This week we speak with Kashif Shaikh, co-founder and president of Pillars Fund, a nonprofit investing in American Muslim organizations, leaders, and artists to advance equity and inclusion.Pillars, founded in 2010, aims to take tangible actions to benefit American Muslim initiatives. But rather than supporting, say, mosques or overseas work, their projects often nurture local communities, well-being, and culture. Case in point, their recent pivotal study with the Ford Foundation and University of Southern California Annenberg, Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies. Kashif breaks down the unsurprising but nonetheless disheartening data from 200 top contemporary films across Western countries, revealing the erasure and demeaning portrayals of Muslims. Unlike former studies, which tend to be anecdotal, this project provides current hard statistics on the lack of female or African Americans, animated characters, or nonviolence in Muslim roles. A study on television characters will be next.Always working to be proactive rather than reactive, according to Kashif, Pillars has already begun communicating the findings to Hollywood studios, agencies, festivals, unions, and philanthropists, to name a few. We chat about the underlying meaning—the seeming unawareness even in progressive American communities that Muslims constitute one-quarter of the world’s population, or that Black Muslims helped shape Islam in this country (not to mention the country itself). Along with the data, Pillars has released The Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion, a concrete plan to remedy the inaccurate portrayal of Muslims in film and a fellowship to build a pipeline of Muslims in the industry. We segue into the root of Kashif’s own activism, which stems from not fitting into the traditional Muslim mold nor his predominantly white community, not to mention his deep affection for his “weird artist dad,” who emigrated from Pakistan to study art. Shout-outs for English majors, Brown rockers, and Muslim wrestlers ensue.Finally, we cover how terrorist tropes are not just tired but also have harmful real-life implications, and how money breeds influence. Kashif shares the powerful positive responses to the Pillars study, not to mention the general uptick in motivation post-Trump. We close with his vision of the American Muslim world in 18 months, and all the work left to do.American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.Writer and Researcher: Lindsy GambleShow Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad ButtMusic by Simon HutchinsonHosted by Asad Butt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices