Madison Shumway
Staff Writer
Clustered around a drink-laden table, the TV screen above their heads broadcasting images of Donald Trump’s inauguration, three Saudi Arabian students discussed the effects of the newly-sworn-in president on their lives.
The friends gather often at this coffee shop, along with many students from Saudi Arabia and other countries. They laugh, buy a drink and congregate on the front porch no matter the weather.
The atmosphere around them was no different the day of Trump’s inauguration, but Abdullah Al Dossari, Sultan Alqahtani and Rayyan Aldohian weren’t laughing. Instead, they were worried.
Al Dossari, who is pursuing an MBA in business administration after graduating from Idaho State last semester, said he had never believed Trump would be elected at all.
“How he talks about other people, how he talks about attacking other races … I thought, ‘He’ll never win,’” he said. “And then out of the blue, that night he was the president.”
The former president of the Saudi Student Association said he was concerned about international relations under Trump and their effects on his family and home country. But mostly, Al Dossari worries about the effect Trump had on emboldening supporters to voice hate.
Aldohian, a business student and father, agreed: he said he was distressed not by a Trump-led government, but by the people who elected him.
“He’s just talking,” Aldohian said of Trump. “He just wants attention, and that’s it … but his followers will take him at his word.”
Connecting past events to potential consequences of Trump’s candidacy and presidency, Al Dossari mentioned attacks on Middle Eastern students that occurred in Pocatello last year. He and Aldohian shared their own experiences with racial slurs slung by strangers.
After a stabbing, reported burglaries and other alleged discriminatory incidents that inspired outrage and an article in the New York Times, students and their families were scared, Al Dossari said. He described receiving phone calls from friends’ parents who worried after a call went to voicemail.
Now, he fears the situation may worsen, despite his faith in a majority of more accepting Americans.
“It was a tiny minority. I told everyone, ‘Don’t judge all of the white people because of this tiny minority,’” he said. “But you know what happened? Donald Trump was elected.”
The three students worried about the repercussions of the businessman-turned-president’s rhetoric — not just those affecting fellow Saudis, but Muslims, Mexicans and other minorities targeted in campaign speeches.
They thought a lack of understanding of their religion led to this rhetoric, emphasizing their belief in peace.
“Divide the number of ISIS by the number of Muslims in the world, and it’s going to be like .0001 percent,” said Alqahtani, a civil engineering student in his last semester.
Al Dossari recalled the shock he felt on Nov. 8 after hearing the election results. A friend, a U.S. citizen, called him, crying.
“I’m sorry, Abdullah,” she said.
Now, with the 2016 election over and a triumphant Trump firmly seated in the Oval Office, he and his friends will continue to study, but with more vigilance.
“We have to watch out,” Al Dossari said. “We have to be careful. Now, we’re just waiting.”
