07/03/2002

Arab-American Muslim Leads Vanderbilt Student Government

Samar Ali works for diversity at home, understanding abroad

Six days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Vanderbilt University junior Samar Ali recalls being told by a friend that the time had come for her to choose between her identity as an Arab and as an American.

However, the twenty year old political science major did not perceive a clash of identities, having been raised in Waverly, Tennessee by immigrant parents who taught her to "never forget where we came from and to never forget where we are now."

What her friend "simply just didn't understand," said Ali, "is that there is no need for separation. I will always be Arab and I will always be American and I will always be Muslim."

In February 2002, Ali was elected president of Vanderbilt's Student Government Association (SGA), the highest student political office on campus. She now represents a diverse 6,000 member undergraduate population by directing academic and social projects and acting as a liaison between the students and the university administration.

In an interview with the Washington File June 18, Ali said that her Muslim faith and Arab heritage were of no concern to her fellow students in their decision to elect her to the most prominent and powerful student position at Vanderbilt, located in Nashville, Tennessee.

One of the main campaign issues Ali had included in her platform was the need to reach out to the diverse student body population and encourage involvement. She co-founded Vanderbilt's Middle Eastern Student Association and participates in the Diversity Action Group to encourage interaction between students of various ethnicities.

"When you don't know someone of a particular background," said Ali, "it becomes easier to tear down the people, than if you see that they are people too, just trying to live life.

Ali's own heritage and faith caused her to speak out at a campus memorial service days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, where she affirmed her identity in front of her grieving peers, and strongly condemned the actions ostensibly carried out in the name of her religious faith.

"In my opinion," she told the Washington File, "Al Qaeda is trying to ruin Islam's reputation and we are simply not going to let them win this fight. If someone has a political agenda, they need to call it what it is, and not disguise it in the name of a religion or use the religion to achieve their political goals. This is simply unacceptable."

She is deeply aware of her role as an Arab American to educate her American neighbors about Arab culture and to educate family and friends in the Middle East about the United States. She said it is not always an easy task, especially when both sides are earnestly asking her the question: "Why do they hate us?"

Most of her fellow Vanderbilt University students were concerned about how Americans were perceived in the Arab and Islamic world, said Ali. "I constantly was asked how they could let Arabs know that they wanted to bridge whatever gap might exist between the two cultures," she said.

Some expressed an interest in traveling with her to the region, and often asked how her family members living in Syria and Ramallah were doing, "and if they were safe," she said.

"Both sides have strong positives and it just takes people who see and deeply know that to educate others and to illustrate this and tell their story," said Ali.

Now, in her position as head of the student government, Ali said she plans to continue encouraging wide participation and interaction among the students at Vanderbilt, before graduating and moving on to law school.

Following is a transcript of the Washington File's interview with Samar Ali, President of the Student Government Association at Vanderbilt University:

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was your faith or ethnic heritage an issue to the students?

A: I really do not think that my faith or ethnic heritage allowed me to lose or gain votes. I think my running mate Ross Lucas and I were elected for what we stood for on campus and what we could bring to the student body and help serve as the link in representing student concerns to the faculty and administration.

Anyways, during the campaign, what wasn't an issue? I mean it was a political campaign, come on. Just kidding! You are going to laugh, but you know what the biggest issue was? Whether or not I was Greek.

[Editor's note: Samar is referring to whether or not she was a member of a fraternity or sorority, which are U.S. college organizations or clubs, primarily for social purposes, and called "Greek" because they are named with two or three Greek letters.]

Sororities and Fraternities are a big part of social life on college campuses, and I am not in a sorority. So, my running mate and I were mostly concerned that the fact that I was not in a sorority would hurt me. We represented many different groups on campus and were able to bring in wide support. For example, even though we are both from Waverly, Tennessee, we brought diversity in that he was in the Engineering School, while I am enrolled in Arts and Sciences, he is a male and I am a female, he is in a fraternity and I am an independent (that is what we are called if we are not in a sorority or fraternity), I am Arab American and Moslem, and he is White-Anglo Saxon Protestant.

Q: What was your campaign's platform? Is one of your goals to increase interaction and dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim students?

A: Our campaign platform was to get more students involved in Vanderbilt and to express their opinions and become more involved in the democratic process. Our theme was "Get in the Game." Also we wanted people to join us as a team and to work together as one. We kept stressing that the more people that become involved, the more we can get accomplished and the louder student needs and concerns can be heard.

We stressed our ideas of wanting to take Vanderbilt to the next level, emphasizing communication, making a difference on campus, and bringing something to Vanderbilt. We wanted to bring in people from all different groups, and cultures on campus. Like I mentioned earlier, because Ross and I are from such diverse backgrounds we were able to do this. This year's Cabinet and Senate are very diverse not just by race or religion, but also through ideas. Thus, I am extremely excited about and honored to be a part of this working team.

Of course increasing interaction and dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslim students is part of the big picture as people who want everyone represented. We want more interaction between everyone. I have failed as a leader if I cannot get our Muslims on campus to open up and talk to the non-Muslims on campus and feel comfortable and vice versa, we want to provide the type of environment so that non-Muslims feel comfortable going and conversing or socializing with Muslim students. Personal contact helps break down the barriers that often cause dehumanization and hatred and a lack of understanding.

By seeing a side you only read about, the picture you see reading might change or become clearer. Interaction and dialogue through education is key. What better place to learn about other cultures and ideas than in an academic environment. The time is now. Thus, we want as many people involved and interacting as possible.

Q: What was going through your mind and through the minds of your Arab-American friends on September 11?

A: Personally, I was extremely upset. For example, of course, I felt a deep and sickening sadness for the loss of civilian lives. I just kept thinking how awful it must have been for all of those people and for their families.

Confusion was also running through my mind in respects to the idea that I could not understand how on earth people could foster so much hate that they would resort to such enormous destruction.

Vulnerability is another adjective that I would definitely use to describe both myself and several of my Arab-American friends. As an American I was concerned that there would be another attack and also about the depth of the scar it would leave on this country. In addition, as an Arab, I could not help but remember what I had learned in history class about what happened to the Japanese-Americans living in the United States after Pearl Harbor. Ignorance and not learning from history can be a terrible thing, especially when combined with revenge and hate.

Thus, I was worried that many of my fellow citizens, would not realize that just because my friends and I are Muslims and Arabs, did not mean that we were part of or even agreed with the terrorists who caused September 11. We didn't even consider the terrorists to be Muslims. I was worried that people would confuse Islam with Osama Bin Ladin and his agenda, that they would confuse his agenda as the agenda of all believers in Islam.

I think most Arab Americans realized that there were going to be several questions about us and who we are, and we needed to be ready to teach the truth and to help clear up the confusion that had been caused. I was afraid of the stereotypes that would be formed. Vilifying stereotypes are a catalyst for disaster. Arab Americans are relatively "new," in that most of us did not start immigrating to the United States until the 1970s. Like all things, it takes time to tell your story and what you are about to your neighbors in a language that everyone can understand.

In my opinion, Al Qaeda is trying to ruin Islam's reputation and we are simply not going to let them win this fight. If someone has a political agenda, they need to call it what it is, and not disguise it in the name of a religion or use the religion to achieve their political goals. This is simply unacceptable.

Q: You are involved with the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee and Middle Eastern Student Association at Vanderbilt. What kind of events/activities do they have on campus? Do you find a lot of interest or participation from the broader student body?

A: The Vanderbilt Middle Eastern Student Association is an organization which a Saudi Arabian student and I founded my freshman year in 1999. The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee has these student groups at several different colleges around the country. We had a little bit of a rocky take-off, but it is running pretty smoothly and attendance is higher than ever before. We are funded by the University. We have several members from all over the world. We have both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. We have members who are White Anglo-Saxon Americans, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, Saudi Arabians, Kuwaitis, Iranians, African Americans, and Iraqis. We also have people from Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

We often do co-sponsorships with the Indian-American organization on campus, the Asian-American organization on campus, the Hispanic-American organization on campus, the Malaysian group on campus, and with the Student Government Organization.

Annually we bring a speaker to campus. This year our guest speaker was Dr. Jack Shaheen. He addressed media and Hollywood stereotyping of Arabs and Moslems in America. We had over 250 people attend the lecture.

We also have an annual Middle Eastern Night where we have free Arabic food on the central lawn on Vanderbilt's campus. Vanderbilt also lets us set up a market place similar to the typical market places you see in the streets in most Arab countries, and then we have a two hour show where we put on various performances varying from an Arab band to the traditional Arab debka dance, a fashion show illustrating the different traditional wear varying from one Middle Eastern country to the next, and plays which show Arab culture.

In addition to these one-time annual events, we also hold educational sessions every month. We call them study breaks and we also have a couple of forums during the day throughout the year. The study breaks are when we go to people's dorms, provide food, and set up a round table discussion where we discuss with them for an hour about politics, religions commonly practiced in the Middle East, and Middle Eastern culture and answer any questions they might have. Many times it is a question/answer session and we also bring literature to hand out as well.

Q: Were Vanderbilt students more interested in Islam and Muslims after September 11? If so, did you and other Muslims on campus become more proactive in explaining your faith?

A: For the most part, I would definitely have to say that Vanderbilt Students as a majority were more interested in Islam and Muslims and Arabs after September 11. There was a class offered for the Spring Semester just on this subject, and over 200 students enrolled and people were even standing in line to be on the waiting list. This sent a message to me that people did want to learn about Islam and the followers of Islam and also about Middle East politics and history.

As for Arabs and Muslims as individuals on campus, we definitely became more mobilized and proactive. There was no other choice. As I mentioned earlier, we have a story to tell and if it goes untold, this is doing a disservice to simply everyone. We had more study breaks, more educational forums, and gave more interviews to the school newspaper than we had before. I must also at this time comment on how the attendance to these activities from the Vanderbilt student body was very high. We had at least 40 people at these question and answer sessions and also we had about 500 people (total throughout the night) come to the Middle Eastern Night.

Vanderbilt University also provided the type of atmosphere that made us feel at ease to do these kinds of activities. The administration was very amiable. Several faculty and administrators attended our events and co-sponsored our guest speaker.

Most students were concerned about how Americans were perceived and I constantly was asked how they could let Arabs know that they wanted to bridge whatever gap might exist between the two cultures. Many told me that they wanted to go with me and visit the Middle East the next time I go. My friends often asked me how my family was doing and if they were safe.

As much as I wish this was how every single student and person reacted, unfortunately that is not the case. As in almost every single society, you do have the ignorant or the people who refuse to see the big picture and carry hate inside their hearts and are content with this. As I said, while I did not encounter these kinds of comments often, occasionally they did arise. ... I was simply shocked, but that just made me realize that there was more work that was needed to be done on all sides. Extremism never solves anything. Dehumanization is a curse.

Q: You are also member of an organization called the Diversity Action Group (DAG). What is its role on campus?

A: The DAG was part of our Cabinet Multi-Cultural Affairs Committee. We have several committees and this is one of them. The DAG group was the specific name given to the forum part of the committee this year. The committee is supposed to be constitutionally in charge of a forum every year. It is the specific job in which the committee coordinates, organizes, and ignites dialogue between the different groups on campus. A representative from each group is invited to a meeting once a week and they discuss different issues on campus and how to bring people together from various differing diverse backgrounds. The Multi-Cultural groups are usually the big attendees.

The goal of this is for us to facilitate interaction. A big part of SGA is to provide resources for different groups on campus and to increase dialogue between different groups and to also let us know what they think the key issues on campus are. If nobody talks to us, then we are not very effective. Thus, we really encourage these types of " coming together."

Q: Do you have any ideas on how to improve communication between American Muslims and Arabs and the Arab/Islamic world? Do you see a special role for your community in bridging gaps of misunderstanding?

A: Absolutely, it is key. The world is a smaller place and therefore if countries want to succeed it seems that the more communication with other countries the better and thus the more understanding rather than misunderstanding between countries, the easier things will be. Therefore, there is a very special role for the Arab American community and the Muslim American community. We have an understanding for both cultures (Arab and Muslim and American) and can speak the languages of both. We know where both are coming from and we have also seen the human sides of both.

For example, I personally feel compassion for each side. Both sides have strong positives and it just takes people who see and deeply know that to educate others and to illustrate this and tell their story. Arab Americans have the opportunity to educate Americans about Arabs and we have the chance to tell our family and friends when we go to our native countries about American lifestyle and what kinds of lives we live and what America is like other than what might be shown by satellite.

Arab Americans have a responsibility to represent both sides to both sides. We also must stress the importance of education. Education and acceptance are key. Arab American leaders have an opportunity here to help lead both sides to a place where the world is calmer.

As I said, when you don't know someone of a particular background, it becomes easier to tear down the people, than if you see that they are people, too, just trying to live life. I have just as good a time sitting down with my friends from my hometown in Waverly, Tennessee as I do with my friends in Ramallah. Many times, we talk about the same things, and they have the same concerns and interests about school, social activities, dreams and ambitions, and movies. And in those conversations, I answer the questions in Waverly about if I only ride camels when I go over to the Middle East, and in Ramallah I answer the questions about if it is true that all Americans have lives similar to that of the characters on "Beverly Hills 90210." Also, I answer the more serious questions like whether or not both sides really truly hate the other and especially the question on both sides of, "Why do they hate us?"

Thus, I see Arab Americans taking on more of a role as mediators and people who are bridge builders. I know this might sound like utopia, and I do not think that utopia exists, but I do think that if we keep our goals high, and continue to not settle for a situation where there is more chaos than actual structure, then we will get to a point where life is better for everyone even though a few soar spots might exist. What that point is and when we will get there, well I just don't have an answer to that question.

In order to do this, I think that American Muslims and Arabs must always remember their roots and where their family is from and develop a care for both America and for their native lands. They should never turn their back on either. My parents always taught us to never forget where we came from and to never forget where we are now. It always breaks my heart when I see Arab Americans never going back and visiting the Middle East or not even acknowledging that they are Middle Eastern. I would be ashamed of myself if I felt that way. Thank God I do not. I always cherish my visits to my grandfather's house in Amman, Jordan every summer.

Most of my Arab American friends will tell you the same exact thing. About 20 of us take a trip together each summer to a different area in the Middle East. Last year we went to Syria, and this year we are going to Egypt. We always try to mix the best of both cultures (American and Arab). It is always interesting to say the least.

This reminds me of what one of my friends said to me 6 days after September 11. He said, "Samar, I think it is time you choose between being an Arab and being an American." What he simply just didn't understand is that there is no need for separation. I will always be Arab and I will always be American and I will always be Muslim.