On a hot August morning in 1990, just before dawn, Ali Mahmoud loaded his wife, son and twin preteen daughters into a compact car and went on a journey.
As a cultural attach’ for the Prime Minister’s National Council for Culture and Art in Kuwait, Ali was used to traveling. Ali had traveled all over the world, arranging art exchanges and promoting the artists of his native land, but this trip would be different. On this trip Ali was taking a gamble, a gamble with his life and the lives of his family. He was attempting to flee Kuwait City after the invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Army.
Ali was born and raised in Baghdad, then moved to Kuwait, rising to the coveted place of cultural attach’. Now he was being pressured by the Iraqis to give up the location of members of the royal Kuwait family. He was under constant danger of him and his son being inscripted into the Iraqi army.
To stay meant he and his family might be killed. To flee the country meant that if they were discovered, they would be executed. The situation seemed impossible, then a glimmer of hope for their survival arose. Saddam Hussein ended the decade-old war with Iran and gave permission for all Iranians to leave Kuwait. If he was ever to get out, now was the time, so he made his decision. With forged papers and a few suitcases, the Mahmoud family set out with a large group of Iranian refugees for what might be a trip that ended in their deaths or their freedom.
Most of the way across the desert their papers were no more than glanced at, but at the last checkpoint before the Iranian border, a desolate outpost called Shalamja, the convoy ground to a halt while all passports were checked carefully. After hours of slowly inching their way up to the check point and very possibly being discovered, the strain finally got to Ali and he began to weep. With the lives of his wife, son and two small daughters hanging in the balance, all he could do was wait and pray. But just as all hope seemed lost, a large cargo truck, the only thing separating them from the scrutiny of the soldiers, became stuck in sand and began wildly spinning its tires, putting a huge cloud of sand and dust in the air. When the truck lurched forward, Ali gassed the small car into the swirling cloud and emerged on the other side of the checkpoint. The soldiers, overcome by the sand, did nothing to stop them.
Now they were in Iran and faced a whole new set of problems. At the Iranian checkpoint, Ali showed his real passport and visas and they were immediately seized. It seemed the suspicious Iranians thought he might be a spy. Ali told them that he was a teacher with heart problems and wanted to go to the U.S. for surgery, He was told if he and his story checked out, he could pick up his papers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran. For now, all he could do was travel onward.
Ali was able to retrieve his papers after three weeks of daily visits to the ministry. After repeated visits and showing pictures of himself with the Kuwaiti prime minister and other high-level officials at the Canadian embassy, he was able to convince the Canadian ambassador that he and his family were in imminent danger. The Canadian Embassy gave Ali four visas for entry into Canada. but there are five people in the Mahmoud family. After back alley sells of most of his wife’s jewelry, Ali was able to buy the plane tickets. Ali solved the problem of having four tickets and five people by taking one daughter through at a time and then convincing airport personal that his only daughter had already been through the checkpoint once and they had went back out to retrieve something. Ali Mahmoud is indeed a resourceful and determined man. With all the danger, turmoil and uncertainty behind them, this close-knit family boarded a plane for a new life.
In 1985 Ali visited Nashville in his capacity as cultural attach’ and was made an honorary citizen by governor Lamar Alexander. In 1990 he returned as a refugee. Since coming to America and settling in Nashville, the Mahmoud family has indeed had to struggle to fit in. Cultural differences, language barriers and finding a means to support themselves, were just some of the challenges to overcome.
Well, they have overcame, Ali worked several different jobs and eventually found his way to a job with the Davidson County social services where he has helped other new arrivals from the Middle East find jobs, learn the language and even has printed a newsletter in Arabic. Today, Ali is a retired U.S citizen, his wife is a Librarian, his children have gone to college, married and have productive lives of their own. I sat down with Ali and learned his story. But before our conversation began in earnest, I asked about a beautiful mural on his wall, and Ali explained that it was a timeline of the history of his people, from Babylon until today. When I asked him who the artist was, he proudly told me he had painted it and then showed me to his studio, which houses many paintings and books.
Prominently displayed upon the wall was a framed family tree, that traced his ancestry back 43 generations and is a direct link to the prophet Muhammad. He told me he kept two bottles there in his studio, one filled with ink and the other with wine. The ink was for inspiration and the wine was to forget the problems of the world. He explained, this was an ancient Arabic philosophy, which he took to heart.
I asked Ali questions ranging from culture to current affairs and his answers were amazing.
Ali said in his homeland, it’s rude to look someone directly in the eye; in the West it is considered a mark of good character. It is disrespectful for children to speak out there, and here finding an individual voice is encouraged. The children take the first name of the grandfather as a last name unlike here where last names are handed down. Middle Eastern culture focuses more on the tribe: America is more centered on individual achievement.
Ali is for a separation of church and state, a stand most Muslims don’t take.
’Religion these days is doing more harm than good,’ he says in a reference to those that use religion to their own destructive ends. He went on to say that history in America and the decision of the founding fathers to separate church and state bares this out. ’Let religion stay in the church and politics in the government. Religion is submission, and you can’t have democracy where you have total submission. As it is today, democracy does not exist in Iraq. Democracy is not in buildings, policies or even governments. It’s a lifestyle, it is in the people. Here if we have a disagreement, even in government, after we disagree, we can go out afterward and have a drink together and be friends. If we disagreed in Iraq, then tomorrow, your militia and my militia try to kill each other in the streets.’
I asked Ali what makes a person become a suicide bomber or terrorist.
’A suicide bomber is just a weapon of those who want the power,’ he said. ’Mostly they are young, brainwashed, penniless, uneducated and have no hope for a better life for themselves or their families. They are told of honor they will bring their families and of great rewards they will receive in heaven. The only way to combat this is by improving their situations, things we take for granted in America: education, available work, health care, at least a minimum standard of living and most importantly, hope.’
When asked if he thought the U.S. should pull out of Iraq, Ali said that would be a disaster. Despite what our media shows, most of the Iraqi people were praying for America to overthrow Saddam Hussein. If America left, the government in place now would crumble, and nations like Iran and Syria would rush in to pick up the pieces. The Iraqi government is not yet capable of defending itself from outside forces.
America is the new empire. Empires have come and gone throughout the history of the Middle East. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the Romans, the Ottomans, the British, all came with the sword. America came with economy and wealth.
’America is the civilized empire. Americans are buying the oil, not drinking it. People don’t remember the good America does,’ he said. ’Throughout history at the end of a war, the victorious divides up conquered lands. America does not do this; America recognizes the rights of all nations.’
When asked what Ali misses the most about his home, he said his family, his friends, the Tigris River’where he played as a child’and the fellowship in the bars. In the evenings in the homes, the restaurants or the bars, life goes on, just like in America, and that’s where you can find the real Iraq.
