This story is from Hannah Abdul-Awwal , Founder of Shahadah Stories. Shahadah Stories is a stage production, featuring true stories that shed light on every day people and their journey to become Muslim. Her story is about her reaction and emotions after the San Bernardino shooting and the moments before, during, and after a community vigil she attended in memory of the lives lost in San Bernardino, CA.

Episode 2: The Vigil

So what is Muslim Storytellers about? Well, storytelling has been trending for a while, to the point where it is now an established medium of communication of any event or story. Stories shows different, all perspectives of world event, small or big, local or international. My reason to make this happen was because of the narrative, taking back control of the Muslim narrative. The public needs to know about our stories. They are rich, diverse, and true. These will be stories that we hope Muslims and people of other faiths, relate to. Something gripping, outside of what the media talks about. When I write in my journal, I do it to get everything out of my mind into paper, hoping to make sense of it all – there is no method or order. When reading some of my previous entries, I was surprised. The bits and pieces put together made a great story, a true story – Muslim’s story. At the time, I did not know what to do with this, but it is clear now. The stories in them need to be told. Why? Because at least one person will get it. Why? Because they will feel empowered to tell their story and share perspectives that other people share, and even better, tell a whole new audience something they have not heard, seen, or experienced before – something different than what we hear on TV. For 15 years, we have been trying to make people understand, but condemnation, or continuously repeating “Islam is/means Peace” is not enough. We need to start a new record instead of playing the broken one repeatedly. We have a great opportunity to take back our narrative. And that is why Muslim Storytellers, or MuST, for short, has started. The idea is simple, get together, write, and narrate our own story and share it with others in a podcast series. Our podcast channel will have stories from different Muslim writers, regardless of age or writing skill, there is no restriction. The greatest story ever told is your story.

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Episode 2: The Vigil

Episode 2: The Vigil