how do people’s race or religion impact
how you view them consciously or
subconsciously how does the media affect
how you view certain groups of people
how do your own identities impact how
you view others of different identities
or backgrounds these may be things that
you are aware of in the back of your
mind but maybe not things that you are
actively thinking about on a day-to-day
basis for me though
growing up I have been acutely aware of
the religious and political tension
between the United States and the Middle
East I’m Lebanese and my whole family is
Muslim and most of them live in Beirut
Lebanon my dad although he is Lebanese
grew up in Liberia in Africa but was
able to witness the Lebanese civil war
in the 80s after u10 at a university in
the States through him and from
traveling in the Middle East I’ve
learned a great deal about Middle
Eastern politics and culture I’ve seen
firsthand this gigantic rift between the
two cultures that I am a part of and to
be honest it terrifies me other people
who may not have this personal
connection see violence on the news and
maybe they have empathy for the
situation that is occurring but for me
it’s more than that it’s personal
I see violence in Lebanon and I fear for
the safety of my own family I think that
we as a society need to re-evaluate this
fear that we have of others who may be
different from ourselves that is causing
this great divide to occur let me put
this into a little bit of a larger
context according to the Council on
american-islamic relations hate crimes
against Muslims in the United States
increased 91 percent in the first half
of 2017 compared to them – 2016 91 %
that is an incredible number that speaks
to the Islamophobia that is permeating
our communities the American
Psychological Association
that levels of anxiety and depression in
arab-americans is increasingly high
compared to those of the general
population or even other minority groups
and it’s due to the oppression that they
face on a day to day basis these trends
are obviously deeply affecting people’s
lives in our own communities and
inspiring fear through this as amla
phobia but what can we do to combat an
issue that seems so large so out of our
control and sometimes so far removed
from what we experience in our own lives
I believe that it starts here on a
face-to-face level which is something
that we can all affect we need to be
encouraging building a bridge between
our culture here in the United States
and those in the rest of the world
especially in the Middle East right now
we need to be encouraging our youth to
interact with people of different
backgrounds in their own even if it is
difficult or even if it is uncomfortable
so that they can cross these cultural
barriers for the sake of a peaceful and
prosperous future so this past August I
had the opportunity to take part in a
program that I think embodies the type
of education that should be prevalent
for our youth today a group of 12 Iraqi
students spent two weeks here in
Rochester being hosted by Allen Dell and
they took part in a leadership program
that focused on civic engagement
interfaith studies and diversity
inclusion specifically for women’s
rights LGBT rights and disability rights
I myself had the amazing opportunity to
host two beautiful young Iraqi students
who I became incredibly closest over the
course of the two weeks Fatima and sama
Fatima lives in the north of Iraq and
Kurdistan and sama lives in the south so
growing up I had spent a lot of time
around Lebanese people and my parents
friends who are Jordanian and Syrian but
I hadn’t spent a lot of time around
people from Iraq which is obviously a
country that the United States has had a
pretty rocky relationship with in the
past couple of decades
but I remember vividly sitting in the
first session that day and the Iraqi
students and the American students were
separated and they were asked to come up
with cultural stereotypes that they
thought generalized them or didn’t
really really encompass who they were
and the American students came up with
things like we’re not unintelligent but
the Iraqi students immediately said we
are not war we are not tear and I
obviously didn’t go into this program
thinking that that was a case but the
ability to look my host sisters in the
eyes and say I know that is not who you
are is it incredibly powerful and
life-changing experience that speaks to
how we can transcend these labels that
we think confines us to our own bubble
so over the course of these two weeks I
was able to witness how these amazing
Iraqi students embody just the potential
that they are bringing to their
communities in Iraq they want nothing
more than to inspire positive change in
their own communities and that was what
they were here to learn
we became incredibly close we became
like a family and we still communicate
on a week-to-week basis in our group
chat which is incredible after an
experience like that it’s easy to see
that we are all just teenagers taking
snapchat selfies together I think that
every young person should be able to
have an experience like this where
they’re able to connect with someone of
a different background race or religion
than their own because once you do that
it is able to see that we are able to
see that we are all fundamentally the
same we are one human race and no matter
how different you think someone may be
from yourself you can still find some
kind of common ground with them we need
to reboot how we view relations with the
Middle East we need to reboot how we
view Muslims and we need to reboot
reboot how we edge
hate our youth on these topics I’ll
leave you with a quote by Kahlil Gibran
who I admire quite a bit I love you when
you bow in your mosque kneel in your
temple pray in your church for you and I
are sons of one religion and it is the
spirit thank you [Applause]