Muslim family in Redmond offers another perspective

Jessica Rowan Saleem hopes when 3-year-old Nabiel is older, she and her husband will take their son back to visit family and friends in Yemen.

But it’s at times like now — with Donald Trump splashed all over the media — that she’s grateful Nabiel is still a toddler.

“It’s hard when you see the pickup trucks with the ‘Muslims go home’ on the back,” Rowan Saleem said Tuesday at her Redmond home as she watched her son play. “The assertion that all Muslims are terrorists is very painful.”

“It’s very troubling for me that our family would be feared,” Rowan Saleem added.

She called her family a quintessential American one: A blend of cultures brought together from one side of the world to another.

Rowan Saleem was raised in Redmond. She met her husband while studying and working in Yemen. She said he became an American citizen three years ago.

The family has lived in Redmond for several years now, and although Rowan Saleem said she feels welcome in Central Oregon, it’s her country putting her on edge.

“It’s very hurtful when somebody says they’re going to ban Muslims,” Rowan Saleem said. “They’re talking about our family, so it hits us very directly.”

Tragically, each terror attack in the U.S. and abroad also hits home.

Her uncle, Gordon Rowan, was one of three Americans killed three years ago in the Algerian hostage crisis. Rowan Saleem said it was an Al Qaeda-linked group that killed him in the terrorist attack.

“We got the news that we’d lost him, and it was incredibly painful,” Rowan Saleem said.

“I think about how warm and generous my Uncle Gordy was, and how much he would hate to be part of any kind of justification for any kind of violence,” she added.

Rowan Saleem told NewsChannel 21 she knows there’s no simple, one solution to fighting terrorism, but she’s working to do her part.

“ISIS and their actions are there to divide us and create fear — fear of Muslims and fear for Muslims,” Rowan Saleem said. “I want to refuse to fear my neighbors.”

But she admits it’s not always easy. She stopped wearing a hijab — fabric covering her hair — as anti-Muslim sentiment rose.

“It’s not something I’m proud of,” Rowan Saleem said of her decision. “It was a part of my daily life, but I have recently taken it off.”

She said she realizes the contradiction.

“The reason I’m not proud of it is that I really want to believe that I’m stronger than the fear,” she continued. “That I’m not going to believe that something would happen to me or my family in this community. But taking off those outward symbols is evidence of fear.”

“There are days when I feel brave, and I will cover my hair on those days, but I do fear for repercussions, for my family and my child,” Rowan Saleem said.

She says she hopes greater understanding and reaching out will help ease others’ fears. The family regularly participates in the Latino Community Association’s Festival of Cultures in Redmond.

“I think this community is a great place to be, and that’s because we’re good neighbors to each other,” Rowan Saleem said. “I think that’s the best way we can fight the aims of this evil group ISIS — is to not let them divide us.”

For the sake of her family and for 3-year-old Nabiel, she hopes her neighbors feel the same.

“I want to remain optimistic that by the time he’s old enough, we won’t have to have those conversations, because I don’t want my son to grow up feeling like an outsider in his own community,” Rowan Saleem said.

This summer, Rowan Saleem wrote an article for BuzzFeed about her uncle and her thoughts on being a Muslim-American. You can check out her article here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/RowanSaleem/forgiving-belmokhtar-1mptz

NewsChannel 21 recently conducted a poll asking viewers if they agree with Trump that Muslims should be temporarily banned from traveling to the U.S.

More than 2,500 people responded, with 52 percent voting they agree with Trump.