Ep16 | The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Islamophobia - Amal Kassir

In September 2018 our local chapter of Physicians for Human Rights hosted an event where guest speaker Amal Kassir gave a talk called “The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Islamophobia.” A few members of the Medicus team were at this event and we thought her message was worth sharing, so we’ve decided to play the audio from this event on the podcast. She delivers her message with a mixture of poetry and storytelling about her experience growing up as a Muslim-American, her extended family living through Syrian Civil War, and the importance of empathy.

Amal Kassir is a Muslim Woman, born and raised in Denver, CO to a German-Iowan Mother and a Syrian Father. She is an international spoken word poet, having performed in 10 countries and over 45 cities. She has conducted workshops, given lectures, and recited her poetry in venues ranging from youth prisons, to orphanages to refugee camps to universities to churches to community spaces for the public. She designed her own undergraduate degree called 'Community Programming in Social Psychology' and she is a major proponent in education and building individual agency in particularly underserved and vulnerable populations, especially through writing. She hopes to take part in the global effort for literacy in war-struck areas and refugee camps, Insha'Allah.

You can see Amal's TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAm1g_Vgn0

Amal Kassir's Social Media Links:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/activistamalkassir

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amalthepoet

Twitter https://twitter.com/amalthepoet

Website http://www.amalkassir.com/

For the introduction to this episode we are joined by Abdallah, the president of a local chapter of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that “works at the intersection of medicine, science, and law to secure justice and universal human rights for all.” You can find out more information about them at https://www.phr.org

Outro Music: Chillin Hard - Kevin Mcleod

Episode produced by: Nate Burstedt

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