Mohamed Ahtash, YES 2013-2014, Libya, hosted by AFS in Portland, OR

In honor of World Interfaith Harmony Week, we caught up with Mohamed Ahtash, a YES alumnus from Libya who is living the interfaith experience every day as a student in the United Kingdom. The local newspaper in his community recently published a piece about Mohamed and his upcoming attendance at the YES Alumni Interfaith Harmony Workshop (IHW), which will be held in Morocco in March 2016.

According to the article, Mohamed is especially excited for the IHW because, “It's about communities being together. I'll be proud to represent my country and the main objective is to try and bring change to the communities.”

We had a chance to get to know Mohamed a bit better in this interview:

Q: How would you describe the religious community and environment where you come from?

Mohamed: “I come from a Sunni Muslim community. I was raised in Tripoli, where there used to be religious diversity comprised of Muslims (mainly Libyan), Christians (mainly Egyptian, Italian, and African), and Jews (mainly Libyan). The history of Libyan diversity has had an effect on the young generations and causes them to respect other religions and their practices, including maintaining churches that still function in large Libyan cities to this day.”

Q: How did the YES program influence your thinking about interfaith harmony?

Mohamed: “The YES program has broadened my perspective about interfaith relations, especially when I got the chance to meet other students that are now my friends from Muslim majority nations such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine. It gave me a new way of looking at things, and I learned that no matter what religion you adhere to, there is always something that unites us humans and in particular people from the MENA region where there is a linguistic and cultural similarity.”

Mohamed hopes he can continue this interfaith exploration at the IHW and learn new skills that will help him implement interfaith projects in his home community. He already has several great ideas for projects, including:

- A day trip in which youth visit Ibadi mosques, Sufi mosques, Maliki mosques, and the Roman Catholic Church to learn about the difference between each denomination and develop a shared tolerance of religious diversity.

- A “Dine at Mine” event where people of different faiths come together to have a meal and share their thoughts and experiences.

- Interfaith community clean-up days, bringing people of different faiths together to contribute to society and develop mutual respect.

Mohamed is currently studying Government & Politics, Sociology, and History at St. Helens College in the UK. One day, he would like to be a corporate lawyer or a diplomat. It sounds like he is well on his way!