The four Muslim high school students on exchange in Juneau for this academic year from Indonesia, Palestine, Egypt and Turkey have gotten at least one outlandish question: Do you have a family camel?<\/p>\n
Answer: No.<\/p>\n
People have asked about food; others have asked about clothing. Other questions are more related to the United States\u2019 current political climate, and the actions of ISIS and other terrorist groups.<\/p>\n
Mostly, though, the kids are just doing what they\u2019re here for: enjoying making friends, volunteering, singing, performing, hunting, snowboarding, playing soccer, making art, and overall being high school students in Alaska.<\/p>\n
The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program is a scholarship program funded by the US State Department, created by Senators Ted Kennedy and Richard Lugar in 2002, in response to 9\/11. \u201cStudents live with host families, attend high school, engage in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate Americans about their countries and cultures,\u201d the scholarship\u2019s website says.<\/p>\n
This year, the four students in Juneau with the YES program are Veysel Kazanci, a sophomore from Turkey; Lena Okasha, a junior from Egypt; Fadhilah Sophia Latupono, a senior from Indonesia; and Yara Dgheish, a junior from Palestine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THOUGHTS ON THE US AND ALASKA<\/p>\n
Kazanci had visited the US twice before \u2014 once for a drama competition in Tennessee, and once for a robotics competition in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked it a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I saw the (YES) program, it was like a miracle to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just the same, he was alarmed to see he\u2019d be coming to Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I knew about was Jack London and documentaries,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought I was going to be eaten by bears at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he came, he used Google Maps street view to \u201cwalk\u201d around Juneau\u2019s streets, which reassured him. And now that he\u2019s here, his favorite experiences so far are snowboarding and hunting for grouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nature is magical,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what I was watching in documentaries since I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latupono, who\u2019d never left Indonesia, traveled 27 hours to get to Alaska. The temperature where she\u2019s from never falls below 77 degrees Fahrenheit, she said, so Alaska came as a bit of a shock \u2014 even more so because she didn\u2019t know where in America she was heading until her last day in her city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first came here in the summer, I was freezing all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In Palestine, Dgeish\u2019s mother is a reporter. Though Dgeish said she\u2019s been around for so many wars that she\u2019s no longer frightened of bombs \u2014 \u201cIf God wants me to die, I\u2019ll die,\u201d she said \u2014 it scares her to see her mother reporting on television in combat zones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only 15 and I\u2019ve been in three wars\u2026 I don\u2019t want anybody to feel that,\u201d she said. When she first heard she\u2019d be coming to Alaska, she thought it was a prank.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the idea of the program,\u201d said Okasha, who had never before traveled outside of Egypt. \u201cYou\u2019re going to a different place, and you just put yourself out there, and you adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THE STUDENTS ON ISLAM<\/p>\n
All four students were raised Muslim, and Dgheish, Okasha and Latupono practice; Kazanci now identifies as an atheist, though he still fasts and reads the Qur\u2019an, Islam\u2019s holy book.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve answered a lot of questions about Islam, especially given America\u2019s increasingly fraught discussion about Muslims, terrorism, Syrian refugees, and immigrants.<\/p>\n
Okasha in particular said she likes engaging in discussion and clearing up misunderstandings. She has also traveled to Utah, where she visited a school and answered their questions. One of them: What do you think about ISIS?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I want to say is that terrorists have no religion,\u201d she said, growing impassioned. \u201cIf you want to be a terrorist, you can be a terrorist even if you\u2019re an atheist, Christian\u2026 my religion never said to kill someone at all. I want people to read, or understand, first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kazanci compares religion to a TV series, or Star Wars, with each religion a different episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, this idea of religion is kind of like Star Wars,\u201d Kazanci said. \u201cThe first book is the Jewish book, Jewish adventures\u2026 (then Christianity, then Islam) and people just fight over which episode is better. People should just leave their religious identities and like each other just because we are all human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
As something that may come as a surprise to some with negative ideas of Islam, Muslims also believe in Jesus.<\/p>\n
The students also said they live well with Christians in their community. Dgeish gets her Christian friends gifts for Christmas; her Christian friends fast with her and other Muslim friends on Ramadan, Islam\u2019s holy month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respect each other,\u201d Latupono said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of Christian friends,\u201d Okasha said. \u201cA lot, a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Okasha\u2019s teachers brought up Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump\u2019s recent statements on Muslims (he\u2019s proposed barring Muslims from entering the country) in class for discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stood up in class and said \u2018I\u2019ve been in America since August, and I\u2019m a Muslim. Did I hurt anyone? \u2026 You can ask me whatever you want, but I love my religion. I respect it, and I hope that you respect it, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Latupono wears a hijab (head scarf), the thing she\u2019s gotten the most questions about, she said. And though Dgeish and Okasha say they likely will eventually wear one, they don\u2019t yet. Dgeish\u2019s mother does not. Though some people are close-minded about women not wearing hijabs in Palestine, and find fault with her mother not wearing one, she also knows many other women that do not wear a hijab, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNuns cover themselves. Jewish people. Hindus. Even Mary the Virgin,\u201d she said. \u201cMuslims wear the same thing\u2026. It\u2019s just a personal choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
ISIS is to Islam, they said, what the KKK is to Christianity \u2014 a negative, extremist position within a religion that doesn\u2019t condone it.<\/p>\n
\u201cISIS are not Muslims, because in Islam, in war, you\u2019re not supposed to kill an old man, to kill a woman, to kill a child, or cut a tree,\u201d Dgeish said. \u201cIf you kill a soul, you go forever in Hell. It\u2019s just messed up. Plus, why would you just blame a whole religion for an action of one specific extremist group?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIslam teaches us about peace, not about killing each other,\u201d Latupono said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalaam (a common greeting) means \u2018peace,\u2019\u201d Okasha added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ORGANIZATION, FUTURE<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Juneau People for Peace and Justice\u2019s 5th year bringing YES students to Juneau, said coordinator Judith Maier; including this year, 16 kids have come to Southeast Alaska with their help.<\/p>\n
Many of them, they\u2019ve kept up with, she said. One is finishing medical school in Sudan. Another is working to bring more students to America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all good. They\u2019re just amazing,\u201d said Maier, a retired teacher. \u201cThere\u2019s so much that could be done with this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maier hopes to arrange a meeting with the governor before the legislative session begins, and also takes them to other governing bodies \u2014 the Assembly, the school board, the legislature.<\/p>\n
The Juneau People for Peace and Justice brought three kids to Juneau; the fourth was brought by AFS USA (it used to be called American Field Service), which has brought up to three students on other years, said volunteer coordinator Amelia Jenkins.<\/p>\n
Kids from out of town \u2014 Sitka hosts every year, and other communities have as well \u2014 take a trip to Juneau to visit the capitol, Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sponsor programs have been really a neat addition, bringing students from places that wouldn\u2019t normally get to come,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cWhen I was an exchange student a hundred years ago it was all kind of Western countries and people who could afford the tuition. But these programs are (for) not always the students that would have the opportunity otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFS also sends Juneau students abroad and is \u201calways open to new volunteers and ways to connect to the students,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really try to get them involved in the bigger community, in community discussions,\u201d Maier said.<\/p>\n
In addition to schools, students in past years have presented at the Conference on World Issues in Colorado, she said.<\/p>\n
This year, Dgeish has been participating in Drama, Debate and Forensics competitions with Thunder Mountain High School she won a contest in Haines. She also plays music.<\/p>\n
Kazanci is on Juneau-Douglas High School\u2019s soccer team, and also creates art.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the inner child of mine comes out\u2026 then I start drawing real stuff because\u2026 it just makes me feel real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Okasha is in choir, the Interact Club, and will soon join the soccer team; Latupono is in art club and interact.<\/p>\n
Dgeish would like to be a lawyer. Latupono wants to be a journalist. In the future, Okasha wants to go to college, though she doesn\u2019t yet know what she wants to study. Kazanci wants to be a politician \u2014 \u201cbut a real one. A secular one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids really have transformed our high schools,\u201d Maier said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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