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A picture of us when we were newly weds.
I have long avoided blogging details about my husband, the husband with whom I am blessed by Allah. I never asked him if it would bother him if I blogged about him or not, but tonight I finally asked him how he felt about it, and he said he does not mind at all. So, now I will officially introduce Mr. American Nomad.
As most of you probably know already, he is from Iraq, specifically a village outside Basra, to be precise. In the 1980's he was drafted, against his will, into Sadam Hussein's army and served, unwillingly, as a soldier in S.H.'s army. He was forced to fight Iran, in the American financed war between Iraq and Iran in the late eighties.
Then in 1991, during the Gulf War, my husband was one of the thousands of S.H.'s soldiers who revolted against S.H. himself, because president Bush Sr. promised they would have our, American, support if they would initiate an uprising against S.H. The promised support was never delivered, therefore, Mr. Nomad and approximately 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi soldiers who participated in the attempt to take Mr. S.H. down in 1991 ended up fleeing for their lives, to various surrounding countries. About 40,000 of them ended up living in a prison camp in the desert of Saudi Arabia, because they were Shia, and the Saudi government hates Shia, so they treated them like criminals, rather than their endangered brothers.
Today those refugee soldiers, some young, single guys, and others married, with families, have been accepted into various countries around the world as political asylees or refugees. The Catholic charities sponsored many of them to come to the United States. One of those young, single refugee guys became Mr. Nomad. Mr. Nomad was accepted into the USA as a refugee in 1997, and has been living, working, and paying taxes in the United States ever since.
Moreover, he and many other Iraqi's, both Arab and Kurd, are working with the United States Military in Special Forces. They help to train American forces before they are sent to Iraq in the current war. Of course, many of them, both Arab and Kurdish refugees, have mixed feelings about their work, but they were happy to help the United States get rid of Mr. S.H., because he committed genocide against a lot of Shia (mainly Arab) from the South, as well as Kurds (mainly Sunni or Christian), from the North of Iraq, while he was in power. My husband carries his military ID with him everywhere, it helps him a lot against racial profiling by law enforcement, and for that we are grateful.
So that is it, my little official introduction of Mr. Nomad aka Super Baba, to y'all. If you have been following my blog for some time, you already know he is a wonderful, dedicated father to our two beautiful boys. Thanks, God. Not only that, he is generous towards us, and he also helps me a lot around the house. We cook together, we clean together, we parent together, we laugh, we love, we argue, we travel, we eat, we play and we pray, together. Thanks, God, we are a family. The angels brought our blessings down to us when we were married. Every day we are a family is another blessing out of the load of gifts the Angels carried down to us, from our Lord on our wedding day. Thanks, God.
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A picture of us when we were newly weds.
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18 comments:
salaamz sis,masha'allah what a touching story...And u look beautiful in the picture.Alhamdulillah you are blessed with such a wonderful family.Oh and a wonderful poem masha'allah u have so many great talents.
Very nice post - I like the way you write about your husband. The saddest thing about the second war with Iraq is that it wouldn't have been necessary and so many Iraqi people and young American soldiers (mostly from underprivileged backgrounds) wouldn't have had to die if Bush Sr had done what he had promised. I like your poem too
beautiful picture.
My husband loves to joke that I could never have been a cop because I wouldn't beable to racial profile. I tend to have the inability to even tell that someone is African American unless their skin is very dark. I would have never even been able to tell that your husband was from Iraq by looking at him. Is it very noticable to others? Does he have to deal with a lot of racial profiling and being pulled over for driving while Muslim (A new phrase that I think I came up with)
Do you ever have to deal with being pulled over for Driving while Muslim? Or we could call it driving while Modest because you and I dress very much alike and I am not Muslim :)
Blessings
Wow, masha'Allah... Amazing story. I'm very happy that Allah blessed you with such a great husband and, in turn, lovely family. Hamdulillah. Also, you look quite purty in the picture, mA! mA! :)
Dear Mr. Nomad,
(aka the super Baba)
Now that you've officially been introduced to the rest of us in "blog land" - I'd like to introduce myself. I'm one of the people who reads your wife's blog and my real name is Renee.
I was also in the military. I did clean up after the war that I've heard referred to as the second Gulf War by the people of your country. I know what happened to your countrymen and nothing your wife has written in this post is of any surprise to me. Yes, I'm aware of the revolts, I'm aware of what our president promised you and I'm aware of those places in Saudi Arabia that were deemed as "refugee camps". After I'd gotten out of the military - I'd worked with Catholic Charities in the refugee resettlement program for a while. Although most of the people on my case load were Africans, I did assist in the resettlement of some of your Iraqi sisters here in upstate NY.
As an American citizen and a military service member - I want to appoligize to you personally for the pain and suffering the mistakes American policy makers have caused you. I tell you this because you will never hear it from my government. We as the citizens of our own countries are the ones who will make a difference to each other though - not our goverments.
Welcome to America
may you feel one day like this land is your second home!
May Allah swt bless your family. Nice pic.
Thanks Skye, Mwaahz.
Thanks, Desert Monsoon, it is sad, indeed. I feel bad for the young American soldiers and their families as well, especially because of the fact that they are mostly from underprivileged backgrounds, who see the military as one of their only options in life. Most of the youth have no real clue what they are signing on for, until they are deployed, then reality bites them in the seat of their camoflage uniforms.
Kristen - Most people can tell my husband is not white, especially when he hasn't shaved for a week, and his accent is also a dead give-away. I used to get pulled over more often in the past than I have recently, because I don't drive as often as I used to, so my chances of getting pulled over are slimmer. Also, there are cities and neighborhoods where profiling is worse than it is in others. We have not found Little Rock to be a very bad place for that, yet. Thanks to God. However, West Memphis, Arkansas, and other areas we know of are notorious for that.
X L stop, you're makin' me blush. Heehee. Seriously, you're too sweet.
Thanks Renee,
I'll pass on the message.
I helped with a refugee resettlement program too. I once taught an ESL class for Iraqi women, both Kurdish and Arab. It was a lot of fun, it lasted a year. I think I learned as much from them as they learned from me. It was for a private organization that was funded by the chamber of commerce. They wanted me as their teacher because the guys who worked there knew that I was an English major in college.
Thanks, Otowi, you are very kind.
salams sis ma sha Allah!
assalam aailakum sister, may allah always grant you happiness with your husband and family Inshallah!
My husband won't let me post pics of him on the blog! He caught me with one and made me take it off ;(
I am so glad that your husband was able to leave Iraq, meet you, and build such a beautiful happy family.
Salaam!
This post brought tears to my eyes. You guys have walked such a long road to ge to this point, and I LOVED seeing a happily married couple with so much optimism. I am sorry for all he had to go through and so glad to be a witness to your lives and see how Allah rewards those who do good with beautiful twin boys. Love you for the sake of Allah, and thanks today for this positive post!
Thanks, DP, for dropping by.
Thanks, Sara, for your kind words.
Stacy, I posted pics of him in the past, and he did not mind, but I didn't know if he'd like to have his story told online until I asked him. ;)
Alhamdulillah. We are blessed.
Yasemin, thank you for your kind comment. We, of course, have our moments, like everyone else, but we trust Allah and stay positive anyway. Alhamdulillah. To me a marriage is not a destination, it is a journey. A journey is sometimes easy and sometimes it isn't, but you keep traveling non-the-less. You know it says in the qur'an that "after hardship comes ease." So when things get a little tough you just have to keep that in mind.
Salaams dear,
What a beautiful story mash'Allah - may Allah bless you with contentment & joy always, ameen!
That poem is powerful. Have you considered sending it to Altmuslimah.com for publication?
- Baraka
Thanks, B. I may just do that.
Hi i just read this post once again as i didnt get a proper chance to read it thouroughly. I feel the courage of your husband to fight for his country, al hamdulilah he met you and you met him. I like the poem about iraq especially the one about walking to karbala and hugging Fatima (a.s). Jus a quick question? Are there really suicide bombers that do that to kill iraqis? If so.. why?
Yes, sis, every year when we pay repects to Imam Hussein (a.s.) on the anniversary of his death, Ashura, or the 40th day after the anniversary of his death, which is Arbaeen, there are always suicide bombers trying to blow us up. They usually manage to blow up a few hundred Shia every year, because millions of people walk to Karbala from any other city they happen to live in, in Iraq. Even people from other countries will go to another part of Iraq so they can have the rewards of walking to Kerbala to show that they are with Imam Hussein, against the enemies of Islam. You know he was killed by the enemies of Islam, right? So, by walking to Kerbala, on the important anniversaries of his death and the 40th day afterwards we are letting Allah know that we are with Imam Hussein, with the truth, and with Islam. The people who killed him even called themselves Muslims, but they were hypocrites and therefore, still enemies of Islam, enemies of the truth, and enemies of Imam Hussein. Unfortunately there are still people who call themselves Muslims, but they do not want to know the truth, they still hate Islam, and they still hate the family of prophet Mohammed (pbuh). So they not only want the world to forget about the family of the prophet and their important role in Islam, they also want to kill the people who publicly show that they have not forgotten, by walking to Kerbala on the anniversary of Imam Hussein's martyrdom.
Last year a very large ring of female suicide bombers was discovered, thankfully, before they were able to blow up very many people. Only 2 of them managed to kill anyone, but there were at least 80 women in the ring. They caught the leader, who was training them, and she was from Saudia, working for a group of Wahabis who hate Shia for the reasons I mentioned above. However, Iraq is not the only place where hypocrites are attacking Shia, they also do it every now and then in Pakistan, when we have public demonstrations to show that we love the Qur'an and Prophet Mohammed's family, Ahlulbayt, and the twelve Imams. They want people to forget the important role Prophet Mohammed's own family was given, in Islam. However, we know we are with the truth, so their murdering and bombing has never stopped us, and will never stop us, insha Allah, from showing that we are with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
There are hadith, even in Sunni collections, that tell how important Prophet Mohammed's family are in passing on the best version of true Islam. I have read them myself. I read everyone's books, because any average Sunni or Shia, on the street does not necessarily know everything that the holy book and the collections of hadith say. I can send you the links in a private email, if you want to read them yourself.
Our public demonstrations also symbolize mock funerals for Imam Hussein, because he was denied a proper funaral. When the enemies cut off his head, they left his body lying in the desert, and carried his head on a spear, to the false caliph, Yazid, who had ordered them to kill him. They were 20,000 troups, and Imam Hussein and his followers were only 70 men. When all the men were killed except one very young man whom they expected to die anyway, because he was so sick, they took all the women and children hostage. They then took the women's hijabs off and paraded them through every village and town from Kerbala to Damascus, to be mocked like criminals. Zaynab was the oldest memberr of the Prophet's family alive then, so she was the leader of Islam, at that point. She was in charge until the young man, her nephew, who was so sick, became well. He was the fourth Imam then, Imam Ali Zaynul Abideen, son of Imam Hussein and his late wife, a Persian Princess named Shahr Bano, who became a Muslim. The hypocrites tortured Zaynab and the other women who followed Imam Hussein and they kept them, and the young Imam Ali Zaynul Abideen, in prison for a long time, most people think it was about a year. When Yazid finally let them go, Zaynab traveled around, preaching in the cities about what had happened to them, and finally they martyred her also, because she was very successful at waking people up to the truth. Zaynab was Imam Hussein's sister. Her husband divorced her, and kept her children from her, when she insisted that she must follow Imam Hussein, for the sake of Islam.
Some ignorant people accuse us of making a seperate Hajj, when we walk to Kerbala, but that is not true. What we do is not wajib; but Hajj is wajib.
Walking to Kerbala, and doing other rituals to keep Imam Hussein's memory alive are simply a matter of expressing our personal love for Imam Hussein and the cause for which he sacrificed his life. Islam, all of it, not just the parts we would like.
Does this answer your questions? If not, feel free to send me a private email or we can chat on the subject, if you like. But, yes, there are always suicide bombers trying to kill Shia who are in the act of showing their love for Imam Hussein, are any other of the martyred Imams. They were all martyred by the enemies of Allah except the twelfth one. I think you already knew some of this. But if there is anything else you want to know, feel free to ask, and if I know the answer, I will be sure to tell you. If I do not know the answer I will try my best to find out the answer for you, insha Allah.
One of Imam Hussein's followers asked him, if we are all killed, who has won? Imam Hussein said that if you still hear the adhan after I am gone, you will know we won.
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