I love books. They push our imaginations to places we never thought they could go and allow us to bond with characters who we never thought we would get to meet.
Words are so powerful in the way they allow us to experience another's joy, pain, and transformation. I also appreciate many other forms of storytelling such as movies and TV shows.
However, as I dove into many novels, films, and TV programs, I began to notice that most of the time Muslim and Arab characters were portrayed purely as villains or victims whenever they were presented in the stories.
I think this should change and I am glad to see that today there are more diverse characters emerging, slowly but steadily in mainstream media. This will hopefully contribute to better relations between people of all faiths and cultures.
Najmah Qamar, the heroine of my novel, "The Storyteller and the Terrorist in Our Newsfeeds," is the sort of protagonist I wish I had a chance to read about when I was in high school. She is brave, clever, and kind while being Muslim, brown, and American at the same time.
I hope her story will take readers on an adventure full of twists and turns, while opening their eyes to some very serious issues which are a part of reality and not just fiction.
Book 1 is officially available on Amazon, as a Kindle edition.
