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Michigan: Pivot Point for the New Iraqi Elections
By Kevin Fobbs
December 13, 2004

As January 30th nears, the often challenged Iraqi Vote is increasingly in the cross hairs of terrorist insurgents. But in America, 80,000 plus Iraqi citizens in metro-Detroit and approximately 150,000 throughout America are waiting to taste their first bite of electoral freedom in more than two generations.

Dearborn, a nearby suburb of the City of Detroit is home to most of the Iraqi expatriates who have been meeting and planning for months in the hope that their family, their villages and towns, and their country will be the first true shining beacon light of an democracy in the Middle East.

There has been one major stumbling block to their often euphorically stated plans...and that would be the murderous terrorist insurgents. Yet, even with terrorist's deadly roadside bombings, their murderous massacres of family members and threats of violence against election leaders in the Detroit area and the other 13 countries where Iraqi expatriates are able to vote...these committed freedom fighters want desperately to have this election to be held and will not be stopped.

The United States and the coalition forces are doing everything humanly possible to make certain this vote is held on time. A couple weeks ago the coalition forces launched "Operation Plymouth Rock" which was specifically targeted at three towns south of Baghdad in what is called the "dreaded "Triangle of Death".

I have been working with many of the local Iraqi volunteers like Dr. Saafaa Al-Mayahi, who is President of the Iraqi American House as well as on the board of the Iraqi Human Rights Society. He like many of the election organizers in the Detroit area whose families and lives have been personally torn apart with the loss of loved ones, whole families brutally murdered, either by Saddam Hussein's horrible reign of terror or at the hands of the terrorists is committed to the electoral process being carried through in the Detroit area.

Dr. Al-Mayahi, personally lost two sisters to terrorist violence in early March of this year. Although he mourns the loss to him and his family, he says he is working for the vote both here for those Iraqi's that qualify to vote in the United States and for Iraq. To do so he says, "Insures freedom is restored to Iraq...as we continue to combat the War on Terror."

For Dr. Mayahi, and others, the fear of not knowing if this day will be the last for a family member, or not knowing if a friend or colleague who may have joined the new Iraqi army, or signed up to be a member of the new police force...is sometimes etched on their faces and in their voices.

Dr. Mayahi, who fled Saddam's tyranny over 31 years ago expresses the shared eagerness that many election volunteers show, sometimes pointing to family members and children who may if they choose, could return to a free Iraq. "Once the Independent Electoral Commission made the decision in Iraq to allow Iraqi emigrates the opportunity to vote in this historic election, we began to organize here and in 13 other countries as well." He added, "We're excited about the chance to show our support for our birth country."

This is not only historic but also depending on whose numbers are to be believed, almost 1 million Iraqis who fled Iraq are eligible to vote worldwide. So for the International Organization for Migration, which has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and is working with both the United Nations and the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission, a possible 44 or more political parties and their candidates may prove to be a tough election to see handled and monitored...Can you imagine the campaign lit drops?

"I was in Baghdad for two weeks in October after being away from Iraq for 31 years. It was very different, and most importantly, my childhood home, my town were off limits for me. If I had returned to my home, if I had left Baghdad, I would have been killed by the terrorists, because all of us are potential targets because we're standing up to them," stressed Dr. Mayahi.

Iraqi women now have a role to play in the upcoming elections. This presents an interesting twist because traditionally women in Arab countries have had marginalized roles in government. Yet their proposed Iraqi constitution guarantees that women will make up at least 25 percent of the new Iraqi Parliament. Dr. Samiara Kory who is a board member of the Iraqi Human Rights Society sees this as a break through for all women everywhere.

"This sends a signal that women have an important role in the new government and sets the mark for other countries as well, said Dr. Kory who is an Iraqi expatriate election volunteer helping to educate, organize and empower Iraqi women to take part in the upcoming vote.

While some are saying the Iraqi people have waited for decades for this first taste of democracy and freedom...a local election volunteer who recently spent time in Iraq training Iraqi soldiers, was in the Iraqi city of Najeaf when American and Coalition forces came into Iraq to free the Iraqi people, says the wait to vote has been quite a bit longer.

Aboumuslim Al Haider, a former university professor of Engineering in Iraq said "They have been waiting quite a bit longer...like 1,400 years longer...since the fall of the Babylonian Empire.

"Our hearts opened with joy when President Bush stood up for the Iraqi people and told the world that our freedom was important to helping insure that terrorism and the harboring of terrorists in Iraq was removed as a threat to the world." Professor Al Haider added, "The President showed real courage to stand up for us even when he knew the price for doing this great thing would be the loss of lives of American, and coalition forces soldiers."

"We understood that even here in the Detroit area there are forces of darkness who have tried to intimidate us. They have threatened our families and broke into our homes to send us a message," he stressed. "That is why we go through this. The terrorists must not win. We are not afraid to die, we are afraid to live in shame if we do nothing."

It is hard to put into words what the weeks of spending time in their community buildings and mosques have meant to me in being able to witness democracy working in the hearts and minds of people who strongly believe that their work here in the Detroit area will be a pivot point for real change in Iraq.

Oman Hassan Al Shamany, a local Muslim religious leader spoke passionately to the 70 or so who were gathered at the mosque that day, implored the meeting attendees to not be deterred by the bombings. Oman Al Shamany, who showed me pictures of his home which was reduced to rubble by Saddam Hussein lost at least 60 people from his family and town who were tortured and murdered by Saddam Hussein. He implored the election volunteers. "We must not be stopped by the bombs in our homes, by the bombs in our cars by these terrorists." He reached up into the air and insisted, "God said to not kill innocent people, and we are taught that!" He looked again into the faces of the determined volunteers and pointed, "We can fight them to insure the elections because to not hold the elections, and to postpone them would end up killing more of our people."

At the end of the meeting he slowly showed me the now aged marks on his legs of torture he endured under Saddam Hussein. The places where electrically charged electrodes were placed on his skin and abrasions that were once bloodied welts...all represent his own personal stand for freedom.

I will continue to work with them and travel with them to Iraq later to monitor the post election impact of their noble quest for a freedom that many of us only celebrate through backyard barbecues, pool side parties and afternoon gatherings on July 4th.

January 30th is their version of our July 4th and can you only imagine how you would have felt to be in Philadelphia and see the founding fathers put together a country founded on their faith? We have the privilege to observe that now. President Bush understands their and our mutual sacrifice. So watching their pride through sacrifice stream across their proud faces gives me and all of us an opportunity to see the joy of freedom an election can bring.

Yes, Michigan and the Detroit area is a pivot point in history...Let's all take part and enjoy this precious moment as the local Iraqi expatriates enjoy what many in their country call "The Mission From God."

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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac web site) Kevin Fobbs is also Second Vice Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit as well as co-founder of the Jackson, MI-based American Conservative Values Television Network. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show at www.wdtkam.com.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.