The Bowdoin Orient

If learning extends to the world beyond the classroom, it is sad to see that certain stereotypes endure when Americans pursue their studies abroad. As a Moroccan student at Bowdoin, I was deeply dismayed in realizing the persistence of American misconceptions about the Middle East so patent in Sam Frizell's Talk of the Quad piece "The far side of the strait" (February 17).

We never felt the frosty winter air of that November night as we sat in the unusually crowded Shannon Room. There was a palpable sense of excitement, which diffused all over campus as students sang the national anthem at midnight.

I am counting down the days before I can embrace my sisters again, speak Arabic to my compatriots, wear what my bearded, funny neighbor calls conventional clothes, and reassure my family that neither America nor Broadwain—a Moroccan rendering of Bowdoin with touches of the renowned Broadway—is hostile to Arabs. I have come to realize how unready I am for the last of this limitless list of matters, which I will be compelled to address back home. I do not wish to posit a basis for confrontation—American media coverage attends to that daily and impeccably. Rather, I would like to speak my mind with regards to the questions of identity at the crossroads of culture and religion, especially Islam, at Bowdoin.