The World Trade Center attacks were carried out primarily by Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan. These men were of course inflamed by the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and his mission of ridding the Muslim Holy Land of foreign influence and destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.
In years to come, we may find that the morass that is currently Iraq was the root source of future terrorist activities directed against the United States. The misery and suffering of those displaced by the violence in Iraq against Sunnis in their refuge countries of Jordan and Egypt may very well radicalize the youth of those families.
In the Los Angeles Times
An estimated 100,000 Iraqis leave their country each month, including many of Iraq's best educated professionals, part of the more than 1.6 million who have fled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The Syrian government said Wednesday that it had taken in more than 800,000 Iraqis so far. Jordan has about 700,000, with tens of thousands more scattered across the Arab world. They have carried Iraq's civil strife into the incendiary politics of a region that is also navigating Iran's nuclear aspirations and turmoil in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
Iraqi refugees are accumulating much like the millions of displaced Palestinians who have flowed across the region for decades. Iraqis began trickling out during Saddam Hussein's regime, but their numbers steadily increased as their nation tumbled into civil war. The newest refugees are finding that compassion is fraying, prejudice growing and host countries, such as Jordan, are less welcoming.
The presence of this large body of refugees, coupled with increasing host country indifference or inability to support the needs of the displaced affects both the host citizenry and the refugees.
Consider the fate of Laith Youssef, a shopkeeper who also ended up in Amman. An Iraqi gang threatened to kidnap his three children if he did not pay $40,000. Weeks later, a grenade exploded outside his shop, speckling his leg with shrapnel. Then he was jailed for 15 days for offending the Al Mahdi army, a Shiite militia. While he was imprisoned, his wife was attacked for not wearing strict Islamic dress in public.
Youssef and his family fled to Jordan, but even there, without the bombs and the beheadings, life is tough. Nearly half of Jordan's population consists of displaced Palestinians. The added influx of Iraqis, many of whom are educated and affluent, is straining a weak job market and raising the possibility of terrorist strikes in the kingdom.
"We're not stable," Youssef said. "I have no job because the law doesn't allow me to work, and if the police catch me working, they'll send me back to the Iraqi border. My wife takes care of elderly people, and sometimes we get aid from churches."
He added: "I don't deal with people here because I know if any problem happens I will be blamed. This is not my country. Jordan was kind enough to allow us in, but the number of Iraqis has increased more than this country can endure. Some Jordanians deal with us normally, but some, when they hear our Iraqi accent, look at us in a weird way."
Refugee situations tend to endure far longer than those displaced ever hope. With respect to Iraq, this has the potential of lasting far into the future as the civil situation devolves on a daily basis.
Consider the Palestinian refugee situation in Jordan which has been going on for decades. Add to this the influx of Iraqi refugees, further straining the ability to provide meaningful lives and livelihoods in the host countries. As well, these displaced groups will intermingle philosophies and grievances against those who they will blame for their travails: the US. This is a breeding ground for terrorist thoughts and actions.
There is only one way to head this off: provide the type of stable and peaceful state in Iraq for these displaced persons to return, sooner, rather than later.
May Abassi knew it was time to leave Iraq when she began to think wistfully of the days of Hussein's rule. She and her husband and two young children fled through the smoke and funerals to Cairo. She has found that Egyptians are not like Iraqis. She said she planned to send her son to an English-language school so he would not pick up an Egyptian accent or play with boys she deemed too rough.
"I don't have anything against Egyptians," Abassi said. "They are good and welcoming, but we just can't mix with them.... If I feel the security in Baghdad improves, I will go back immediately. I don't want anything except security — even electricity and water are not important — just give me security, and I will go back. I feel a pain inside my heart when I see Baghdad burning."
If only.
Others, including Youssef, the shopkeeper in Amman, are preparing to be strangers for the rest of their lives. Youssef doesn't expect he'll see his old shop back on Nidhal Street or drive past the date palms in the now murderous Dora neighborhood in Baghdad. He recently applied for a visa to Australia.
"I doubt Iraq will ever be safe again," he said.