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Charlie Dahl
sfcc.charlie.dahl@gmail.com
Many students on campus are not from America. The SFCC campus is rich with ethnic diversity. Students come from all over the world to start their higher education here at SFCC. Each foreign student has their own unique story behind how and why they came to America. Some study abroad, others are refugees, but each and everyone of them are making their way in a different unknown world away from home.
According to the Institute of International Education, the top four places of origin for international students in America is in order as follows. China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Together these four countries equal 57.4% of international students here in the United States.
Recent correlation to Donald Trump encouraging racism towards immigrants, especially targeted towards Muslims, brings the topic of how Muslims on campus feel living in America.
“There is a lot of different things between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” said Hassan Al Hassan, an international student here at SFCC from Saudi Arabia. “For example here in the United States there is something called freedom.”
American’s take freedom for granted.
“In the United States you can go to any religion,” Hassan said. “You can be non-religion, you can be Jewish, you can be Christian. In Saudi Arabia we are all Muslim, and you cannot be Non-Muslim or else the government will kill you.”
Freedom includes more than freedom of religion. Public relations are very constricted in Saudi Arabia.
“All the woman back home wear a hijab; the man cannot see womans face or fingers. No stranger men can speak to woman in public. There are some families in Saudi Arabia where if you talk to their daughters they will kill you, others may just stop you but some people are very corrupt and don’t care about the laws. Especially those who are high up in the government.”
Muslims in America are faced with constant challenges here in America, only made worse by threats.
“When I came to the United States for the first time, I faced a lot of issues because I am a Muslim guy.” Said Hassan “There are strangers that say I am a terrorist and should go back home. They say I am not welcome in America.”
“One day a guy put a piece of paper on my car and wrote down, ‘you are not welcome here go back home.’ I don’t know what my fault is. I hate terrorism as well. I’m not terrorism. Muslim is not terrorism. Terrorists are destroying the picture of Muslim and everyone believes it. Isis is not Muslim. We call them Non-Muslim.”
Racist expressions are ill-considered and they do not make living in a new country any easier when prejudice is constant.
“I like the people here, but when I came to Spokane i couldn’t speak english very well.” Said Abdullah Albaqshi, another local student from Saudi Arabia. “There was a person on the bus, he says ‘Why did you come here? here is not your country,’ He says ‘You are Muslim and have to stay in your country,’ I didn’t have an answer to that and my English was very bad. I was scared so I just ignored him.”
Situations filled with hate don’t always happen.
“I have not faced any problems here in America.” Said Ali Khowisah. “I like freedom. The people here and friendly and they smile. I like to talk to girls and school is much better here. I don’t like the food in America; it’s all junk food.”
Detestable comments don’t always get them down.
“I like Spokane more than Portland and Seattle.” said Albaqshi. “I feel people here are close to each other because it’s a small city. I love the weather in Spokane. It is real weather with all of the seasons. In Saudi Arabia it is just hot all the time.”
“There is not a lot of activity in Spokane. People get bored because they don’t have something to do to make their time busy. Most of my time I use to study, practice English, and try to make new friends to practice English with. Most of my time is busy.” Said Albaqshi
International students add diversity to SFCC helping to enrich the experience of other students on campus. A lot is different throughout the world and many things can be learned through other cultures.
“The Qur’an teaches us forgiveness. We are very respectful of our parents. They are the first people we care about in this life. I do all I can to do good things for this world during this life.” said Hassan
Hassan wants others to know that Muslims are not what popular news and presidential candidates think they are.
“Most American people have their own idea about Muslim people.” Hassan said. “A lot of people get the bad idea from their parents. If our parents taught us since we were young that Muslims are not good people until we are grown up, we would definitely think that.
“I would say to everyone who has a bad picture of Muslims to give yourself a chance to meet Muslim people and see that we are not what everyone thinks. We are just people with different culture.”