CHARLESTON, W. Va. — Islam has been in the news lately, in part because of attacks on the religion at the state Capitol. West Virginia's Muslim community wants people to be able to get accurate information about who they are and what they actually believe.

Nasir Abdussalam is the imam of the Islamic Association of West Virginia. He said the instinct for many might be to get their information online. But in this case, he specifically advises folks to stay off the internet — because there is so much bad information out there.

"That might be impossible for today's people, today's generation. But that would be my first piece of advice, is to try to connect with real people,” Abdussalam said.

A very high proportion of the state's Muslims came to West Virginia to practice medicine or another profession such as engineering. Nationally, Muslims have among the highest average education level of any religious group.

Abdussalam said one place folks can go online to get accurate information about Islam is seekersguidance.org, a mainstream Sunni website based in Canada.

"It's tailored to a Muslim audience,” he said. “But if a non-Muslim were to go to that site, they might not want to enroll in a class, but if they read the blog they can definitely get a sense of a proper understanding of Islam."

A poster and other materials put on display at the state Capitol earlier this month equated Islam with terrorism. But Abdussalam said verses in the Koran specifically prohibit attacks on civilians.

He said leaders of extremist groups sometimes are presented as religious leaders. But he said almost all of them are not actually trained in Islamic law or tenants of the faith.

"None of them are religiously trained,” Abdussalam said. “Bin Laden was an engineer; never studied theology, never studied law."

He said most large cities have mosques, although he admits not all of them are led by native English speakers.


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A Kent State University shooting survivor is warning Ohioans and others to take note of the U.S. military's involvement in immigration-related protests. She says it echoes a dark chapter in Ohio history -- when four students were shot by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970.

Chic Canfora, then a student protester and now a journalism professor at Kent State, said this weekend's deployment of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to contain protests feels chillingly familiar.

"It's just unconscionable that now the U.S. Marines, and not just the National Guard, are being deployed to an American city - not to respond to some foreign threat, but to stand in opposition to peaceful protests in Los Angeles," she said. "That does not belong in a democracy."

More than 350 protest-related arrests have been made across the country. California officials are suing for military withdrawal, while federal leaders defend the move as essential for public safety.

Canfora said protesters today -- in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Austin, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere -- are part of a long American tradition of speaking truth to power. She said they deserve protection, not repression.

"All of you who are doing this important work are part of a long line of Americans who have refused to be silenced," she said, "and you are what democracy looks like."

She also cautioned activists to stay vigilant, saying infiltrators may try to incite violence and discredit peaceful protests.

"It's very, very important for activists today and for all the protesters out there to be aware of people among them that don't belong," she said, "to isolate and expose those who are trying to make them look violent when they're not."

Canfora said history is watching. She believes the use of military force against civilian protestors anywhere in the United States threatens democracy everywhere, and urged Ohioans not to look away.


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As global conflicts and natural disasters escalate, groups like the Nonviolent Peaceforce, which works to protect civilians in conflict zones, faces severe funding challenges. The Trump administration's cancellation of nearly 90% of funding for USAID programs has sent shockwaves through the humanitarian sector.

The funding cuts also reverberate in the Sunshine State, home to more than 120 registered international relief organizations - among the highest concentrations in the country - including Miami-based World Relief and Coconut Creek's Food for the Poor.

The group Nonviolent Peaceforce said its Myanmar program is among the casualties.

Megan Rodgers, U.S. policy and advocacy manager for Nonviolent Peaceforce, said the timing couldn't be worse, as Myanmar grapples with the aftermath of devastating earthquakes.

"The stop-work order from the Trump administration in January, followed by cancellation of nearly 90% of all USAID programs, has definitely hit the sector really significantly. At a time when humanitarian needs have really never been higher, the funding available for those needs is really significantly contracting," she contended.

Despite partial 2025 funding restored after January's initial cuts, Nonviolent Peaceforce said critical gaps remain - from wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine to climate-driven disasters displacing millions. Rogers added they are now racing to protect 2026 budgets through the House subcommittee overseeing foreign aid, chaired by Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart.

Rodgers warned that merging USAID with the State Department, as proposed in a Trump administration memo, could slow critical aid responses. But she pointed to hope in South Sudan, where women from rival communities work together to protect children from violence.

"So, that's an example of community organizing that has actually protected a lot of children from abduction, from violence. Because women are stepping up and saying that they don't want to be part of this violence and they want to protect themselves from it - so, stepping away from that cyclical process of violence," she continued.

As congressional budget negotiations unfold, peacekeeping groups stress that the stakes extend far beyond politics - and that millions of lives hang in the balance.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ties with a controversial church based in Idaho and critics said the church's Christian nationalist views could guide his role in the Trump administration.

Hegseth is part of a church in Tennessee associated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, founded by Doug Wilson in Moscow, Idaho, in the 1970s. The church holds extreme beliefs, including that the United States should follow biblical law.

Julie Ingersoll, professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, has studied Christian Reconstructionists like Wilson. She said Hegseth's church is not like a megachurch in which you walk in and think of yourself as a member.

"That's just not how this kind of a church system works," Ingersoll explained. "In order to join, you have to attest to believing the same things and in order to remain a member you have to continue to believe those things."

Ingersoll added membership is strict and if people's beliefs change, they can be brought before the church courts on heresy charges. Wilson began his movement in part because he found a lack of sufficient Christian school options for his daughter. Hegseth has expressed similar views for his children.

The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches has congregations in almost every state and holds other extreme views, such as criminalization of people in the LGBTQ+ community. They are also deeply patriarchal, which Ingersoll noted is a label the church itself uses, with some arguing women should not have the right to vote.

Ingersoll pointed out Hegseth backtracked during his confirmation hearing on whether women should serve in the military.

"He kind of switched it in a soft way to not believing that women should be in combat," Ingersoll recounted. "That gives a flexibility to allow people to hear what he's saying and go, 'Oh, yeah. Maybe that's not a terrible thing.'"

In 2020, Hegseth published a book which mischaracterized the Islamic faith and positioned Muslims as historic enemies of the West. Ingersoll stressed the belief also flows from the church to which he belongs.

"For him, Islam and all other world religions and all other ideological systems, all isms, flow out of original sin in the Garden of Eden because they're all based in this idea that humans can reason apart from God," Ingersoll explained.


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