Alienation: My Life in Saudi Arabia and America

By Asim Abraham

For as long as he can remember, Arabian American Asim Abraham has been instructed to never express his feelings or ideas to anyoneever. Raised as an American until age eight, when he relocated with his parents to his home country of Arabia, Asim struggled to learn about a new culture where regulations robbed him of everything, including the ability to speak his mind. For the first time in his life, Asim felt alienated from everything, everyone, and even himself.

With the intent of teaching others about the vast diff erences between America and the Middle East, Abraham shares the poignant story of his life as he travels between the free United States and Saudi Arabia, where life seemed to become more complicated and darker with each passing year. As he embarked on a coming-of-age journey between the two countries, Abraham details how he witnesses the impact of the Gulf War, views the thin line between dreams and reality, and manages to find his path in life despite enduring years of suffering, low self esteem, and imprisonment of his ideas.

Alienation not only offers one mans compelling glimpse into life in the Middle East, but also shares his important message for both worlds about acceptance, love, and peace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475942613

Asim Abraham

ASIM ABRAHAM, a freelancer script writer, earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2003 and a diploma from VFS in 2011, where he majored in writing for film and TV. He is the author of the books Blood Brothers and Master of Darkness and has written numerous feature scripts, short scripts, and novels. Asim currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Asim Abraham

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4259-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4260-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-4261-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914036

iUniverse rev. date: 12/10/2012

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Early Life

Going through Changes

Losing Faith and Disbelief

Career and Responsibility

Freedom of Speech and Human Dignity

A Letter to My Son

My son, this book is dedicated first to you and then to

the rest of the world. For you, I live and breathe. Never

doubt that you can be somebody, but always do what’s right;

that’s what really matters.

Preface

24181.jpg

LIVING IN A CULTURE that’s known for its strict regulations and methods pushed me from an early age to write about my feelings and ideas in a hidden biography, far from my parents’ eyes. Ever since I woke up into this world, I’ve been told never to express my feelings or ideas, not to anyone. When I acknowledged that this was the case, I came to a realization that what I’m seeing isn’t true and life is filled with coded areas, which I’ve always been kept away from.

That drove my curiosity to explore this world of freedom of speech, and my first paper to this world came in 1994. At that time I was only thirteen or fourteen years old. I wrote about the Bosnian war that was happening and how it affected the lives of millions of families. That essay opened the doors for me to write for my school’s magazine and have my own monthly column in which I wrote about world issues and their effect on human nature.

That’s not all. Although I was raised as an American, I went back to my home country, Arabia, without any introductions from my parents. My brother and I were shocked; we struggled to learn about a new culture, traditions, and religion. I was faced with many trials, including learning a new language in a short time, understanding the codes of the tribe, mastering the tribe’s religion, and finally, living in Arabia.

At that time, I wanted to say what I thought about all of this. But that was impossible because of my young age and the rules and regulations that took everything from us, even our right to speak what was on our minds. Life seemed to be more complicated, darker, with every passing year; we lost more than just our freedom of speech but our dignity as well.

I started to write my biography at the age of fourteen, but I never intended to make it into a book. I just wanted to put what was on my mind on paper, before I went nuts. In grade eleven, I started seriously to write about my life in book form; I wanted people of the West to know a different lifestyle than the one they were accustomed to. From that time and ever since, I’ve been fighting for the freedom of speech and human dignity in my country.

I drowned myself into my work life, which gave me much to write about. I faced numerous obstacles when I tried to finish some simple paperwork in the government circle so that I could extract an ID. Rather than taking ten or twenty minutes, a process like that takes a couple of days or even weeks. That opened my eyes to a filthy world of government corruption and agendas.

Traveling back and forth from Arabia to America gave me a lot to compare and write about—the cultural and human rights differences in the two countries and freedom of speech versus the lack thereof were forefront on my mind. It also gave me the luxury of taking the best from both worlds and shaped me into a multicultural person, which is reflected in my style of writing and storytelling. I want this book to be a message of peace for both worlds—West and East. I hope it will help people gain an understanding of each other. We must all learn how to accept others regardless of their skin color, religion, and ethnic roots. We are all human and come from Adam and Eve.

Acknowledgments

24184.jpg

FIRST, I’D LIKE TO thank God for everything, starting from giving me life, strength, and my son. I offer a big thanks to my beloved mom and dad for raising me right during my growing-up years and for their support since the day they knew about my book. I’d like to thank my brothers and sisters for their remarkable effort in making the best environment for writing.

Special thanks to all of my friends who stood next to me and believed in me. I’d like to thank everyone who helped me to make this book real and put it on sale, from the publisher to the deliveryman.

Private thanks to my real inspiration and light in the dark, who was behind the idea from the start—my son, Haytham. He gave me so much to think about and believe in; I came to understand that there’s a real reason for this life; I live it to be truthful to what I do and what I see.

Last, but not least, I thank everyone who believed in me, bought my book, and made something out of me.

I hope this book will be helpful and inspiring for all my readers.

Introduction

24186.jpg

THE ARABIAN PENINSULA IS known for its significant geographical placement in this world—as the center point between the West and the East; you might call it the meeting point for those two huge worlds. Forget everything you’ve seen on any Hollywood movies; till this moment, everything you’ve seen is false. The real thing is hidden from your eyes, and in this book, I’ll open your eyes to what’s really going on there and how people are really living.

As a boy who grew up and was raised in the United States, understanding one day that I was really a part of a culture and country about ten thousand miles from where I grew up was difficult. After spending many years living in an environment of freedom and human dignity, I flew back with my family to my place of origin, Arabia. From the moment I set foot in the airport, I was faced with another language, rules, and ideologies that were far different from my own. As a result, I isolated myself from others, trying to understand what was going on with my life.

Soon enough, I learned the language and coped with this new, hot place and its way of living, although, inside, I never agreed with many of the tribal codes and other aspects of the culture. They felt like chains for my thoughts and ideas. From an early age, I started to express my feelings and ideas, but I was faced with rejection and shameful words. That was my first step to writing what I felt and thought down and hiding my writing from my parents. I found a sanctuary in school, where I was able to write for the school magazine as one of the publication’s main writers.

My multicultural upbringing caused me to encounter different thoughts, methods, and ideas. That created countless problems and bumps in my life from an early age and into adulthood; I was faced with government problems, courts, and major personal issues, which led me to lose faith and disbelieve everything I’d ever believed in.

Religion was one of the main issues that I struggled with in a negative way. So many times, I was on the verge of leaving religion for good once and for all. After my little brother’s death, with followed the deaths of my two best friends, I lost hope and my belief in God and anything he ever stood for. I hated religion and its teaching. I started to fight religion inside myself more strongly than if I was fighting my worst enemy.

From that moment on, I gathered my strength to fight for freedom of speech and human dignity in my country. At first I wrote about my inner self-conflict as a teenager and the stages that caused me to think about myself in so many ways. But after my brother’s death, I moved to a higher level of thinking and action; I started to write about our human rights and what the police were doing to set the stage on the wrong side of justice.

That incident opened my eyes, and I got my first glimpse of our government’s corruption. That’s when I started what would be a long-term journey of digging deep into the files, hidden secrets, and agendas. After my divorce and asking for my right to see my son, I learned many things about courts and the laws they judge with; they are just as bullshit and unjust as government matters.

For the last ten years, I’ve put my strength toward write my biography with patience, discipline, and hope that it could influence people to seek new knowledge and understand the hidden secrets of this restricted society in depth.

Early Life

24188.jpg

BRINGING ME TO LIFE was a big step for my parents. They had tried several times before; during their fifth try, things went right at last. I offer my story as a little bit of history for myself, my children, and everyone who listens to it or reads some pages. I’ve put my strength into spreading my story so that others may understand the unusual things in the life of a person who sacrifices his life for everyone he knows.

My name is Asim Abraham. My dad named me. He was once a history teacher, but his career flipped to the other side of the equation once he decided to complete his master’s degree. The school where he studied told him that it was impossible to complete a study in history, so he had to change his major. He decided to go into psychology, thank God, as he did great in it.

My dad called me Asim because he loved ancient history, and he loved one of the men in the AD 800’s, and it means the protector, the guardian in Arabic. I guess dad wanted me to protect the world when I grow up. Moments after Mom delivered me, Dad entered the room and told her, We’re going to name the boy Asim. Then he gave her the reason. Mom never said anything about it.

I come from a noble family from the Arabian Peninsula,