Advancing |
Turning communities into friends, advocates, and allies
The Qissah is a podcast and a dynamic storytelling platform. The term "Qissah," which means "story" in Arabic and some South Asian languages, encapsulates our essence. We focus on social/racial justice issues and the challenges faced by indigenous communities in the United States and around the globe. Through our stories, we delve into the intricacies of injustices and human rights violations to raise awareness and amplify the voices of those advocating for equality and justice. This page serves as a space to recognize one another's struggles, foster meaningful connections, and promote a new era of peace and global solidarity, ultimately working towards a just and compassionate world.
Vision: To create, inspire, and promote a vibrant global movement that stretches across generations to fight for justice, human rights, and peaceful coexistence using the power of storytelling.
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Check Out the PodcastEveryone has a story. The Qissah is a place to delve into these diverse stories of identity, resilience, solidarity, justice, and hope. Stories provide a potent means of expression and demonstrate the courage and resilience required to navigate pressing issues. Each episode features influential scholars and activists who share unique perspectives and narratives on racial justice, human rights, and Indigenous Peoples’ issues. Through the power of shared stories, we become catalysts for change—uplifting and empowering. |
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Education.compassion.action
Omer Bartov arrived at his conclusions about genocide in Gaza the way historians arrive at most things: by watching patterns repeat until denial becomes impossible. Born in Tel Aviv and surrounded in childhood by Holocaust survivors, he spent decades studying why human beings perpetrate violence. "The question of violence," he said. "The question of why human beings, under particular circumstances, perpetrate such violence, often gratuitous violence, against others." He watched the Holocaust become weaponized...
Ilan Pappé was born in Haifa in 1954 to German Jewish parents who had fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s. His upbringing followed what he calls "the regular Israeli-Jewish trajectory"—school, then army service at eighteen, then university.
Nothing in this early biography suggested the controversy that would later surround him, the death threats that would drive him from Israel, or the twenty-four books that would make him one of the most influential historians of the Palestinian experience. Yet somewhere between his... 
What would it take to challenge the values that shaped your identity? For Miko Peled, a world-renowned activist, author, and former Zionist raised by key figures in Israel’s establishment as a state, it meant facing uncomfortable truths and breaking societal norms. Miko’s remarkable transformation as a global human rights advocate offers a glimpse into the necessary work that allows one to challenge ingrained beliefs to fight for justice. Miko is a...
Sunita Viswanath was born in Madras into an upper-caste South Indian family, and she carries with her a peculiar inheritance: the memory of loving people who practiced untouchability. This contradiction has grown to become the architecture of her life's work. As a small child in India during the late 1960s and early 70s, she watched her family enforce the caste system while she vocally protested, not yet understanding the systems she opposed but knowing instinctively that something was seriously wrong. "I can't disavow my community. It's like...
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Join us for our new campaign, "From Turtle Island to Palestine: Storytelling Beyond Borders"— a powerful collection of stories, memories, & resistance from Turtle Island to the olive groves of Palestine. This campaign focuses on solidarity, indigenous rights, and the shared struggle of colonized peoples. Through story sharing, we connect the dots of interconnected struggles and take action together — one Story at a time! |
When we talk about Kashmir, we often hear about territorial disputes, geopolitical tensions, and occasional flare-ups between nuclear-armed neighbors.
What gets lost in these discussions is a fundamental reality that scholar Ather Zia emphasizes repeatedly: Kashmir is home to 8 million people whose voices have been systematically silenced. "We're not talking about a sweater, we're not talking about wool, we're not talking about a region that's a territory between... 
The phone rings at unusual hours now. Students, colleagues, journalists — all seeking answers from Professor Sahar Aziz about a country that feels increasingly unrecognizable to many who study it for a living. Her voice carries the weight of someone who has spent decades watching the slow erosion of principles she once believed were bedrock American values.
Aziz knows a lot about being caught between worlds. As an American Muslim, she experienced what she calls a... 
Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American human rights attorney and co-founder of Freedom Flotilla from Michigan, has organised to break Israel’s illegal naval blockade on Gaza since 2008. She was sailing with the 2010 Freedom Flotilla in 2010 when Israeli commandos killed ten activists aboard the flotilla’s flagship--Mavi Marmara--in international waters. This past October, Israeli forces violently intercepted the latest vessel Huwaida was aboard-- “Conscious”, a boat carrying medical aid for Gaza and 92 civilians—half of them journalists and healthcare...
Prof. Segal and Malkah's stories are part of a burgeoning movement—one that refuses to equate Jewish identity with support for a militarized ethnostate, and instead embraces a vision of justice rooted in collective liberation. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the national organization they belong to, is at the heart of that shift. With tens of thousands of members and chapters across the country, JVP is mobilizing Jews and allies to confront...
Her grandmother’s English, Bianca Mabute-Louie says, was nonexistent. In San Gabriel Valley, a Los Angeles suburb where Cantonese billboards outnumber English ones and grocery stores stock bitter melon alongside Frosted Flakes, this wasn’t a liability. “She did not cooperate,” Mabute-Louie says. “She went her own way.” This refusal — to bend, to translate, to disappear — is the gravitational center of Bianca Mabute-Louie’s work. A sociology PhD candidate at...
As a psychologist, anti-racism educator, and advocate for marginalized communities, Dr. Nathalie Edmond's journey informs her approach for dismantling systems of white supremacy, colonialism, and intergenerational trauma.
Dr. Edmond owns a therapy practice called Mindful and Multicultural Counseling and leads an online membership community called Antiracism Revolution, all while authoring a best selling book, “Mindful Race Talk... 
Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American attorney, activist, and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), shared her journey and vision for the Palestinian cause in our recent storytelling interview, emphasizing the importance of global solidarity. Born to parents who fled occupied Palestine in search of a better future, she grew up with a keen awareness of the injustices faced by her people. Recognizing the privilege, she had received, Arraf felt a “tremendous...
In an enlightening conversation with Matthew Clark, a Michigan-based American Jew and activist, we delved into his personal journey of self-discovery and transformation. Matt's story is one of introspection, critical thinking, and a deep commitment to justice. From his upbringing in a community where support for Israel was synonymous with Jewish identity to his...
Raised in a family where Dawud Walid's mother's side was Christian and his father's side Muslim, he navigated complex interfaith dynamics from an early age. "I had a problem with the whole idea of Trinity," he reflected, recounting his teenage spiritual explorations. This struggle led him to Malcolm X's autobiography, which profoundly inspired him to embrace Islam fully and commit to activism. "Malcolm X's journey... put me on the path to Islam,"...
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Simran Jeet Singh was born and raised in South Texas to Sikh immigrant parents. Coming to the United States from Punjab in the 1970s meant facing years of prejudice in their own neighborhood. Singh grew up carrying a visible difference in a place that had little context for it: a turban. With that visibility came an early education in racism and religious bigotry—being denied service at restaurants, barred from...
Rene Lichtman, born in 1937, is a man whose life story is woven from the threads of history’s darkest and most resilient moments. As a hidden child during the Holocaust, Lichtman survived the horrors of Nazi-occupied France. Today, he is a vocal critic of what he terms the “ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza,” drawing unsettling parallels between...
Raised in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Jonathan Kuttab's early life was marked by the political upheaval of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After his family moved to the United States following the Six-Day War, Kuttab pursued a law degree from Virginia Law School and later practiced on Wall Street. However, the pull of his homeland—torn apart by decades of conflict—was too strong to resist...
In this podcast interview, Jaike Spotted Wolf—a prominent voice in the fight for Native American rights—shared her compelling life story. Born into the Hidatsa and Mandan tribes, with lineage also tracing back to the Assiniboine and Fort Peck Sioux of Montana and North Dakota, her experiences are marked by resilience, awakening, and advocacy.
"Growing up in southern Idaho, there wasn't a lot of race, there wasn't a lot of forgiveness, but there was a lot of trauma happening within... 
For nearly two decades, I have been passionately engaged in interfaith work to advance inclusion, justice, and peace through genuine interfaith dialogue and alliance. Today, I am disillusioned. Sadly, I have found that in times of crisis, crucial issues go unaddressed, and hard conversations are off the table, shrouded in a silence that maintains the status quo. Too often, interfaith efforts revolve around social gatherings, shared values, and tolerance, forfeiting the opportunity to delve into the deep and pressing issues of our times, issues that demand our attention and solidarity. While fostering love and service to humanity across all traditions is vital, these...
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