By Gina Chon
A few days ago I had some Iraqi friends over for dinner. Near the end of the night, my friend Salam told me he plans to leave Iraq by the end of this year to move to Jordan. When I asked him why, I figured he would say something about being fed up with the power constantly going out and not being able to take a shower because there was no water in his home. Although security has improved, Iraq still has a long way to go before it’s a nice place to call home. But instead, he told me that as a secular Iraqi, he felt like he couldn’t stay in his country anymore.
I was a bit surprised by his answer. Salam has a good job and lives in a safe area of Baghad. His life is better than most Iraqis living here. But he said he couldn’t deal with the oppression he felt and the way religion has spread among his people in a way that made them become blind sheep. In the 1960s, he told me that it was the religious people who were looked down upon by the secular Iraqis. But now, the Arabic word for secular, almany, is a loaded, sensitive term with negative connotations. When people ask him if he is Sunni or Shia, he replies, “I’m Salam.”
Salam says he still believes in God but he dislikes the way religion has become ingrained in the culture and politics of the new Iraq. He prefers politicians who don’t cite the Koran in every speech, which he says puts him in the minority. Yesterday, another Iraqi friend of mine told me he stopped praying after the bombing of a mosque in Samarra in 2006 that set off an explosion of sectarian violence across Iraq. He used to pray five times a day like a good Muslim but he became disgusted with religion after he saw his people kill each other in horrific numbers. Like Salam, he still believes in God and fasts during Ramadan. But he says he doesn’t see the “benefit” of praying on a daily basis.
Compared to the days when al Qaeda and Shiite militias dominated many areas of Iraq, religious extremism has waned here. But Salam says he doesn’t feel free to be who he really is here. So in a few months, he will pack up his belongings and move to a country where he has yet to find a job. Salam says he doesn’t mind not knowing what his future holds because he knows it will be better than what he has now in Iraq.
It’s sad because Iraq needs people like Salam to stay to rebuild the country. He is educated, honest, hard working and passionate. But so many people like him have left, and more will continue to leave, despite the security improvements. Another Iraqi friend of ours is leaving this summer to study in the U.S. They’ve stayed as long as they could but they have reached their limit. Now they say they want to go to a place where “almany” is not considered to be a dirty word.
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