Seventeen-year-old Muslim student Usman Nawaz was nervous about coming to the United States.
He had certain assumptions and fears about Americans. Just as Americans can have of Muslims.
Usman is a high-school student ambassador from Pakistan who arrived in Winona last August through a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs youth exchange and study program. The program is meant specifically for countries with significant Muslim populations, so students can learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and educate Americans about their countries and cultures in order to help break down cultural barriers and build friendships.
That’s exactly what’s happened during Usman’s visit here.
Since being in America, Usman has given more than 30 presentations about Pakistan and Islam to more than 600 students at Winona schools, has been selected for a workshop in Washington D.C., and has gotten involved in many clubs and organizations to make as big of an impact as possible.
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He’s changed people’s perception of Muslims, has helped a Christian family think of Islam from a loving approach, and has realized America is a place he wants to come back to.
Fighting fear to make a difference
Before leaving Pakistan, previous exchange students told Usman what America would be like, and warned that some may not take kindly to him. Leading up to his departure, Usman feared Americans wouldn’t like him, some might hate him, he wouldn’t have friends at school, and people wouldn’t have time to listen to what he had to say about his country and culture.
But he also knew how great of an opportunity the program was. It was a chance to make a difference.
When the day came, his excitement overshadowed his fear.
And as soon as he got to Winona, he began building relationships and confronting misconceptions.
Winona Senior High School teacher Adam Matson said Usman’s presentations were so powerful, he requested Usman to do it for all his classes.
“It was worth it just to take my lesson plans and shove them aside for a day,” Matson said.
Usman’s presentations highlighted qualities contrary to common beliefs about Pakistan and Muslims — like the country is only desert and is filled with men dressed in robes toting guns. Usman showed a country with diverse provinces, tourism, mountains and snow. A culture that loves food and sports. A people and religion that does not support terrorism.
By the end of the presentations at schools, students said Pakistan sounds like a place they’d like to visit, Matson said.
“It was good for the kids,” Winona Senior High School principal Ryan Jensen said.
In the presentations, Usman only lightly touched on terrorism and ISIS enough to make a point that “terrorism is not Islam and Islam is not terrorism,” but during candid conversations that followed, intense feeling toward terrorism surfaced.
“We hate terrorists,” Usman stressed during a recent interview. “I am using strong words. I cannot tell you how much we want them to stop.”
Pakistan is attacked by groups like ISIS — claiming to be fighting in the name of Islam — all the time, he explained.
“Almost a year ago ... one of the schools in Pakistan got attacked by another terrorist organization like Taliban, for the only reason that it was associated with the army,” Usman said.
One-hundred and thirty people died, he said, his voice close to trembling, most of them children.
“Even though we are a Muslim country, we have a lot of terrorist attacks.”
Usman said the feelings toward terrorists and extremists claiming to be Muslim is even more amplified in his country, “because we are Muslim.” And it makes the misconception of all Muslims being terrorists even more painful. It’s hard to be a labeled something that his people feel so strongly against, he said.
“On media, I can see statements of candidates (about Muslims),” Usman said. “I must say it hurts. People are uneducated.”
Building bridges
Usman has helped change the minds of many people in the Winona area and this week is scheduled to be on his way to Washington D.C. to change more.
But perhaps one of the biggest accomplishments is with his host family by proving love can exist between people of Islam and Christianity, despite the centuries of conflict. After more than seven months of living together, Al Rothering said he loves Usman so much he doesn’t want him to leave.
But it didn’t start out that way.
“We’re a strong conservative Christian family,” Al Rothering said.
Al admits he was apprehensive at first about the pairing.
“You never know how those things can go,” Al said.
Prior to Usman’s arrival, Al and Dannielle were upfront with Usman and his family. They said they would be happy to host Usman, but Usman would be joining the family during church, Bible study, and other extra activities.
To their surprise, Usman agreed, saying it would help him learn of his country’s misconceptions of Christianity.
“We’ve had very deep and sincere discussions about the religions,” Al said.
With no tension. No disrespect. No aggression.
“It changed my perception,” Al said. “There are an incredible amount of good, kind-hearted, loving (Muslim) people. We can’t let the media ... make us think they are terrorists and that we need to be fearful of their culture.”
Al said he knows many Christians that hate Muslims.
“I would never do that, and greatly to the credit of Usman,” Al said. “Just like Christians, there’s some crazies, some radicals. We can lose sight of that.”
The Rotherings aren’t the only ones to be changed by the experience.
When Usman flies back to Pakistan in June, he’ll be landing as a new person. One who sees Christians as loving people. One who is excited for future trips to America. One is who convinced the divisions, tension, and aggression between the peoples can be healed.
“I definitely think these barriers are breakable,” Usman said. “I think our division is because of our uneducation.”
The inexperience with and misconceptions of each other.
But he believes it’s changing.
“The newer generation knows that nothing is good or bad, it’s just different,” he said. “With technology and information, people will get more education.”
Will be more comfortable with differences.
“And know that we are more related than different.”