This article was originally published on the KPCNews web site.

By Grace Householder

KENDALLVILLE — Corey and Nadine Kline have long been fascinated with other cultures.

They decided to become an AFS host family so that they could provide a unique experience to a student from a foreign nation and also so that they and their children could broaden their understanding of their world. They chose the AFS YES program, sponsored by the State Department. Youth Exchange and Study (YES) focuses primarily on Muslim countries.

“We feel that the experience promotes peace, broadens horizons and makes the world a smaller place,” said Corey Kline.

Like East Noble’s other three AFS students, Yusuf Tawash arrived in August, prior to the start of classes at East Noble High School, and will leave in late June.

Nadine Kline said Yusuf has helped them to learn about Bahrain and Islam. The family structure is different than it is in America, she said. Where Yusuf is from is not uncommon for several generations of a family to live together.

“We will always consider Yusuf as a member of our family,” she added, noting that she finds the way Muslim parents name their children in Bahrain interesting. The woman does not take the man’s last name after marriage. The children do take the father’s last name along with the father’s first name and the grandfather’s first name for many generations. For example, Yusuf’s full name is Yusuf (name given by mother and father) Ali (father’s first name) Taha (grandfather’s first name) Moshen (great-grandfather’s first name) Taha (great-great- grandfather’s first name) Tawash (surname). The grandfather’s name can go back for generations upon generation all the way back to the prophet Mohammed.

Yusuf, 16, attends East Noble High School and is active on the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. The youngest of a large family, he applied for the YES program because he wanted to further his education, prepare himself for a “recognized college” and also because he wanted to learn more about the U.S. Only nine of the 200 students in the selection process were chosen to come to the U.S.

“Yusuf has helped me become more social and introduced me to experiences I never would have had on my own,” said Gage Kline, 15. For example, Gage has attended the local mosque and has had an Arabian dinner with the people who go to the mosque.

“I’m really enjoying myself here,” Yusuf said. The most challenging part of his stay, so far, is the “social experience” at school.

Yusuf, who has interacted with Muslims in northeast Indiana and finds they are the same as Muslims in Bahrain as far as beliefs, said he wants people to understand that “Islam is a religion of peace and 9/11 was a tragedy for Muslims, too.”

He said, “Two-thousand-nine-hundred-seventy-one innocent lives were killed. And it was caused by a person that is not even considered a Muslim.”

Yusuf said 9/11 was caused by “Muslims with a sick idea of applying Islam on the world with any method possible even if it meant killing innocent lives. Those people specifically are called terrorists, not Muslims because Islam does not equal terrorism. They didn’t do it in the name of Islam but just to intimidate and get their demands.”

Yusuf said, “Islam is the religion of peace. The word Islam means submitting. Which means submitting your will to Allah (which means God in Arabic).”

Below are answers by Yusuf and members of the Kline family about their first Christmas together.

Question: Many non-Christians celebrate Christmas with gift giving, Christmas trees, parties, etc. Is Christmas celebrated in Bahrain?

Yusuf: Yes. But, not by Muslims. It’s celebrated by Christians from foreign countries like India, Thailand, Philippines, America and other countries.

Question: What are your favorite aspects of Christmas that you are sharing with Yusuf?

Corey and Nadine: Taking Yusuf to cut down the Christmas tree, decorating it and the spirit of giving.

Gage: The celebration of the birth of Jesus, giving and receiving presents, Mom’s breakfast pizza and the snow.

Ethan: My interest in St. Nicolas and the spirit of Christmas giving.

Photo by Nadine Kline

© 2011 KPC Media Group, Inc.