Yasmine Albayyat of Saudi Arabia, a junior at Greene County High School, will give a presentation Sunday, Feb. 15, from 9 to 10 am at First United Methodist Church in Jefferson. All are welcome. The presentation is rescheduled from Feb. 1.
Albayyat is living with Pastor Julie Poulsen and Dennis Fox. She is in Greene County with the IRIS program of Ames, which works with the US State Department to bring students from predominantly Muslim countries to the US to experience religious and other freedoms enjoyed in the US, to practice conflict resolution, and to learn about American democracy. Saudi Arabia, an oil rich US ally, is the only absolute monarchy in the world.
One of Albayyat’s goals in her exchange is to explain that peace is the basis of Islam, and although it is Muslim extremists who claim headlines, they are only a small percentage of Muslims. The very large percentage of Muslims do not condone the actions of terrorists in the name of Islam.
