We Can Not Rewrite History…

 

The following post is from contributing blogger and social media intern Mary Kazarian. Mary is an undergraduate at George Mason University studying the Middle East and International Relations and hopes to one day move to her native land of Lebanon.

“There is more, much more to America than its imprudent foreign policy in the Muslim world.” In an recent article on Huffington Post by Dr. Muqtedar Khan, the Associate Professor at the University of Delaware and a Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, Islamophobia is brought into contemporary scholarly criticism.  Current discussions on the West’s relationship with Islam is described through what Khan calls “historical Islamophobia” in that our relations with “the other” is solely because of our perpetual bitterness towards Islam. However, Khan would say that this is not necessarily the case and argues that current politics add fuel to the fire of Islamophobia. For example, the recent Benghazi attack on the American Embassy was associated with violent crime under the name of Islamic terrorism. This term is used more widely than any other term to describe any other groups that have committed extreme actions.

Nevertheless, there are some major developments and connections being made between those advocates of Western-Muslim relations, groups such as AUA! Most groups fostering discourse among anti-Islamophobists are surprisingly in the West, where Muslim communities are growing and being influenced every day by Western traits and vice versa. Dialogue is more important now especially  in a post 9/11 world. Because as globalization and human rights infiltrate most parts of the globe, the West should realize that they hold the responsibility of influencing many communities, therefore the easy and superficial answer of generalizing Islam is as lethal as another world war.

As Marie Curie would advise, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” AUA Director Benjamin Orbach will be visiting the University of Delaware today to foster this understanding between Americans and the Muslim World.

Indonesian Schools Welcome America’s Unofficial Ambassadors

AUA Director Ben Orbach is now in Indonesia visiting schools and NGOs that will take part in AUA’s 2013 Summer Service program. Ben and Dr. Tahir Shad of AUA’s Advisory Board got a warm welcome this week at the Sekolah Sukma Bangsa school, which was founded to help children affected by the 2004 tsunami and political conflicts in Aceh. Some of the summer placements are profiled below the gallery.     

After a morning assembly where three groups of students (of different ages) performed traditional Acehnese welcoming dances, the Sekolah Sukma Bangsa school held a town hall where students asked me and CL Board Member Tahir Shad questions in English about our lives in America, the Unofficial Ambassadors program, and our personal backgrounds and experience.

Students were particularly interested in our favorite foods and music, information about our respective hometowns, and the inspirational figures who influenced our lives. It was an ideal opportunity for me to talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers and Primanti brothers-French fry stuffed sandwiches. My penance for preaching Pittsburgh was that I had to sing the national anthem, which is really hard to do well by yourself; Tahir didn’t help and it was so bad that these ultra-polite students could barely clap.

The kids and faculty at the school were great — so enthusiastic, friendly, and welcoming. The Sekolah Sukma Bangsa school is one of three schools that was established for tsunami victims as well as the victims of Aceh’s conflict. This school in Pidie has more than 300 students from elementary school to high school and is located about 2 hours from Banda Aceh in a setting of idyllic rice fields that look something like a national geographic shoot. America’s Unofficial Ambassadors will be sending volunteers to the Pidie school to teach English for four months starting at the end of August, and the Pidie school will also be a partner in Creative Learning’s 2013 School 2 School program.

Here’s a list of just some of the education placements in AUA’s Summer Service program:

The Mualimin Boys School: This school in Yogyjakarta was founded in 1920 and has 1150 students and 89 full-time teachers. Students at the school learn English, Arabic, Indonesia’s national curriculum, and Koranic studies. All students at the Mualimin Schools live on campus in dormitories. The school has a “multilingual” program of six classes (30 students per class) where students learn in English and Indonesian, similar to a bilingual program in the United States. There are 180 junior high school and high school students in the program.

This summer, two Unofficial Ambassadors will volunteer as full-time conversational English teachers, supporting the school’s six English teachers. In a special session that the school will convene during the school’s regularly scheduled vacation and the start of Ramadan, these volunteers will be embedded in classrooms and assist the school’s teachers with formal classes as well as lead extracurricular activities and work individually with students who seek to improve their English proficiency. The school’s leadership is incredibly enthusiastic about offering their students this session and hosting Americans in their school for the first time.

Mualimat Girls School: A sister school of the Mualimin Boys School, this all girls school was also founded in 1920 and has 1068 students and 69 teachers. It is similar in structure to the boys school, with students at the school learn English, Arabic, Indonesia’s national curriculum, and Koranic studies. 95 percent of the students live on campus in dormitories. The Mualimat school also has a “multilingual” program of six classes, with 40 students per class. There are 240 junior high school and high school students in the program.

During the summer program, two female Unofficial Ambassadors will volunteer as full-time conversational English teachers, supporting the school’s multilingual program. Volunteers will be placed in classrooms and assist the school’s teachers with formal classes as well as lead extracurricular activities and work with students who seek to improve their English proficiency. The school’s leadership is incredibly enthusiastic about offering their students this session and hosting Americans in their school for the first time.

Krapyak Islamic school: This school in Yogyjakarta was founded in the 1970s and educates 539 students, all of whom live on campus. 300 of the students are girls and classes (and dormitories) are separated by gender. The school has 76 teachers and blends together a curriculum that draws from the national curricula, religious curricula, and its own integrated curricula. All students study English and “technology,” and the school has two computer labs with 30 laptops and 30 desktops that are practically new. Unfortunately, the school does not have faculty with capacity to teach basic computing and internet courses. The computers are mostly used to teach typing.

This summer two Unofficial Ambassadors (male or female) will volunteer with Krapyak in a special session during their summer and Ramadan break. They will teach English as well as basic computing skills to both students as well as faculty. The school is also looking for a volunteer who can train their leadership in better school management and administration, and like the other schools, is extremely enthusiastic about this partnership with America’s Unofficial Ambassadors.

The Importance and Beauty of Service

Today’s post is a special message from Benjamin Orbach, Director, America’s Unofficial Ambassadors 

Here’s a nice article from today’s New York Times by David Brooks. It is good to see stories that remind us that part of the beauty of service is the sacrifice and humility involved. Part of the volunteer experience, particularly in the developing world, is being knocked from your comfort level, forced to re-evaluate positions or perhaps realities that you believed to be true, and challenged to respond and contribute something of value. Success on this front is why I think so many of us choose to volunteer again and again.

I liked that Brooks’ column also acknowledged that one American (or any other national for that matter) can’t swoop in like superman and save things. Local leaders and citizens hold the key to their long-term development solutions. If we as volunteers in development are successful, then we support those leaders with our resources, technical expertise, and other intangibles as they craft community level solutions. At America’s Unofficial Ambassadors, we think there is a lot we can do to be supportive in this way and to dispel stereotypes in the process.

Last thing, the volunteer that Brooks mentions didn’t have to google “Teach Abroad.” She could have just searched the AUA Directory to find some terrific opportunities to teach English in schools, orphanages, and youth centers across the Muslim World.