”

It was the backlash against Muslims after 9/11 that spurred Drake to undertake the original project. He wanted to counter the perception of all Muslims as terrorists. Though it may appear that emotions have calmed in the decade since the attack, hostility toward Muslims has grown, he says.

Muslims account for a disproportionate number of federal discrimination cases in workplaces, schools and municipalities, according to Thomas Perez, the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. Violence against Muslims also has skyrocketed since 9/11.

“I’m not trying to glorify the Muslim community,” Drake says. “I’m trying to provoke my own community to be their better selves.”

Drake, a fine arts instructor at Rockingham Community College and an artist in residence at the UNC Center for Global Initiatives, spent four years putting together the original exhibit, based on the North Carolina state motto, which means, “To be, rather than to seem.”

It traveled to Michigan, New York and Rhode Island, as well as North Carolina, and caught the attention of a United Nations representative who was married to one of Drake’s colleagues.

With funding from a Fulbright-Hays grant and the support of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain, Drake spent two weeks in Bahrain in May, collaborating with Bahraini artists to create “Esse Quam Videri: Self Portraits by Bahraini Muslims.” The portraits reflect their experiences in their home country, but also send a message to America.

Drake asked only that they avoid images of violence. The theme he wanted to explore was human needs, and violence is not a human need.

The threat of violence was still palpable in May, with police checkpoints in locations throughout the capital city of Manama, and police with machine guns still guarding the overpass where protests were staged beginning in February 2011. In Bahrain, anti-government protests were quickly crushed in a harsh government crackdown.

Thousands were rounded up, detained and some tortured.

“They picked this issue of trust, because trust in their leadership has been shattered,” Drake says.

Drake was surprised that none of his work was censored, nor did U.S. or Bahraini officials ask him to withhold any of the portraits that were shot, though at least a third were provocative.

There is Khawala, looking squarely into the camera. “Nowadays, all people tend to lie; family, friends, politics, and the Media,” her essay begins. Ahmed is pictured behind razor wire and a piece of paper that says, “Trust is like a paper once it’s crumbled it’s never Perfect again.”

“What I learned is bravery in the face of adversity,” Drake says. “This was only three months after (the uprising), with people still being jailed. In a country that doesn’t guarantee freedom of speech, this community shared their concerns.”

Members of the royal family even toured the exhibits, and took in the portraits without any negative reaction.

“I think the community loved the break it provided from the pressure of the moment,” Drake says. “We had men and women, Sunni and Shia, the royal family and peasants, all together in this little bubble. It showed the potential of what art can do.”

He hopes the exhibit gives people a broader view of Muslims, both here and abroad.

“There is such beautiful diversity in the Muslim community,” Drake says. “We make a mistake when we see it as monolithic.

“The other thing I learned is that wherever we are, we tend of think of that as our entire world. So this is about looking outside your own box. And remembering that our country is stronger because of its diversity.”

Contact Susan Ladd at 373-7006 or susan.ladd@news-record.com