Peace be with you,
My name is Ema, this name comes from the Arabic word iman which translates as 'faith'. I have great faith in my religion which is Islam; this comes from the word salaam- peace.
I believe that Islam is a religion of peace and that the media may take the view of a certain minority such as extremists and unfortunately, may portray Muslims on the whole as extremists. Extremists justify their unjust inappropriate actions by using quotes from the Quran with out context - wars that had occurred in order to defend Islam and God's word against the Makkan polytheists at the time who were determined to destroy Islam as they believed it was a threat to their trade. Not all Muslims are extremists and not all extremists are Muslim.
I just hope that people who do not know much about this belief grasp the true beauty, kindness, and sincerity of this Abrahamic faith. I hope people understand that it isn't race, religion, language or even sexual orientation that establishes who a person is, and it is in fact their actions and deeds.
I believe that things such as war, poverty, oppression, famine, homelessness, etc, should not exist. Innocent people die in war, innocent children, such as those currently in Syria - I just hope that one day war itself will be something that is referred to as history - it should cease to exist.

The 3 main teachings I follow:
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said - 'None of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.'
(This shows that greed and envy shouldn't be factors that exist in a person, and you should be content with what you own.)
'If you save one life it is as if you have saved the whole of mankind' - Quran 5:32
(This generally does go against things such as war, extremism... etc.)
'Every act of goodness is charity' - Sahih Muslim, Hadith 496
(This shows that Islam is a way of life; every act of goodness is considered as charity which is one of the 5 main pillars of Islam).

I would like to conclude by saying that insha’Allah (God willing/hopefully) this world will strive to become a better peaceful place, a place where people are tolerant towards one another, a place where gender, race, religion, ethnicity/colour and sexual orientation does not affect a person’s opinion on another.

Once again, peace be with you.