The Change the Conversation Journal

For a long time, humanity has searched for God through religion. Through churches, mosques, temples, rituals, scriptures, and traditions, people have tried to understand the divine and make meaning of life. And within these paths, there is undeniable beauty. There are teachings about love, mercy, discipline, compassion, forgiveness, service, humility, and peace. But history also reveals something uncomfortable. No religion practiced by human beings has been untouched by power, control, fear, or contradiction. There were periods in history where some Muslims believed the world should submit to Islam, just as there were periods where some Christians believed the entire world must accept Christ. Both faiths contain deeply peaceful teachings, yet both have also been used at different times to justify violence, conquest, superiority, and forced belief. Christian history carries the weight of the Crusades, colonization, forced conversions, slavery defended through scripture, and extremist gr...

​ I was raised in remembrance. My childhood was a tapestry of many faces, many tongues, many ways of worship. Uncles and aunties from different religions, tribes, cultures, and lands moved through my life not as “others,” but as extensions of something familiar… something shared. I was born Muslim and nurtured within its path. Yet love did not arrive to me in one language or faith. It came in many forms. It came through hands that prayed differently. Through voices that called on God in other ways. Through hearts that recognized my mother, held her, stood beside her, and loved her without condition. And in loving her, they loved us. So I did not learn division. I learned presence. No one asked us to become what we were not. No one imposed belief as a condition for belonging. There was a quiet reverence between us, unspoken, yet deeply understood. A knowing that did not need to declare itself. Some walked with us into Islamic studies. And we, with equal ease, walked into churches. As fl...

For a long time, I measured my creativity by how visible it was. By how much I could produce, how quickly I could share, how easily it could be understood by others. T thought expression had to be constant to be meaningful. I thought silence meant k was losing something.  But silence was never absence, it was preparation. There are seasons where everything within you is rearranging itself quietly. Your voice is deepening. Your vision is becoming clearer. Your intention is shedding what is not aligned. In those seasons, it may look like nothing is happening. But everything is happening, just not in ways the world can measure. What lives inside you is not random. It is intentional. It carries its own timing, its own intelligence, its own knowing. And when you try to force it before it is ready, you dilute its truth. You interrupt its becoming. I have had to learn this in real time. To sit with my ideas instead of rushing them. To listen to what they are asking of me. Some want to be ...

A true journalist does not bow, nor do they take sides. At their core, they remain independent, grounded in objectivity and guided by responsibility to the truth. Even when personal beliefs exist, they are held with discretion, never allowed to interfere with the integrity of their work. A journalist may vote, but their choices remain private, as their public voice must remain impartial. The ability to podcast or post photos, videos, or photography is not, in itself, journalism. These are tools, not the craft. Journalism is built on skill, discipline, and responsibility. Every true journalist must know how to write with clarity, edit with precision, and report with accuracy. They must be able to gather, verify, and present information across multiple formats, from print to audio to visual, without compromising truth. To work in multimedia is not simply to create, but to produce with purpose. It requires structure, context, and ethical grounding. There is nothing wrong with visibility a...

If the followers of Prophet Muhammad follow him for peace, then peace should be visible in the way they speak, act, and move through the world. If the followers of Jesus profess love, then that love must be embodied, not only declared, but lived in quiet actions, in patience, in forgiveness, and in truth. If the followers of Buddha seek enlightenment, then it should reflect in their awareness, their detachment from ego, and their compassion toward all living beings. What we claim to believe must align within us and manifest outwardly. Faith is not only a statement of the tongue; it is a state of being. Otherwise, it raises a deeper and more uncomfortable question: what are we truly following? It is possible to speak of God, or truth, or awakening, and still be disconnected from its essence. It is possible to perform rituals, adopt philosophies, or carry identities, yet remain unchanged at the core. There are those without religious labels who carry genuine peace and love within them, w...