Samar Dahmash Jarrah

“As Americans, the vast majority of us might recall that our ancestors began here as outsiders, immigrants and strangers, not citizens; an even more compelling reason to remember the Golden Rule. Jefferson would do so at the end of his life, following a pronounced pattern in those who had fought before him against the persecution of Muslims.”
― Denise A. Spellberg, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders

“At the time, I thought that the outrage expressed by some toward Congressman Ellison’s election and private swearing-in on the Qur’an might have been averted if only more Americans had known their own founding history better, a past that had prepared an eventual place for Congressman Ellison, not in spite of his religion, but because of it.”
― Denise A. Spellberg, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders

“تذكرت سيدنا عمر بن الخطاب الذي كان يخشي أن يسأله الله عن بغلة عثرت في العراق، وقارنته بالبغال الذين لا يخشون أن يسألهم الله عن ملايين البشر الذين ساسوهم فزادوهم رهقا.”
― بلال فضل, السكان الأصليين لمصر

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in.”
― Naomi Shihab Nye, I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven