Jewish Voice for Peace describes itself as a grass-roots organization opposed to anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry and for Palestinian self-determination and peace in the Middle East. It has multiple branches across the U.S. and lists many local activist leaders by city. Rebecca Vilkomerson is the executive director and Naomi Dann is the media coordinator.

The International Press Institute has prepared a handbook for journalists, titled “Use With Care: A Reporter’s Glossary of Loaded Language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” It’s available in print or PDF form (registration required) and includes suggested alternatives to problematic terms.

Ruqayya Khan is an associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif. She is an expert on women in Islam and Islam in the digital age. She teaches courses on feminism in the Quran and Islam and environmentalism.

The American Islamic Congress was founded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and works to fight steroetypes about Islam and battle extremism and terrorism. It runs programs in the U.S. and overseas. Zainab Al-Suwaij is executive director.

Omar Ashour is a senior lecturer in Middle East politics and security studies at the University of Exeter in England. One of his areas of expertise is Islamist movements and ideologies.

Omar Ahmed Shahin is an imam, a lawyer and director of the Islamic studies program at the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Ind. He is an expert on Islam in the Middle East and in the U.S. and Islamic law and the family.

Maajid Nawaz is co-founder of the Quilliam Foundation, an international think tank based in London that focuses on integration, citizenship and identity, religious freedom, extremism and immigration. He is the author of Radical: My Journey Out of Islamic Extremism. He gave a TED Talk on fighting religious extremism.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, the website Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East and The International New York Times. He is also the author of Islam Without Extremes. In 2011, he delivered a TED Talk on the subject of faith versus tradition in Islam.

While nearly 1 in four people identify as Muslim across the globe, a Pew Research survey in 2019 found that only six-in-ten U.S. adults know that Ramadan is an Islamic holy month and that Mecca is Islam’s holiest city and a place of pilgrimage for Muslims.  Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Muslim […]