My Voice Matters, So Does Yours
By Yasmin Nouh
Blog Editor at The Huffington Post 

I am   a 2014 ISF Scholarship Recipient. I currently work as an Editor at The Huffington Post. 
At The Huffington Post, I've had the pleasure of being consulted on a number of videos related to American Muslims and Islam, as well as pitching and helping produce said videos. Recently, the HuffPost Religion editor pitched the idea of a video about the word jihad and its meaning from a purely spiritual perspective.
She asked me and another Muslim editor for our thoughts on the idea. What followed was an hour-long discussion where we opened up about our frustrations with the word "jihad" and with so many other beautiful, spiritual concepts in Islam that have become tainted by negative depictions in politics and in media. To us, "jihad" no longer meant "the greater struggle" -- it was simply a word that we felt anxious about despite its beauty. 
The religion editor and video producer sat and listened to my colleague and me discuss the tensions and complexities behind being a Muslim in America at this time. They decided to scrap the original idea of a simple explainer on the word "Jihad" and a new idea was born -- one that everyone agreed spoke to a palpable reality that needed to be shared.
The producer interviewed five Muslims including my colleague and me, and out of that came a three-part-series on Islam. The  first video was about jihad  in all of its meanings, the second about  what it's like to be Muslim in America  and the third one will be released soon. 
By supporting Muslims in the newsroom, we're making a real-world impact. When you have people who can authentically speak for the communities they represent, it makes for better storytelling on that community, it enhances journalism and, inshaAllah, it betters our society, too.