MCCA Project. Interviewers: Stephanie Green (SG); Seth Henderson (SH); Anne Sinkey (AS)

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1 MCCA Project Date: February 5, 2010 Interviewers: Stephanie Green (SG); Seth Henderson (SH); Anne Sinkey (AS) Interviewee: Ridvan Ay (RA) Transcriber: Erin Cortner SG: Today is February 5 th. I m Stephanie Green and I am here with Seth Henderson and Dr. Anne Sinkey and we re interviewing Ridvan Ay for Kennesaw State University representing the MCCA project. We re going to get started and Ridvan if you can just give us some information about your background. Tell us about yourself. RA: My name is Ridvan, last name Ay. I m from Turkey. My city of birth is in southeast Turkey. I actually, I grow up in Istanbul and I had my Bachelor Degree in [need spelling], the city name. My Bachelor is about education, computer education and instruction. I m a teacher also. After that I m twenty-eight years old. My job is computer, internet, programming and I live with my friends and that s all. SG: And how long have you lived in the U.S.? RA: I came U.S. 2007, September It s more than two years. SG: And did you come directly to Atlanta or did you live anywhere in the U.S. before? RA: Actually, Atlanta is my third city in the U.S. First I came to New York. I lived there seven months. It was fast living there and very expensive also. My purpose to come here was to learn English and to get my Master s Degree or Doctorate and then I saw that in New York it s too hard to do that, and then I move to, one of my friends was living in Murphys, Tennessee and then I moved to Memphis and I used to live there for nine months. After that my acceptance in Kennesaw State University, I moved to Atlanta. I m here about one. SG: Is that why you chose to come to Atlanta, because you applied to school here? RA: Yeah. I applied to school here and I got acceptance here. I actually have some friends, Turkish friends here and I was thinking it would be easy to adapt here because when I move to new cities, to ask for me to adapt, to adapt takes time. SG: Did you have any reservations about coming to the South as opposed to being somewhere else? Were there other schools or other areas that you looked into for school that you thought might have been easier for you than someplace other than Atlanta? Or did you have any ideas about what that might be like? MCCA Interview

2 RA: Actually before I applied Kennesaw State University, I was apply Southern Polytechnic because there are many Turkish people and usually here when you don t have friends or connections, it s hard to get information from the university. Each university has different requirements for acceptance and many of my friends, they told me that it s easy to get acceptance in Southern Polytechnic. After that I saw that Kennesaw State is close to Southern Polytechnic and one summer, 2008 summer, my friend and I came to Atlanta. We drive about six and a half hours and then we came and I said my friend and we got here now and visit also Kennesaw State and we get requirements and I like the University, actually. It s a very nice campus. I get acceptance from two different university. One is Nashville State Univerity and I chose here. I like it and the computer science, the program is what I want to study. SG: And what were your perceptions or did you have any perceptions about what it would be like to live in the South either when you were in Turkey or when you were in New York? RA: Yeah. I guess I hear the information about before I moved here because also when I live in Memphis I saw that, New York is totally urban and there s no like except central part, there s no many tree, not recreation area but I saw then Memphis and like very green and wildlife s very nice and a lot of lakes and you can go with friends to picnic. In Turkey to go to picnic is very common and I like it and then actually I saw that also the differences between Tennessee and New York, between Georgia and New York. Here is little, life is very slow and if you don t have friends it can be boring and when I came here, sometimes I ask myself why I move here, like many times actually because I couldn t improve my English and I m bored actually, so just the good things I study at the university. SG: What about as a Muslim did you ever have any ideas or feelings about being in the South that might be a concern for you, perceptions of people here, either just in the U.S. period or the South specifically? RA: Actually I always heard that the South of the U.S. was very conservative and religious. I saw that also in Memphis because, you know, every city there are Church. So I heard that also Atlanta, Georgia is most, one of the most conservative state in U.S. SG: You Heard that? RA: Yes I heard that and actually so far, I mean, it doesn t bother me, nothing bother me so far. People are understanding and have tolerance. So far I don t have any problem in that issue. SG: What do you think the average American knows about Islam or what do you think the perceptions of most Americans have about Islam? RA: One of the things I saw here, I m studying U.S., I m coming four days and people, students actually and I like it actually, students are reading Bible but I have no idea how much information they have about Islam because sometimes they ask me, Do you have to pray five times? or What s the Ramadan? Why you are not doing anything during Ramadan? I try to share my information with them. I want to share my culture here that I saw. I think there are like MCCA Interview

3 forty person, maybe thirty person, they know something about Islam. I don t think they know much, like, they don t have right information. SG: So most of the questions that they ask are about praying or holidays, are there questions that that most people seem to ask and how do you feel about the questions and answers? RA: Actually, I feel comfortable because I like to talk about my culture and my religion, my country. They ask me actually special, Why you don t eat pork? SG: Pork is big here. RA: Yeah and I say, There are a lot of different kind of meats. So we don t eat just pork and it has different issues, different topics and we don t like to eat this kind of animal. Other things like, they usually ask me, Are you praying five times in a day? and How is Ramadan start? but when we share our information to each other I learn that they may also have fasting, different time, different version. So actually when we re talking we can understand, we are close, we have close (?) to each other. SG: Can you tell me about different activities that maybe you re involved in in the Muslim community and do you find that you do those more with other Turkish people here in Atlanta? Is there a big Turkish population here? RA: Yeah. Actually, I m a member of Muslim Student Association here and usually I m very busy with classes and projects. So I couldn t get a chance to join them. SG: Well is there anything else, not just at KSU but just in general? You know, are there any other organizations that you do anything with or your Mosque that does anything? RA: You know there is a (?) I think they do some activities but it s far from my house so I cannot go and join them and also now when I don t have time with my projects. SG: How do you think Islam is portrayed in the U.S., either by the people or by the media? RA: How people see the idea of Islam? SG: Yes. RA: After 9/11 and before 9/11 I think people change idea because I meet some people in Memphis, Turkish people. They said during 9/11, when happened it was very scary, very bad. I don t know who did it and what kind of problems they had but this time they said people didn t talk to us, they didn t even, he s in the store and he said people didn t shop with us. Maybe I can understand it cause it was, maybe he s Muslims. I don t know actually his religion but it doesn t mean all Turkish are Muslim. After 9/11 Americans usually they stay far from immigrant people. Yeah but, you know, I came in 2007 so actually I didn t feel that too much. It was 2011 right? SG: MCCA Interview

4 RA: Oh yeah, sorry. SG: It s okay. RA: Yeah it was. I came in 2007 so I don t feel that but before 9/11 I think that there wasn t any problem and (?) open mind people. I like these kind of like characistical people. They are open to learn knew things. They are like talking and you don t feel like, they didn t give me like bad feeling. SG: Did anybody ever ask you anything about 9/11 or make any comments to you or express anything about that specifically if they were to ask you things about? RA: Religious stuff is gotten complicated because people have different idea, you have different idea and when I said, My religion is Islam. and what s your religion? He said I m Catholic or Christian or different. We didn t like discuss too much because my friend doesn t want to argue about the subject but when I was Memphis I had a friend from, he s my conversation partner and they had like Church on campus and usually on Fridays we went together. We play some kind of games in Church, you know. Mostly all of his friends, they went Turkey, they knew all about my culture and it was easy to talk about culture. I miss that. SG: What does your family in Turkey think about you living here? Are they, what do they think about it? RA: Truthfully, at first I said, I want to go to United States to learn new things, to get my Master s Degree or PhD. My brothers they support me but my mom, I can t forget this. She said, My son, why you are going so far from me? You can get your degree here. My mom, she doesn t want me to go out of country but other member of my family, they support me. SG: Have any of them come here to visit you or do they plan to come? RA: Not yet. SG: No? RA: Not yet. AS: Do you get to visit home very often? RA: Yeah, last summer I was in Turkey. SG: And when you go back what do the people there ask you about living here? RA: You know, the U.S. is very, how can I say, many people want to come here. Many people want to come to U.S. and see it. We always saw U.S. in movies. When I came to New York City, especially the city, I know all these place, I told myself. Always I m watching movies. Now I MCCA Interview

5 can understand there is movies, they re really powerful and advertise, kind of advertising. I can see that TV show, Empire State, all kind of stuff, yeah. They ask me how it is, how s the people, how is food? One of the hard things for us, actually, food because here, we are all usually eating at house, people in Turkey usually not eating outside but here all they have to eat, pizza, outside, like give you fat things. Yeah. They ask me food and people, how is life. Actually I came here and I bought my first car, here you have to have car and New York you don t need it because so many people are there but inside of this kind of city, you have to buy a car. I told them this and gas is cheaper than Turkey, three times. I said also people here, they live in houses usually but in Turkey we have apartments. People live together and socialize more, interact more with people. They know each other and kids on the street, always playing on the street, on parking area but here it s too hard to find people outside. They re walking or kids playing outside, I never see it because a lot of the recreation area here and no people but in Turkey we have small part of green park, grass, trees. People always, they are going there and sitting, having picnic. Yeah, life here is different. SG: In terms of, you mentioned the food, is it difficult because I know Atlanta doesn t necessarily have a very large Muslim community. Is it hard for you to find the right types of food to eat when you do all these things? So is that a challenge for you here? RA: Yeah, actually. In New York also same, actually. Here many Arab people, they come from different countries and they usually have the foods that I can t eat. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, I can change by the style. Sometimes I eat meat, outside, everywhere. I don t care. Other times I say, maybe it s not good. I should follow my rules of my religion. I shouldn t eat outside too much. Yeah. At first in Memphis, I eat; actually, I eat a lot, like chicken usually, fish, meat, regular meat but then I move here and here is, I think, a little challenge but also a lot of store here you can find food for yourself. So I have car. I can go buy. SG: What do you think are the biggest or the most common misperceptions that Americans, maybe specifically Southerners have about Islam? RA: Maybe I don t think too much about that but, you know, after 9/11 I think people really, they change mind. As I said before, I don t feel like this very well but, you know I read article, I m watching videos on internet but maybe now people have prejudices about Islam. When you see a Muslim, they stay far from you, you know. They have border because they think every Muslim is a terrorist but if you read the Qur an, if you see the rule of Islam, is the biggest sin is to kill someone. You cannot kill animal, so how can kill a human and it say if you kill one people that means you kill all humanity without any reason and if there is no why, you kill several people. Even if you in war, if two countries are fighting in war and fighting, you cannot kill several people, you cannot kill child, cannot kill children, cannot kill the woman, all people. You know, the war also has ethics, rules and I don t know. AS: I m curious are most of your friends here Americans or do you have a Turkish community that you re a part of? Do you live mostly with immigrants or do you live mostly with people from Georgia or from America? MCCA Interview

6 RA: Actually I m living with my Turkish friends because before I move here, I meet them and that s why I choose move here because I have some Turkish friends, we can live together, and we share our rooms. We are all students and that s my main reason I move here, for my friends. AS: Do you imagine it would have been much harder without friends here? RA: Yeah. First when you move some new place, actually it s hard to adapt, to learn places and feel alone. These are the bad things because it took about like six weeks for me to feel well for a new area because with Memphis I had friends there and the main reasons, have friends. Actually, good idea to live with Americans, improve your English but when you live with your friends there s some advantage. SG: Do you plan on staying in the Unites States for a while or are your plans to finish your schooling and maybe return to Turkey? Have you thought about, you know, your future here? If you would want to have a family here or go back and what your ideas about that are? RA: Actually before I came here always my goal was to leave Turkey and I saw that now is very bad economic situation and even if I want to stay I don t know if I can find job or not. So this time really is not clear for me, after my graduated. Maybe I will stay, maybe not. In Turkey we said Lets finish job then see what will happen. Because usually when you make long term plan it doesn t match your plan, idea in your mind. So first I want to finish my school and then see. AS: I m curious when you first came here to New York and then to Memphis and then Atlanta, what was the most surprising aspect of American culture to you? RA: You want me to compare all states or? AS: Cause you lived in Istanbul which is a large city but then New York is different, I imagine. So I m curious how you would compare the different cities. RA: Actually in U.S. everything has system, everything is in order and I like this. Yeah I like living life in order, everything is followed by rules. Everything is rules and policy is always work hard and you cannot make (?). I traffic always you can see books and I like this. People here are doing their job and I don t know why but in Turkey maybe, its my people but here people is professional. When they re doing their job, they are doing well. That s not why you are Americanized but I saw that. People are doing their job seriously. They re trying to do the well job and maybe that s why the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. People working hard and especially New York is, time is not enough for people there, people in a hurry, rush and in Turkey people is very relaxing, more relaxed and actually I don t remember how I spent seven months in New York. They re really fast. I wake up 9 o clock, my school is finished at four and I taking the metro again, take about forty minutes again, one and a half hour on the metro. I m hungry, I need to go find someplace to eat pizza and then go home and I finish the day. Hours not enough but inside Tennessee or Georgia life moves little bit more relaxed than New York. Yeah and here, even it doesn t matter how long a highway we have, this clean and actually between states. I like it and I like travel between states. Unites States especially because really, you know, like order, clean, nice. The road is wide and traffic. People here is really MCCA Interview

7 understanding, how you say. The tolerance when you do some mistake they are stopping, they are giving you break. In Turkey it s hard to find that. It s my people. If I live Turkey, maybe I do the same thing because it s a kind of culture. Turkish people, people in Turkey are not so very helpful. SG: Are there any other parts of the U.S. that you would maybe like to visit, at least, not necessarily to move there to live but are you curious about what it s like in other part so the United States? RA: Yeah, actually. California is one I want to go see and Chicago. SG: Any particular reasons those two areas? RA: Chicago, I heard that Chicago looks like New York but more clear and new city, like new because Manhattan, New York is a very old city, you know. The house I lived in, a lot of cockroach, even we had small mouse at home. What s name? I don t know but house is very old but California, they are also saying is a very beautiful state. SG: Do you think life would be easier living somewhere else besides the South or do you think that it would be the same pretty much no matter where you were in the U.S.? RA: Actually, it doesn t matter. It s same cause if you live in California it s expensive. California s expensive. Maybe it s the most beautiful state but it s expensive. New York, I like to live with people, to walk on city street. I want to see people on city street but New York also. Maybe New York, I want to live in New York but not special inside of New York City; maybe just outside of New York City. Atlanta, I said, is very wide city and take too much time to go one point to another point, really time and I m living here about thirty months and I am tired. Yeah, I m tired of drive. AS: How many years until you finish your degree at Kennesaw? RA: I have two more semesters to finish, hopefully. SH: Now is your experience inside the U.S. and more specifically in the South, been what you ve expected it to be or has it better or worse than what you expected it to be? RA: Actually, I am, I want to be clear. I didn t think to come to South becasue I heard that people more conservative, you know, North states people more understanding, more people they show tolerance to each other but after I came here my mind s changed. My first, like about one and a half year ago it was my purpose to go North states because people, there are many like immigrant people so nobody care about anybody because, you know in Europe now you can t kill by someone because of ethnics, doesn t want immigrant people to come, even though cannot know I am student. I don t want to be in kind of dangerous situations but hopefully in U.S. never I heard that. So I feel comfortable with U.S. MCCA Interview

8 SG: If there was anything that you could tell people who had negative ideas or negative perceptions of Islam, if you could tell them something what would want to say? RA: Bad things about Islam? SG: Yeah. If there was one thing that you could say, is there anything that you would want to tell them about AS: To try to change their mind. SG: To try to change how they feel. RA: You mean if something bad in Islam, I should tell the others? AS: No. If you met someone who had a bad idea about Islam. SG: That thought that all Muslims were terrorists, all women in Islam are oppressed or all, you know, something like that or. RA: Maybe I can give example. SG: Yes. AS: Yes. RA: If someone tells me, like he said Islam, all Muslims terrorists, I can give myself as an example. I can t even like kill the animals, small things, maybe ants. Actually now at my house, a lot of ants, I have to clean out, you know. So I can t maybe kill the ant but I can tell him about myself. So maybe I can tell him. Maybe if I cannot change his mind but at least I can give him some information about my religion; as much as I can, as much as I know. Actually out of internet and website, you know, internet, easy now find information about Islam and what s the rule and what s the people believe. Actually sometimes I m watching Youtube, the best things maybe I can show these kind of people. In Europe and England and German, France, people they choose Islam and these people, maybe they can easily compare their life before and after Islam cause maybe I can watch these videos. I saw the video and they said that one of the Romans is from Texas, she was very famous person, I think, and says Well how was change in life before Islam, after Islam? and If he have bad idea about Islam, I don t know. I can t change his mind. All religions has rules and the best person how is commented. The other guy commented different way I can comment when I saw, All Muslims not terrorist. All terrorists not Muslim Even if, you know, one of the (?) in Turkey said Muslim cannot be terrorist. Terrorist cannot be Muslim. And all new now comment on Islam usually is from TVs, you know newspapers. If people really if you want to get some information about Islam, internet, website, internet. There s a lot of videos, you know, from European people, from Americans. Maybe they should watch the videos. SG: Thank you for coming in and talking to us. MCCA Interview

9 AS: Thank you. SG: It s been a lot of fun. You ve been very informative. I know you have to work so we won t keep you any longer than we have to. Thank you very much. RA: You re welcome. MCCA Interview

AS: Okay. So old were you when you moved from Chicago to Kentucky? AS: Four years old. So you don t have a lot of memories of Chicago?

AS: Okay. So old were you when you moved from Chicago to Kentucky? AS: Four years old. So you don t have a lot of memories of Chicago? Date of Interview: 2/12/2010 Interviewer: Dr. Anne Sinkey (AS) Interviewee: Ali Ahmed (AA) Transcriber: Allison Lester AS: Here with Ali Ahmed. It is Friday February 12, 2010. And, I am here with Kennesaw