10/15/2007 - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Meets With YES Students
On October 5th, in celebration of the month of Ramadan, the US Department of State held an Iftaar, the Arabic name of the meal that takes place when one breaks the fast at sunset. Since the start of the YES Program, we have been fortunate to have several of our YES students invited to this official gathering.
This year, two of our YES students were invited to join Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington DC: Mr Hossameldin Sultan from Egypt, hosted in Bowie, MD and Ms. Anggita “Gita” Paramesti from Indonesia, hosted in Vernon, VT.
Anggita writes, “The Iftaar with Condoleezza Rice is the first diplomatic event that I ever joined. Awesome! In her speech, Dr. Rice showed her respect and her deep interest in Islam, which is so nice. For me, that Iftaar is a reflection of US’ commitment toward peace. Basically, the days in Washington DC changed my point of view. Before that, I had certain points of view which were actually bad prejudices towards the US.
But a couple of days ago, after I met Condoleezza Rice, I met some staff from the Department of State and Moslem Student Association. I realize that many Moslems here (in America) are actually in privileged positions. I believe that the peace recipe is actually respect, and to remove all bad prejudices. I feel so lucky that I am an exchange student. I have a lot of opportunities to give some contributions to build peace. I really don’t want to waste my time.”
Hossam Sultan also shared his thoughts:
“On Friday October 5th, 2007 I was invited to an Iftaar at the Department of State. I was invited there as an AFS exchange student representing a Muslim country. This Iftaar added to my experience here. It meant to me a lot to be invited to such an event with the presence of a lot of important people and Dr. Condoleezza Rice on top of them. I realized that now is the time to break the barriers down and build the bridges; we’ve been talking about these things for a long time now without intending to do something about it. When I came here, the first thing I believed in was to participate in changing our world. It’s our world anyway and we are the people who can make it better for us and our children as we do not want them to suffer from hatred and violence among each other.
There I listened to Dr. Rice’s speech which made me feel that it’s time to stop talking and start working, as she said, no matter how old you are, which country you are from, which religion you follow, which color you are or which language you speak. At the end, we live in one world, and we have the same purpose: world peace. But then we have to accomplish as much as we can to reach this, to reach what every one dreamed of, dreams of and will always be dreaming of. I’ve learned that it’s time to stop fighting with each other and blaming each other, and even stop talking about intending to accomplish world peace, it’s time to start working for it. This way we all will be able to sleep at night peacefully, and never be worried any more about what will happen to us, our children, our town, our country, our world.
It’s a message to every one; to the man, to the woman, the adult to the small kid, to the black to the white, to the Muslim, to the Christian, to the Jewish, to any other religion. It’s time to put our hands together, it’s time to cooperate and work together, it’s time to break the barriers, it’s time to build the bridges, it’s time to live in peace.”
This weekend marks Eid El Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan, on the first day of the new moon. Eid El Fitr is one of the two most important Muslim holidays and it is a time of communal prayers, social visits and feasts. Pending the sighting of the new moon, Eid El Fitr is expected to fall on October 13. The YES team sends best wishes for a happy Eid!
photo: Gita Paramesti and Sec. Rice
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