Return to Iraq
... Sami Rasouli's Story
September, 2005

Sami Rasouli has returned from the Twin Cities to his homeland to be with his people during the US occupation of Iraq. Sami was the owner of Sinbad's Restaurant, a pioneer in introducing Middle Eastern culture to the area. Sami has left his business and hopes to be of some, yet unknown, help to his countryman. He has agreed to send back periodic reports of his journey. For more about Sami, visit our Feature on his mission.
Salaam for all,                                                                   

Flying for Wounded Mesopotamia

At the airport in Minneapolis while I was checking in to leave on August 8th, the airline officer asked me to wait aside because my name was in the watch list and he needed to get a clearance for my name. This is the first time I know that officially I'm watched!

It took him about 40 minutes to get my name cleared. He asked me kindly not to be offended because he needs to clear his name too when he travels, he was Somali!! I noticed he wrote 4 S's (SSSS) on my travel document. I didn't understand what this meant, but when I arrived to the screening area I was asked to step for a special hand search. After a few seconds there was another dark-skin (Ethiopian or Somali) lady sent to be searched with me and later on there was a white couple added to the group for a thorough search too.

When I was asked to have a seat I ordered a black coffee, but the friendly TSA officer asked me with a smile at his face to take my shoes off and raise my feet up for wanding! It took him about 4 minutes to make sure I was a good guy while the other employee was searching my carry-on luggage. For me these procedures didn't justify the billions of dollars spent by the government for creating and maintaining the Homeland Security Department to stop the frustration by 2 billion angry Arabs and Muslims across the globe, some who express it unfortunately with violence! Certainly, racial profiling doesn't make them and others less angry, and perhaps the mayor of wounded New Orleans included too. The huge amount of money and the manpower (300 pilots were ordered to leave Iraq and Afghanistan for help in New Orleans) that needlessly are wasted in Afghanistan and Iraq for false reasons; they should have been made available to deal immediately with catastrophic natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina! 

Yvonne Ridley in London

      In London, my friend Bahar and his family hosted me for 3 days. On Aug. 11th, the day before my departure from London, I met Yvonne Ridley(right) during an interview Bahar had with her for a film project that he is making. She is now the political editor/presenter of the Islam Channel www.islamchannel.tv.

Yvonne was working for BBC as a journalist when she was arrested by the Taliban police back in 2001. After her release she worked for Al Jazeera for some time. For more info about her you can Google her name or visit this site. She is an interesting individual who converted to be a Muslim after she was abducted by "women oppressed" Taliban!! After the interview was done she told me that she was working on producing a T-shirt with a question addressed for Prime Minister Blair: "If you are waging wars against Islam? Bring'em On!"

Flying with Emirates Airline

Leaving London for Dubai then to Amman I had the most pleasant flying experience with Emirates Airline. The service was excellent.  I spent a week in Dubai with my youngest brother Ra'ad, his wife Fatema and 4 children, Ahmed, Reem, Abdullah and the funny Yousif (Nono) who amazingly impersonates Mr. Bean perfectly. Also I met my nephews Nawfal and his brother Nasir. They left Iraq few years ago fleeing the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq during Saddam era. They work hard buying and selling used cars. Dubai is a very beautiful city; it's like a compact western city, but PARKING is a big problem!!

You may visit or live in Dubai comfortably or even easily find a job and earn lots of money without paying any TAXES!! In this unique country people even don't know what the word tax means?!! When I asked my nephew Nasir about the taxes law in this country, he thought I was talking about the state of Texas. I was told everybody here is happy making lots of money! It's very hot and humid in the summer, but it has a wonderful and pleasant winter! If you get a chance to visit or offered a job in Dubai, don't miss the golden opportunity!! It's worth it to experience this part of Arabia where tall buildings are racing up in the sky.                                      

You be Careful too!

I stayed in Amman/Jordan 4 days visiting my sister Bushrah and her 6 kids before my departure for Baghdad by land on Aug. 24th. I arrived in Baghdad before midnight. My trip by land was OK to Baghdad from Amman/Jordan, except it was very long and tiring, leaving Amman at 5 am on the same day! Bushrah prepared very nice meals for me showing me her cooking's talent. When I left Iraq back in 1976, she was only 9. Her husband Attah is struggling to get asylum for the family in Sweden. Bushrah and kids were convinced to return to Iraq willingly after hearing my story of why I'm going back home! The other sisters in Iraq and relatives are very happy, the husband Attah will join too.

At the Jordan-Iraq borders I was inspected by an American GI, he was surprised and terrified when he found out I'm an American traveling on land!! He hid my passport in a quick move and came to where I was sitting whispering in my ears to be extremely careful during my travel and not to show my U.S. passport to anybody, even to my driver!!. He handed me my passport back carefully and before he left, I smiled and looked into his eyes and said " You be careful too!", I can tell you he was young and very scared.  

In Fallujah again  

Next day I was in Fallujah with CPT(Christian Peace Team) members. Dr. Mohammad Al Jumaily invited the CPT members in Baghdad to meet with Fallujan families and document the U.S. and Iraqi police forces Human Rights violations. We heard horrible stories. Also we learned that Shaikh Abdul Mun'am AL Kubaisi was detained by American forces a few weeks ago without charges. The MPT(Muslim Peace Team) delegation met the Shaikh on May 6th, 2005 and he invited the team for a lunch after the Jum'a prayer at Al Furqan Mosque. During the meeting, he thanked the team for the visit and gave each participant a copy of the holy Quran as a gift, also he sent with us 20 copies for the 2 shrines of Imam Hussein in Karbala and Imam Ali in Najaf ( peace be upon them ). Shaikh Abdul Hamid Al Jumaily told me that next day they are having a peaceful demonstration asking for the detained Sheik's release.

MPT and CPT might arrange with Fallujans another demonstration soon for the same purpose. Today in the afternoon I arrived in Karbala and scheduled a meeting with artists. There are lots of work awaiting MPT. Below are notes of Fallujah visit written by Willi of the CPT.

The Occupation Divides Us
by William Van Wagenen
2 September 2005

Wednesday's tragic events in Iraq illustrate the way in which this country is being slowly ripped apart.  Rumors of a suicide bomber induced panic in the roughly one million Shiites gathered at the Shrine in Kadimiyya to mourn and commemorate the death of the Imam Musa Al-Kadim. As the crowd stampeded, over 800 were either crushed to death or drowned after falling off a bridge and into the Tigris River. This tragedy for the Shiites was accompanied by tragedy for the Sunnis as well, as US warplanes bombed a Sunni town in western Iraq, killing forty-five, including many women and children.

Atrocities against civilians committed by both insurgent groups on the one hand, and US and Iraqi forces on the other, continue to inflame sectarian tensions, deepening divisions in Iraqi society which previously did not lead to violence. Many Sunnis who reject the US occupation begin to see many of their Shiite countrymen as "collaborators" and therefore "unbelievers," because they participate in the US-established Iraqi government, while many Shiites have begun to see all Sunnis as terrorists, as they are believed to make up the bulk of the various insurgent groups, including those that allegedly carry out suicide and car bombings against civilians.

There are, however, many Iraqis struggling to prevent the current civil war in Iraq from degenerating into an all out sectarian conflict along religious and ethnic lines. In a recent visit to the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, I had the chance to visit with a local sheikh, as well as with a Shiite human rights activist from Najaf, both of whom are committed to showing that Shiites and Sunnis can live peacefully with one another. Here is some of what they had to say:

The Shiite from Najaf- "The occupation has put many barriers between the people. [The Americans] put Shiite policeman [in the Sunni city of Fallujah] who have no morals . . . This has been done to sow the seeds of civil war. It is important that peacemakers from Anbar [a Sunni province] and from the Kurds, and from the south [a Shiite region], all make an agreement to have no civil war, but to resist the Americans. We know who does this.  There are dark forces which kill both Shiite and Sunni clerics. It is the occupation which tries to separate us."

The Sunni from Falluja- "I will tell a story to compare the situation under Saddam to the situation today. We will discover through this story how Iraq was united under dictatorship. On April 27th, 1999 a friend of mine was detained [by government security forces] and was taken to a prison in Jallalah. We tried to get a taxi to take us to visit him in prison. When we came to the taxi stand, there were many people but no taxis. All the cars had gone to the celebration of Saddam Hussein's birthday. So to get a taxi we finally had to agree to pay ten times the normal price. When we arrived in Jallalah, we didn't know how to get to the prison, so we spent a lot time looking for it, and paying for this extra time exhausted all of our money. This was very embarrassing for us.  We finally found our friend and visited him, and then began trying to return back home.  At the taxi stand in Jallalah, it was the same thing, lots of people and no cars. While we were waiting suddenly a car pulled up next to us. The driver said, `ya sheikh, are you going to Baquba? 3,000 dinar per person.' We had no money at all but we got in the car. I was nervous and worried, and the driver noticed this.  He asked me, "What's wrong?" So I told him the story of visiting our friend, and how we spent all our money. The driver, who was Kurdish, said, `Don't worry. I won't kick you out of the car. If you like I can take you all the way to Falluja.' This was before the occupation."

"After the occupation, there is a man I know from Ramadi who three months ago took his brother to a hospital in Baghdad. His brother had had a heart attack, and he died at the hospital. When the man tried to get a taxi to return home, the taxi driver asked him where he was from. The man said he was from Ramadi, and that he had brought his brother to the hospital, and that the brother had just died. The driver then refused to take him saying, `Get out of the car. You are from a terrorist city.' So this illustrates the difference between before the occupation and now. . ."  

Women to Women

Judy's letter for the women of the ( cradle of civilization) has been translated in Arabic, but not printed yet. Some of the Women TO Women Project's Greetings Cards were already delivered for 8 Iraqi women in Jordan, 4 women in Baghdad. Each of these women read Judy's letter. Tomorrow I'll be seeing my sister Salima and her family and hand her Svien, Layman and Bangs gift in Najaf, also Nadia will receive Sharon's mail!

Paul, I'm told by many Iraqis that various types of water filters are available in Iraq right now. Thank you so much for your genuine efforts to help. People are stunned to know that many American friends who offered me all kind of assistance for Iraqi people are Jews beside Christians, Bodists, None and Others!!  

I arrived in Najaf on Aug. 29th and I'll be in Karbala tomorrow. The situation in Najaf is very tense between Shi'its rivals since last few days. On Monday a delegation of CPT (Christian Peacemaker Team) is arriving in Karbala for a visit. Please deliver my Salaam for Hayat, Freddy and friends when you stop by at Sinbad's next time. I love you and miss you all.
In peace,
Sami