In this inspiring episode of Provoking Peace, we sit down with Nina Fernando, Executive Director of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, to explore the real work of peacebuilding at the intersections of religion, identity, and justice. Nina shares how her Sri Lankan Catholic upbringing shaped her understanding of faith, how she finds beauty and complexity in all religious traditions, and why she believes human dignity must be at the center of confronting rising anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bigotry.

Nina offers a powerful look into what it means to build trust across communities, hold difficult conversations with compassion, and expand coalitions beyond “the choir.” She also opens up about her creative life as a musician.

Key Takeaways:

• Human dignity is non-negotiable, and must ground all responses to intersecting bigotries.
• Peace work requires meeting people where they are, even when disagreements run deep.
• Trust is built long before moments of crisis, through consistency, presence, and authentic relationship-building.
• Coalitions grow through voice-to-voice and face-to-face connection, not through email or social media alone.
• Women are central faith leaders, even in traditions where clergy roles are male-dominated.
• Art and music can agitate, heal, inspire, and create new paths forward, especially when institutions fall short.

About Shoulder to Shoulder

The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign works to counter anti-Muslim discrimination and build a more pluralistic America. Their work centers on equipping, connecting, and mobilizing communities through trainings, faith-rooted partnerships, national networks, and resources like their new primer on anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bigotry.

About Nina Fernando:

Nina is a Sri Lankan Catholic, community organizer, musician, and interfaith leader. Her work spans labor rights, faith-rooted justice initiatives, and national coalition building. With a deep belief in human dignity, relationship-building, and creative engagement, she leads Shoulder to Shoulder with compassion and clarity. She is also a singer-songwriter whose music reflects love, longing, and commitment to a better world.

Notable Quotes:

• “Human dignity… it’s not conditional. There’s no ifs and whens.” — Nina Fernando
• “We can work shoulder to shoulder, dream shoulder to shoulder… even disagree shoulder to shoulder.” — Nina Fernando

Resources Mentioned:

Organizations:

• Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign
• Unity Productions Foundation (producers of The Sultan and the Saint)
• Parents Circle – Families Forum (referenced as part of broader peace-related conversations)
• Interfaith Alliance
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
• Union for Reform Judaism

Initiatives + Tools:

• I Still Love You on Youtube
• Faith Over Fear: a national training program for clergy and lay leaders to counter anti-Muslim discrimination
• Annual Interfaith Ramadan Iftar Map<

In this episode of Provoking Peace, we sit down with Dr. Daisy Khan—founder of WISE (Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality), global interfaith leader, and author of 30 Rights of Muslim Women—for a wide-ranging and deeply honest conversation about media narratives, faith, gender justice, and the urgent work of peacebuilding in divided times.

Daisy reflects on how 40 years of negative media imagery—from televised violence under the Taliban to the absence of Muslim voices during coverage of ISIS—have profoundly shaped public perception of Muslims, particularly Muslim women. She explains how Orientalism and politically expedient framing have positioned Muslims as a permanent national security threat, enabling war, dehumanization, and the erosion of press independence.

The conversation explores how Muslim women are persistently portrayed as oppressed despite historical and contemporary evidence to the contrary. Daisy points to Islamic scripture granting women rights to education, inheritance, property, and leadership as early as the 7th century—and highlights the civic, professional, and political leadership of Muslim women today in the United States.

Daisy also discusses why she wrote 30 Rights of Muslim Women: as a faith-based resource for Muslim women reclaiming their rights, and as a myth-busting reference for broader audiences. Drawing on shared narratives across Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, she emphasizes that women have always been central spiritual actors—co-stewards of prophetic missions rather than sidelined figures.

Throughout the episode, Daisy returns to the idea that peace is not passive. It is sacred, difficult, and urgent work. From Islamophobia trainings in corporate spaces to interfaith dialogue rooted in active listening, she calls for honest conversations that humanize rather than divide. Peace, she argues, begins when we refuse fear-based narratives and commit to understanding one another without demanding agreement.

Key Takeaways:

• Media framing has played a central role in shaping anti-Muslim bigotry, particularly through decades of unbalanced and dehumanizing imagery.
• Muslim women’s rights are deeply rooted in Islamic scripture, including rights to education, inheritance, property, and leadership.
• Political agendas often drive media narratives, enabling war, fear, and the demonization of entire communities.
• Women have always played central spiritual and leadership roles in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—history has simply been selectively told.
• 30 Rights of Muslim Women serves both as a faith-based reference for Muslim women and an educational tool for non-Muslims.
• Religion is frequently weaponized for political ends, affecting women’s rights across cultures and faiths.
• Peacebuilding requires honest dialogue, active listening, and the courage to engage across differences.
• Peace is sacred work rooted in urgency, service, and responsibility to one’s community and humanity.

About the Guest

Dr. Daisy Khan is a globally recognized interfaith leader, activist, and founder of WISE (Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality). Her work focuses on women’s rights within Islam, countering extremism, and building bridges across faiths. She is the author of 30 Rights of Muslim Women, a comprehensive reference on women’s rights grounded in Islamic theology and history.

Notable Quotes:

“Forty years of negative imaging has consequences. When you only show one story, people believe that’s the truth.”

Organizations / Initiatives Referenced

• WISE (Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality)
• Interfaith dialogue and Islamophobia ed

*RECORDED IN DECEMBER 2024*

In this episode of Provoking Peace, we sit down with two remarkable women doing interfaith justice work in one of the most painful political moments of our time: Rabbi Nancy Kreimer, founder of the Department of Multi-Faith Studies & Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Samah El-Haj Ibrahim, a Palestinian refugee, scholar, and professor of political theory.

Samah shares the lived reality of being born a stateless Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, with no political or civil rights — unable to vote, own property, or even travel freely. She describes how Palestinian culture survives through family, food, language, art, and the yearning for a homeland that “lives in us, rather than us living in it.”

Rabbi Nancy reflects on growing up in post-Holocaust America, how her understanding of Jewish identity shifted over decades, and why she now speaks out against white Christian nationalism and the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Jewish bigotry.

Together, they share how they met, how they grieve all children lost — Israeli and Palestinian — and why building an interfaith group during a genocide is both painful and necessary. Their collaboration models what it looks like to refuse enemy narratives and instead choose shared mourning, shared humanity, and shared action.

Key Takeaways:

• Cultural identity survives in diaspora through language, food, art, family stories, and intentional teaching across generations.
• Being a Palestinian refugee means inheriting statelessness — no citizenship, no political or civil rights, and constant barriers to work, travel, and belonging.
• Identity evolves over time. Rabbi Nancy’s understanding of Jewish identity shifted as she witnessed the rise of white Christian nationalism and the politicization of “anti-Semitism.”
• White Christian nationalism poses a profound threat to both Jewish and Muslim communities in the U.S.
• Interfaith solidarity during genocide is painful but healing. Creating spaces to mourn all lives lost — without false equivalences — is radical and restorative.
• Interfaith work matters. Both women have seen moments of hope through community building, shared vigils, and witnessing each other’s grief and humanity.

About the Guests

Rabbi Nancy Kreimer

Rabbi Nancy Kreimer is a pioneer in interfaith dialogue and multi-faith education. She founded the Department of Multi-Faith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, where she served for nearly 30 years.

She is co-author of:
Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim, Christian, Jewish Reflections on Compassion and Peace. Her work centers on justice, shared humanity, and challenging nationalist or supremacist interpretations within faith traditions.

Samah El-Haj Ibrahim

Samah is an adjunct professor at Moore College of Art & Design specializing in political theory, citizenship, statelessness, and the Middle East. Born a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, she brings personal and academic insight into questions of identity, displacement, and belonging. She is currently writing a book on citizenship in unrecognized states.

Notable Quotes:

• “Palestine has always lived in us, rather than us living in Palestine.” — Samah
• “White Christian nationalism is a much greater threat to Jews than anti-Zionism.” — Rabbi Nancy

Resources Mentioned:

Books

• Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim, Christian, Jewish Reflections on Compassion and Peace — Rabbi Nancy Kreimer & co-authors

Organizations / Groups Referenced

• Departme