Nurjes Alelaiw met me at a café in Standale sporting jeans, a blue button up and a navy hijab. She’s a cheerful, 23-year-old Ferris State University student, who moved here from Saudi Arabia to get a degree in Nuclear Medical Technology.
“It’s for treatment and diagnosing for cancer, thyroid and other diseases.”
Nurjes' hometown is Dammam, a city about four times the size of Grand Rapids. But, when I ask her to picture herself back home her imagination took her past the bustle of Dammam, straight to a pastoral image of her family farm
“Flowers, dates, mangoes, tomatoes, peppers. We have chickens, cows.”
Over the last week, it’s worries for her family that fill her mind. The so-called Islamic State bombed several cities in Saudi Arabia.
“Since 2015 in mosques and malls as well. Maybe 200 people killed by ISIS back home.”
Adding to the loss, Nurjes says she’s frustrated by media silence here.
“What’s hurt my feelings, when Paris was attacked by ISIS, every media here covered that. They don’t cover what’s happened in Muslim countries.”
Sometimes, that same silence can also get personal.
“Because I’m wearing scarf right now, sometimes I feel Americans afraid to communicate with me.”
Nurjes says, the basic Muslim principle that ISIS doesn’t get, comes from the famous Imam Ali.
“If someone is not your brother in faith, so he will be your brother in humanity.”
