Excerpt:
Tahmina Rehman is used to thinking in terms of basic comforts. Food. Friendship.
And conversation.
Such age-old comforts can bring people together in the worst of times, she believes. And four years ago, she saw conversation as a way to ease the tensions that came from a shocking tragedy.
In 2009, 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan of Orchard Park was stabbed and decapitated by her husband, Muzzammil Hassan. Rehman was not only outraged but concerned that people would associate the crime and its brutal method with her religion, Islam. She wondered what she could do to help people learn the difference between religious influences and cultural influences. She also hoped to counter a growing antipathy toward faith in general, based on the misconception that religion promotes violence.