MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Local faith leaders have been touring cities in Washington, exposing what they say is a well-funded industry focused on spreading Islamaphobia.

Aneelah Afzali, executive director of the American Muslim Empowerment Network - an initiative from the Redmond mosque the Muslim Association of Puget Sound - teamed up with Pastor Terry Kyllo of Neighbors in Faith. They have been touring since September, as the "Faith Over Fear Roadshow," inviting communities to speak up about their feelings toward Muslims and Islam.

Afzali said much of the fear and hate directed at Muslims is rooted in a lack of knowledge about the faith.

"Unfortunately, the majority of our fellow Americans do not personally know a Muslim and do not know much about Islam,” Afzali said. "And I tell people that's a recipe for disaster at a time when there are individual groups and individuals who are profiting off of spreading misinformation and manipulation."

According to "Confronting Fear," a report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and UC Berkeley, 33 anti-Muslim groups received roughly $200 million between 2008 and 2013.

The Faith over Fear Roadshow will be at St. Paul Episcopal Church in Mount Vernon today, before their final stop in Vancouver on Thursday. Afzali said she hopes to take the tour to central and eastern Washington in 2018.

Instances of bullying, threats and harassment targeting Muslim communities are on the rise. During the shows, Afzali connects the present moment to history, noting that the American Muslims population is roughly equal to the Jewish population in 1930s Germany.

"The same kind of dehumanization that happened then is happening now in our country, in our time, in 2017,” she said. "And it's really sad and disturbing to see this, and it really should motivate all of us to be part of this movement of faith over fear."

Afzali said the audience response has been overwhelmingly positive, with some saying they'd never met a Muslim and may have even had negative views of the religion. But she said she also recognizes that some people won't be receptive, simply because of her faith.

"That's why we really try to encourage everybody to essentially become ambassadors, to go out there and also share this message of faith over fear, of facts over fiction and love over hate,” Afzali said.

She said she hopes others who believe in tolerance will help spread the word.


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Advocates and leaders are headed to the state capitol next week to voice their concerns over issues affecting Black communities in Tennessee.

The Equity Alliance wants lawmakers to know their human rights are in jeopardy. Seventeen percent of Tennessee's population is African-American and the group says their civil rights are under attack.

Alliance CEO Tequila Johnson said Black Tennesseans, LGBTQIA people and immigrants are being targeted when it comes to education policies, the makeup of the Nashville Metro Council... even drag show laws.

"Our Day on the Hill is our way of bringing everyday Tennessee as most of whom have never stepped foot in the state capitol, to the state capitol because we do believe that is the people's house," said Johnson. "And then the second thing is for them to hear from legislators and lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, we want people to be able to decide how they want to be governed and by whom."

Johnson said The Equity Alliance is also working to be sure people making laws in Tennessee, which are increasingly affecting more Black people, are face-to-face with their constituents impacted by the legislation.

Johnson said people statewide are concerned about what she calls an attack on public education, which heavily effects black and brown students in all parts of Tennessee.

She offered as evidence a 2021 law that requires schools to hold back third graders who don't pass the Tennessee Ready Reading Test, calling it 'extremely unfair and racially biased'.

"They are using the TCAP which there's tons of research that shows that standardized testing is biased culturally," said Johnson. "And it does not effectively measure a student's ability to read or whatever it is that they're testing them on. Standardized testing just measures of student's ability to take a test."

Johnson says the group's April 20 Town Hall meeting will focus on legalizing marijuana. The Equity Alliance is inviting experts and legislators to talk about what that might look like in Tennessee.

Incidents involving white supremacist propaganda reached an all-time high last year in the U.S., including a dramatic surge of incidents across New England.

White nationalist and neo-Nazi groups publicly marched, gathered and displayed hateful rhetoric in Boston, and beyond with some 465 incidents recorded in Massachusetts alone.

Peggy Shukur, New England interim regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said some hate groups are recruiting new members through often deceptive tactics.

"One group, Patriot Front, uses the Stars and Stripes to appear to be a mainstream group when instead they are a group that is virulently antisemitic and racist," Shukur explained.

In addition to the group's march through Boston Commons last July, groups also targeted bookstores, libraries, theaters and even hospitals with racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ messages. Shukur pointed out the incidents are being carried out by a small number of people having an outsized impact.

Researchers said the groups are increasingly moving from online forums to in-person gatherings, including on highway overpasses.

Shukur noted Massachusetts, known as the cradle of liberty, provides a dramatic flourish for hate groups to utilize, but she added communities are increasingly countering the hate with support for those being targeted.

"If your community instead comes out and said, 'we are with you, we see you', that's a really powerful message," Shukur emphasized.

Shukur stressed it is not recommended to engage or confront hate groups but the Anti-Defamation League encourages the public to report any incidents in an effort to hold them accountable.


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Communities of color in Colorado and across the West strongly support conservation policies, including protecting water supplies and transitioning to clean energy - according to the new "Conservation in the West" survey conducted by Colorado College.

Maite Arce - president and CEO of the Hispanic Access Foundation - said people of color, who are disproportionately impacted by air and water pollution, understand that conservation is linked to health outcomes, jobs and social justice.

"Latino, Black and indigenous voters in the West are not only passionate about the outdoors," said Arce, "they care about protecting our environment and about issues like climate change, pollution, and the impact of oil and gas drilling."

Nearly nine in ten people of color surveyed say oil and gas companies should be required to update equipment to prevent the release of methane and other air pollution.

Seventy-seven percent support transitioning to 100% clean, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. A strong majority expressed concerns about threats to drinking water, drought and Colorado River water shortages.

More than eight in ten people of color support financial incentives to replace lawns with water-saving landscaping, and say new residential developments should not be approved unless there are adequate water supplies.

Most people surveyed were not aware that 80% of Colorado River water goes to agriculture, and pollster Dave Metz - research partner and president of the firm FM3 - said more can be done to educate voters.

"Given how critical public concern is about water shortages," said Metz, "understanding how water is currently used is helpful in making decisions about what policies we need to enact to ensure that we have sustainable supplies for all of these sectors moving forward."

Communities of color are three times more likely to live in places considered nature deprived than their white counterparts, and 80% of those surveyed say it's important to conserve natural areas that connect lower income and communities of color to the outdoors.

"Nature is supposed to be a great equalizer," said Arce. "In reality, however, American society distributes nature's benefits, and the effects of its destruction and decline, unequally by race, income and age."