“I have long believed that speaking truth is both the simplest way of leading your life and one of the most difficult to achieve.” – Judith Atchison, Quaker author

As Muslims in the U.S. and around the world face increased violence, surveillance, and discrimination, we take a look at what is being written about Islamophobia and what we can do to put an end to it.

A Muslim woman was set on fire in New York. Now just going out requires courage, by Linda Sarsour, via the Guardian

Jiddu Krishnamurti, one of the great spiritual teachers of the twentieth century, was giving a talk to a group of children, and a little boy was brave enough to ask, “What is the difference between meditation and concentration?” Krishnamurti replied, “Do you really want to talk about that? Or is it a game? Or just fun to talk about something I might be interested in? Is that it? You really want to know what is meditation and concentration?

Emily McGrew is the Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow with Friends Relations at AFSC in 2016-2017. She was born in Indiana and grew up attending New Castle First Friends Meeting. She graduated from Earlham College in 2015 with a degree in Biology. Her first year with QVS was served with Mural Arts Philadelphia. 

September 9 marks the 45^th anniversary of the Attica uprising, when about 1,000 people incarcerated at the Attica Correctional Facility took over the prison yard to demand dignity and basic human rights. Forty-five years later, the U.S. prison population has increased from around 200,000 to 2.4 million, and people in prison face draconian sentences, rampant human rights violations, and wages that are less than $1/hour. This year, on the anniversary of the Attica uprising, prisoners across the country have launched a nationwide work strike.

Dina El-Rifai worked with AFSC's Communities Against Islamophobia project. She has also served as Public Policy Fellow in AFSC's Office of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington, D.C.

 “A transformation of contemporary cultures starts with desperate and faithful citizens on the edges, ready to fly to the center.” Rev. Billy Talen

I visited Gaza in May of 2014. Witnessing the dire situation first-hand and listening to my new Palestinian friends tell stories of life in a war zone helped me come to a critical understanding about the transformative work to which I and others are called: Love calls us to stand in the way of injustice.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment, a history of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Alison has long worked against war and racism and was first arrested for activism against racism fifty years ago.