Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
As foreign fighters wage insurgency in Iraq, innocent Arab outsiders pay the price
By MARIAM FAM - Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (AP) A factory owner is arrested on suspicion of
abetting terrorists. A laundry worker goes to get his visa renewed and is
thrown in jail. And a cook says some Iraqis now greet him with a clear
message: Get out of our country.
They are all Arabs who migrated to oil-rich Iraq years ago to find
jobs and escape poverty and political instability at home. But some feel
their welcome is wearing out because foreign Arab fighters are being blamed
for many of the killings, bombings and kidnappings plaguing the country.
It's the flip side of the human dislocation caused by the war and
the insurgency. While hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled to the
safety of neighboring Arab countries, foreign Arabs in Iraq say some are
treating them as terror suspects. Others resent jobs lost to the foreigners
in an unemployment-stricken economy.
Emad Eddin Abdel-Aziz is a 39-year-old Egyptian who came to Iraq in
1989, married an Iraqi and always felt comfortable here.
Then, four months ago, someone told authorities he was concocting
bomb-making substances in his construction materials factory. So one
morning, as he was smoking a water-pipe, about 30 policemen burst into his
home.
"They did not ring the bell. They knocked the door down. They were
coming from everywhere," he said.
They made him lie face down on the floor and beat him each time he
looked up, he said. He spent 11 days in detention.
A.R., a 40-year-old Sudanese laundry worker who asked not to be
fully identified for fear of reprisals, said the bureaucracy is tightening,
reducing residency gradually from two years at a time to just two months. He
said the last time he went to get a renewal he was accused of forging a
permit, arrested on the spot and held for 90 days.
When he first came to Iraq 18 years ago, he felt at home, he said.
Now "they're trying to get us out of the country. That's the goal. They call
us terrorists."
Foreign Arabs speak the same language as Iraqis, but are often
distinguishable by accent, name and looks. Iraqi officials say strict
measures are necessary, given the presence of fighters from Sudan, Egypt,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and elsewhere. Iraq's most feared terror
mastermind, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is a Jordanian.
Moussa Ibrahim, a Sudanese cook who came in 1989, said he hears
nasty talk in the market: "What are you still doing here? What do you want?
It's enough. Leave already."
An Interior Ministry official, requesting anonymity because he's not
authorized to speak to the media, agreed that only a minority of foreigners
is dangerous and denied non-Iraqi Arabs are being singled out. But, he said,
Iraqis need to be protected, adding that just recently, three Syrians who
have been living here for 18 years were arrested for participating in
attacks.
A.R., the Sudanese laundry worker, said some Iraqis believe the
foreigners were Saddam Hussein loyalists in gratitude for being allowed to
live and work here.
Saddam billed himself as a pan-Arab figure and needed foreign labor
when Iraqis were being drafted to fight in the 1980-88 war with Iran.
The Arab foreigners say the security forces give them the hardest
time. "Every time they see you, they stop you. 'Show me your passport! Where
is your residency?' This makes me just hate my life," A.R. said.
The terrorist stereotype clings hard. While in custody, A.R. said,
one policeman told him half in jest: "Don't stand next to me in case you
explode."
Abdel-Aziz, the Egyptian, said he doesn't mind strict security
measures provided they work. "They stop my car and search it for 30 minutes,
but the bombings are still on the rise," he said.
He said he still feels accepted by his social circles. "I go to
wakes where families have lost someone in a bombing carried out by a
(non-Iraqi) Arab, but I sense no hostility," he said.
Leaving isn't an option, he added, because Egypt offers him few
opportunities and he would be unable to afford a house big enough for him,
his wife and his three children.
"I feel it's Egypt that has done me wrong. Why else would I be
forced to stay here, risking my life?" he said. "Can someone my age go back
home empty-handed to find himself taking money from his younger brother to
buy, say, cigarettes?"
By MARIAM FAM - Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (AP) A factory owner is arrested on suspicion of
abetting terrorists. A laundry worker goes to get his visa renewed and is
thrown in jail. And a cook says some Iraqis now greet him with a clear
message: Get out of our country.
They are all Arabs who migrated to oil-rich Iraq years ago to find
jobs and escape poverty and political instability at home. But some feel
their welcome is wearing out because foreign Arab fighters are being blamed
for many of the killings, bombings and kidnappings plaguing the country.
It's the flip side of the human dislocation caused by the war and
the insurgency. While hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled to the
safety of neighboring Arab countries, foreign Arabs in Iraq say some are
treating them as terror suspects. Others resent jobs lost to the foreigners
in an unemployment-stricken economy.
Emad Eddin Abdel-Aziz is a 39-year-old Egyptian who came to Iraq in
1989, married an Iraqi and always felt comfortable here.
Then, four months ago, someone told authorities he was concocting
bomb-making substances in his construction materials factory. So one
morning, as he was smoking a water-pipe, about 30 policemen burst into his
home.
"They did not ring the bell. They knocked the door down. They were
coming from everywhere," he said.
They made him lie face down on the floor and beat him each time he
looked up, he said. He spent 11 days in detention.
A.R., a 40-year-old Sudanese laundry worker who asked not to be
fully identified for fear of reprisals, said the bureaucracy is tightening,
reducing residency gradually from two years at a time to just two months. He
said the last time he went to get a renewal he was accused of forging a
permit, arrested on the spot and held for 90 days.
When he first came to Iraq 18 years ago, he felt at home, he said.
Now "they're trying to get us out of the country. That's the goal. They call
us terrorists."
Foreign Arabs speak the same language as Iraqis, but are often
distinguishable by accent, name and looks. Iraqi officials say strict
measures are necessary, given the presence of fighters from Sudan, Egypt,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and elsewhere. Iraq's most feared terror
mastermind, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is a Jordanian.
Moussa Ibrahim, a Sudanese cook who came in 1989, said he hears
nasty talk in the market: "What are you still doing here? What do you want?
It's enough. Leave already."
An Interior Ministry official, requesting anonymity because he's not
authorized to speak to the media, agreed that only a minority of foreigners
is dangerous and denied non-Iraqi Arabs are being singled out. But, he said,
Iraqis need to be protected, adding that just recently, three Syrians who
have been living here for 18 years were arrested for participating in
attacks.
A.R., the Sudanese laundry worker, said some Iraqis believe the
foreigners were Saddam Hussein loyalists in gratitude for being allowed to
live and work here.
Saddam billed himself as a pan-Arab figure and needed foreign labor
when Iraqis were being drafted to fight in the 1980-88 war with Iran.
The Arab foreigners say the security forces give them the hardest
time. "Every time they see you, they stop you. 'Show me your passport! Where
is your residency?' This makes me just hate my life," A.R. said.
The terrorist stereotype clings hard. While in custody, A.R. said,
one policeman told him half in jest: "Don't stand next to me in case you
explode."
Abdel-Aziz, the Egyptian, said he doesn't mind strict security
measures provided they work. "They stop my car and search it for 30 minutes,
but the bombings are still on the rise," he said.
He said he still feels accepted by his social circles. "I go to
wakes where families have lost someone in a bombing carried out by a
(non-Iraqi) Arab, but I sense no hostility," he said.
Leaving isn't an option, he added, because Egypt offers him few
opportunities and he would be unable to afford a house big enough for him,
his wife and his three children.
"I feel it's Egypt that has done me wrong. Why else would I be
forced to stay here, risking my life?" he said. "Can someone my age go back
home empty-handed to find himself taking money from his younger brother to
buy, say, cigarettes?"