Islam Tiyul!

When we hopped off the bus in Ein Rafa on Thursday, while some of us still adjusting our makeshift headscarves, Yasmine and Musa Burham graciously greeted us into their home, next to the village Mosque. 

We were seated outside while Yasmine introduced herself and began to teach us all about Islam and its origins and fundamentals. She emphasized the most important in her mind: charity and prayer. She also touched on other key aspects of the religion and culture like the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca for ten days during a specific time of year. 

Yasmine offered particularly interesting insight, being someone who grew up secular in England, and then converted. To convert to Islam, she said, is a very simple and personal process; you have to submit to God, and vow to follow the daily ritual practices. 

We then split up into groups, which either Yasmine or Musa lead on a tour around the village. Musa explained the co-dependance that the village shares with the surrounding Jewish Kibbutzim (including our very own Tzuba), and how Israelis and Arabs have shared the land there for over 100 years.

He talked about the challenges that many surrounding families and his own face with finding schooling for young children where they can learn Hebrew and interact with Jewish kids their age. Yasmine explained that around 20% of families in Ein Rafa send their children to outside private schools, so they won't just learn with other Muslim-Arabs. She talked about the importance of having a mixed school system starting from a young age—not college—to promote relationships and understanding between Muslims and Jews living in Israel. 

When we returned, we sat down again to ask a few more lingering questions that we had for Yasmine, while Musa finished cooking lunch in the kitchen. She discussed how often Israeli-Arabs don't feel fully part of Israel, because of the national state law that says that non-Jewish citizens are different than Jewish citizens. However, Yasmine explained how she sees the Jewish state as a major achievement for the Jewish people, and how it’s easier and safer for her to live as an Islamic woman in the one Jewish state in the world, than in any Islamic state that she says distorts Islamic values. 

Yasmine’s religious journey all started with her first trip to Israel, and she now welcomes hundreds into her home to teach about Islam and living here in the Jewish state. Whether this is your first or fourth time in Israel, how do you relate to Yasmine’s story? What have you learned about yourself religiously these past six weeks?