10/6/2007 - Getting past preconceived notions or Creating New Notions

Seven Muslim exchange students attend Inland schools in program aimed at dispelling prejudices

by David Olson
The Press-Enterprise

Katherine Migliaccio harbored the same types of negative stereotypes about Muslims that many Americans have—until Pakistani exchange student Junaid Bin Masood arrived at her Perris home.

“The first thing you think is ‘Muslim: Shi’ite, terrorist,’ ” Migliaccio said as she sat at her dining-room table with Junaid, who is nicknamed “J.”

“In the media, I feel we see only the bad, not the good. When J. came, my own preconceived idea of a Muslim and a Muslim male were blown away. J. is a wonderful kid. He’s a gift.”

Transformations like Migliaccio’s are a key reason why the U.S. State Department created the Youth Exchange and Study program in the months following Sept. 11, 2001.

The program brings Muslim high school students from around the world to study in U.S. schools and live with U.S. families. Junaid and six other YES students are studying in Inland high schools. More than 720 students are in the program nationwide.

The goal is to reduce anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States and anti-American attitudes in the Muslim world.

“It’s important on both sides to have people understand each others’ cultures and societies beyond what people are seeing through a narrow prism, and there’s nothing better than doing this first-hand,” said Alina Romanowski, deputy assistant secretary of state for professional and cultural exchanges.

The State Department gives full scholarships to the exchange students. Several nonprofit groups administer the program.

Educating Others

Junaid and three other local exchange students say they are making friends easily with their classmates and have not encountered hostility.

But they have faced a few questions that reflect negative stereotypes.

Junaid, 16, said a boy in his physical-education class at Citrus Hill High School in Perris once asked him if he owned a gun.

When Junaid replied that he had never even seen a gun, the boy responded, “I thought if you see a girl without proper dress, you shoot her.”

Junaid said he used the time, walking laps with the boy in the school gymnasium, to educate him about the reality of Pakistani culture and Islam.

Reham Al-Huraibi, of Yemen, said she has received plenty of stares because of the hijab—an Islamic headscarf—that she wears.

After Sibley Bardales, 14, a Christian and a fellow student at Vista Murrieta High School, asked Reham why she wears the hijab, she explained that it was for religious reasons.

Reham then let her try it on. The two are now friends.

“It’s neat to know what other people believe in,” Sibley said. “They have their beliefs and I have mine.”

Reham, 15, said she wants to visit a church, to better understand Christianity.

Even though the exchange students report no bigoted comments, Latricia Parker, Junaid’s 11th-grade English teacher, said some of their classmates probably have negative attitudes toward Islam.

Parker recalled that, when she was an eighth-grade teacher, she showed students pictures of people who appeared to be from the Middle East and asked what came to mind. Several blurted out, “Terrorist.”

Parker said students are unlikely to make the same assumption about Junaid.

“J. is just so positive,” she said. “He kind of exudes happiness and I can’t imagine anyone meeting him and thinking he’s a bad person.”

Howard Dimler, counselor at Vista Murrieta for Reham and another YES participant, Sadaf Basharat, said positive interactions with Muslims will translate into permanent attitude changes in some students, who will then educate family and friends for years to come.

Sadaf, 16, who is from Pakistan, said one reason she wanted to study in the United States was to serve as a living example of what Muslims are truly like.

“American kids need to see what we’re all about, what our religion is all about,” Sadaf said. “We’re not some aliens from a different planet. We’re the same people, just with a different religion.”

Sadaf said that, as she helps dispel negative stereotypes about Muslims, she is learning positive things about the United States that she will take home with her.

She said she is impressed with the spirit of volunteerism in the United States, including the requirement at Vista Murrieta that students spend 40 hours on community service before graduation. Sadaf said she plans to do community service when she returns to Pakistan, where she said volunteering is less common, and encourage others to do so as well.

Romanowski said YES-program interviewers look for exchange students who are likely to volunteer in their home countries and have the potential to be leaders.

Junaid said many Pakistanis believe that Americans are morally lax—that they gamble and drink almost every night, and that many men spend each night with a different woman.

He said he didn’t believe most of the generalizations, “even I thought Americans are totally disrespectful toward their parents. But my host mom, she respects her mom. People have the same values here, with a little difference.”

Outwardly, Junaid has changed in his few weeks here. He noticed that some students at Citrus Hill dye their hair, so he spiked his black hair and dyed the tips blond. His Pakistani mother gave him permission—as long as he returns to Pakistan without the dyed hair.

His mom asked him to promise her only one thing when he left Pakistan: that he remain sexually pure.

One day, Junaid said, a friend told him that a girl liked him. Junaid said he explained that, as a Muslim, he cannot date. He has also had to resist peer pressure to drink alcohol.

Host Parents

Khaleda Khaled said that the exchange students demonstrate to their classmates that it’s possible to have fun and do many of the same things other teenagers do, while still adhering to Muslim values.

Khaleda and her husband Mohammad are host parents for Reham and Sadaf, the couple’s first exchange students.

The Khaleds, immigrants from Bangladesh, said they got involved with the YES program because they want to help ease tension between Muslims and non-Muslims.

“They represent that Islam is not terrorism,” Khaleda Khaled, 49, said as she sat on a sofa in her Menifee home, just before breaking the fast at sunset for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “Just because someone covers their head doesn’t mean they’ll come and harm you.”

On Saturday, the Khaleds will host several classmates and a teacher of Reham and Sadaf for a dinner to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Jeff and Grace Woicik, of Corona, have hosted nearly two-dozen exchange students over the past 15 years, in part to break down cultural barriers. Tarhata Abo, 17, of the Philippines, is their first Muslim student.

The Corona man said politics can only go so far in resolving problems among cultures and religions. The best strategy, he said, is through the type of day-to-day interaction that YES and other exchange programs promote.

“You drive around and see people with bumper-stickers that say ‘Peace’ and all that,” Woicik said. “The only way to have peace among cultures is understanding each other and the way each other lives. You’ve got to get active. You change things one heart at a time.”

HOST FAMILIES

For general information on the YES program, send an e-mail to YES@state.gov.

To learn more about hosting a YES program student, contact one of the two organizations that places most students:

AFS Intercultural Programs at www.afs.org/usa or 800-237-4636.