(RNS) — Lewis understood Muslims as violent by nature, irrational, abusive toward women, lacking in culture. He could not conceive of Muslims in the context of modernity.

(RNS) People may not have had racist intent in their voting, but the result is racist.

(RNS) Muslims have to show we are not perpetrators and we can never talk about how we are victims.

(RNS) His religious identity was new to the American public, but he did with it what many believers have done — offered a voice of moral clarity and urgency to the issues of the day.

(RNS) As an American Muslim, I want people to stop hating me, but I am not looking for someone to love me.

(RNS) to view the assault as simply about images of Muhammad is to accept a long-standing narrative about Muslim sensitivity to portrayals of Muhammad, which plays into conceptions of Muslims as superstitious savages.

(RNS) At one point in our history, a prosecutor could argue that an outwardly observant Muslim was unlikely to kill someone. Changing political realities have altered that logic.

(RNS) Racism is not about racists. It is about power that is directed against marginalized groups to keep them marginalized.

(RNS) Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig, showed that Muslims and non-Muslims are more invested in the care of Muslims than the Islamic State.

(RNS) Inclusion on the school calendar is an important symbol of belonging. Muslims want to be part of that narrative as well.