Muslim Manga Organization

Bring forth light in a new age of darkness.
We live in a time where we may be free to do a lot of things, especially in western countries, but freedom of information or freedom of thought is not as accessible, with different narratives being forced upon us. At Muslim Manga, we want to do our part in helping push forward more neutral yet accurate understandings of Muslims and Islam. Ultimately it is the readers decision what to do next with this information, but we aim to at least be the little step that helps people jump from darkness and dive into the depths of light.

Our Birth
The earliest form of Muslim Manga, came from an idea that came to mind in a Hajj pilgrimage, where a young man decided he wanted to combine his interests and talents along with Islam to make God proud that he was using what he had for a good cause.

Understandably, this early stage Muslim Manga was not formed into its final version right from the onset. It went through some changes before it evolved into a more mature idea. It started as a discussion board where Muslims and artists who shared an interest in anime and manga frequented. The name of the organization itself went through a few different iterations such as iAnime, short for Islamic Anime, and MManga, short for the current Muslim Manga.

An epiphany
On May 1st 2009, a few weeks before graduating high school, a new spark came.

That spark came from being involved and observing online communities of Muslim artists. The idea was to establish Muslim Manga on social media and art sites, specifically deviantArt, at that time. So almost instantly after the idea came, the Muslim Manga group was made on deviantArt and the first contest for Muslim Manga, called Muslim Manga Monthly was started. That was just the beginning of our long journey of contests for our community.

Contests and Community
Through our contests, we established and nurtured artists and helped grow the community. Our contests started with a monthly contests aimed at having an ongoing comic being made. After that, a variety of theme based and topic based contests were made to attract more artists and community members.

Along this journey, Muslim Manga characters also started to be formed. Aya, was almost immediately made, and she was followed with her brother, Sura, and eventually other characters such as Isa as well.

Something Specially New
After a few iterations of the website, a new well-designed website was launched, and many long manga started to be made, a long side other types of content such as animatics, motion comics, as well as other projects such as sticker packs for certain apps as well.

One year later

A new website dedicated to reading manga was made, called NurManga. This is a sister project of Muslim Manga, dedicated to creating a better manga reading experience for the readers.

Other projects were also launched along this site.

Continuing our path
A refocus on the Muslim Manga website, along with focus on more frequent content makes 2017 a great year for Muslim Manga. There is more manga, tutorials, epic contests, and even conferences that Muslim Manga is involved in.

2018–2023: Original series, media attention and new platforms
These years were about making comics. Work went deep on the Muslim Manga Club series, Hana & Love began in 2018, and Muslim Manga Lunchtime and Journey of a Muslim grew alongside them, especially between 2017 and 2020. Artwork and short series also went out on Instagram, reaching readers beyond the website.

In 2018, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK featured Muslim Manga. The coverage included a web article (in Japanese, archived), a news segment on the Manga X Muslim World 2018 forum, an extended interview, and a radio and podcast appearance. NHK also produced a short voiced version of a Hana & Love comic, which aired with the interview.

At that forum we spoke and exhibited: the best submissions from a contest were shown next to other comics, and speakers joined from the wider manga world. We also collaborated and spoke at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), appeared at conferences, and from 2017 to 2020 held meetups in Tokyo where people could come and learn about the project. Contests continued too, including the Unity and Diversity manga contest.

Around 2020, Muslim Manga grew into Aya & Sura, a company that turns the characters into educational products. It started with flashcards, and a children’s book is in the works. The volunteer community grew as well, including volunteer translators and language-specific sites that brought the comics to readers in more languages.

2024–2025: Out in person, and printing again
In 2024 and 2025 Muslim Manga became much more active in person: going to local events and Islamic conferences, setting up a stall, and talking with people face to face. We also started printing manga again.

Rebuilding, and going to print
In 2026 Muslim Manga is going through a major revamp of the whole project, with a clearer direction for what comes next. We are also preparing to print a lot more manga.

What we do today

Muslim Manga creates and supports visual stories that make room for Muslim characters, cultures, ideas and creators, while remaining open to readers from every background.

Read: publish original and community comics.
Discover: catalogue relevant visual storytelling from around the world.
Create: give artists and writers a place to share and grow.
Community: connect readers and creators.
Premium: offer deeper access that supports production.
Learn: share practical creative skills through tutorials and learning resources.

What “Muslim Manga” means here

Not every story needs to be a religious lesson. Some works teach directly about Islam. Others simply let Muslim characters live, joke, struggle, love, learn and make mistakes like any other characters.