When Susan Rashid, graduate student in biology, began preparing to move to Alabama for school at Auburn, she said she had some reservations because she wasn't sure how people would accept her. She knew Auburn's reputation as an outstanding university and a welcoming community, but she had heard many negative things about Alabama.
Rashid was nervous because she is Muslim.
"That's what the media has told me," Rashid said. "That's what the movies tell me. I didn't know any better. I made a generalization, and I was scared. So I came to visit before I made a final decision."
She said when she visited, Auburn was nothing like what she expected.
"I accepted my offer," Rashid said. "I was only here for four days, and I was stunned. Then I moved here, and it's wonderful. ... I was stunned in a good way."
According to Rashid, she has been shocked with how much support the Auburn community has shown its Muslim community since Trump began publicizing policies many consider Islamophobic. In December, the Muslim Student Association held what it called a '"Blind Trust Experiment" after the Paris terrorist attacks.
"The response was heartwarming," Rashid said. "[He got] so many hugs ... no negative comments and no dirty looks. People went out of their way to come speak to us after to say thank you. ... I was shocked that the community in Auburn was so welcoming and inviting and warm to me. I mean a hug is such a personal thing. That's warmth. You're passing on warmth to someone else."
According to Mohamed Ahmed, president of the MSA, the people in Auburn have shown themselves to be welcoming.
"The people I've met here are cool," Ahmed said. "They've been friendly. They want to hang out and find out what I think about them and their different lifestyle. They're willing to find out about me and coexist. That's how it should be."
Education is a key factor in being accepting of other cultures and religions, according to Ahmed.
"People here are open-minded," Ahmed said. "Most people here are going to have a degree from a university, and so I'm sure they're more open-minded. I haven't really faced any [discrimination]."
Despite the positive response the MSA received from its "Blind Trust Experiment," many Americans still hold an inaccurate perception of what a Muslim is and what they look like, according to Rashid.
"I'm not a walking representation of Islam," Rashid said. "I don't wear a hijab. I speak fluent English. People can't even tell my ethnicity most of the time."
According to Rashid, she hasn't noticed people treating her any differently, but the same can't be said for others who dress more traditionally.
"If you ask someone who wears a hijab, they would probably tell you a different story," Rashid said. "If you ask someone who wears traditional Pakistani or Indian clothing, they might tell you a different story. Or someone who came over from a foreign country recently is going to tell you a different story. The media shows Muslims to look a certain way. I don't think that I fit it."
According to Rashid, she knew her family and culture were different as early as elementary school.
"The food I brought to school was different," Rashid said. "I didn't bring a peanut butter and jelly every day. I brought za'atar, olive oil and pita bread sandwiches. Kids would be like, 'Ew, what are you eating?'"
Rashid is an American. She grew up in small, rural and conservative area in California's San Joaquin Valley. She went to school every day and played sports with her friends — a life not that much different from a young woman in rural Alabama.
"It's not like ... San Francisco or Los Angeles," Rashid said. "It's relatively poor compared to those areas. It's not like the big cities or anything. It was a lot more conservative in the valley."
But according to Rashid, the conservatism in the San Joaquin Valley fit well with her family's Muslim faith.
"It's a socially conservative culture, the Muslim culture," Rashid said. "It kind of fits. It fits being family-oriented and the other core values of a socially conservative culture."
Rashid did not notice a difference between her religion and her peers' at school until much later in life, she said.
"My friends would say, 'We're all going to go swimming,'" Rashid said. "Women in Islam dress modestly, no bikinis. I started to feel different when I was a little bit older."
Rashid's bathing suit preference was not the only difference she has noticed between her culture and the mainstream American culture over the years, she said. But overall her life has not been that different.
"I was raised an American kid for the most part," Rashid said. "[But] my definition of nightlife is not the same as the typical 20-year-old American — going to the bars or having people over for wine. It doesn't mean I didn't grow up an American kid. I played sports. I loved sports. People don't see Muslims doing these normal, everyday activities, and they do. That's ridiculous. We can talk about football. That has nothing to do with where I'm from or my religion."
Rashid moved with her family back to the Middle East when she was 15. She spent one year in Amman, Jordan, and two years in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when she was 16 and 17.
"My parents got work, and we moved," Rashid said. "I was really angsty and mad. I didn't want to move."
Rashid is ethnically Palestinian, but was born in Connecticut after her parents immigrated to the United States. Her parents were born in Kuwait after her grandparents emigrated from Palestine. Rashid's parents have since returned to the United States and currently live in California.
According to Rashid, straddling the line between American culture and Muslim culture has been a challenge for her entire life, but her family has been supportive, even when her decisions were difficult for them.
"I lived by myself, and for a lot of Muslim fathers, that would be a big thing. That would be a big discussion," Rashid said. "But my dad decided that was something that was for my own good, good for my education. He said, 'Go do it.'"
"For me, [Islam] is family. It's the strongest connection that I make with my family. Islam a religion that helps you and guides you to conduct your life in a peaceful, orderly, convenient way."
According to Rashid, radical Islamists committing acts of violence take the Quran out of context and distort it.
"People like to pick and chose rules," Rashid said. "It's taken out of context. That's the problem with what's going on right now. You have the radicals who are taking things out of context, just like the people on the other side who say Islam is bad. ... It's misinterpreted. It's twisted. It makes me really sad."
The fact that Republican front-runner Donald Trump has garnered such wide support from so many Americans has surprised Rashid, she said.
"The fact that somebody is saying this in 2016 in the United States of America is shocking," Rashid said. "It's not that he doesn't have the right to say it, but the fact that somebody is actually saying it, and garners a following for saying it, is shocking. On such a mass level, is scary. Is this America in 2016 right now?"
Trump has been the leading candidate for the Republican Party since the end of last summer, but according to Ahmed, Trump's campaign is merely an entertainment scheme.
"It's ridiculous," Ahmed said. "It's just entertainment. People are probably going to say 'Donald Trump is really bad, but Ted Cruz is better. Let's nominate him.' The fact that he does have popularity speaks badly about the base that's voting for him."
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