Yesterday, the 29th of Feb 2012, we went to Galeed House, a Christian mission house in a Muslim neighbourhood in Sheffield. Me, Isaac, Aiden and Usman Habib went to visit an elderly Iraqi man who had been granted asylum in England 3 years ago. The lady who sent us to him from Galeed house knew very little about him other than his nationality and name. When we got chatting to him, we found out that he had been a General over tens of thousands of men in Saddam Hussein's army in Iraq!
He had joined the army as a young man serving the king of Iraq before the military takeover, and had remained in its ranks until he became outspoken against Saddam, and was imprisoned for 5 years in Abu Ghraib prison for his political stance. The guy was lovely, really friendly, polite, and fed us very well! I asked him if he liked living in England, what he thought of life here, and he said 'it is paradise'!! This was a man with thousands of soldiers previously at his beck and call, he probably was used to living with dozens of servants to wait on him, yet compared to life under Saddam, a life in a tiny 2-up2-down house in a cheap run-down Sheffield estate was 'paradise'. Wow, Saddam must have been a monster. Although as someone with political asylum in England he would also have access to free healthcare, council benefits, tax credits and job-seekers allowance, so I imagine there are quite a few positives to being here quite aside from the absence of a lunatic dictator.
Later on Usman did a martial arts class with the kids at the outreach house, and told us his story. Before he converted to Christianity, he had dedicated his life to training in unarmed combat in the Nigerian Military, and was a CIA-trained bodyguard to the Nigerian President, as well as a top army training instructor. He taught me the basics of boxing, because both he and Isaac thought I had the build for it!
Usman prayed with the Iraqi general in the name of Christ, and it was fine, he very decent about it and took no offense.
Very unexpectedly awesome day full of me doing things I never thought I'd do. coolness.
He had joined the army as a young man serving the king of Iraq before the military takeover, and had remained in its ranks until he became outspoken against Saddam, and was imprisoned for 5 years in Abu Ghraib prison for his political stance. The guy was lovely, really friendly, polite, and fed us very well! I asked him if he liked living in England, what he thought of life here, and he said 'it is paradise'!! This was a man with thousands of soldiers previously at his beck and call, he probably was used to living with dozens of servants to wait on him, yet compared to life under Saddam, a life in a tiny 2-up2-down house in a cheap run-down Sheffield estate was 'paradise'. Wow, Saddam must have been a monster. Although as someone with political asylum in England he would also have access to free healthcare, council benefits, tax credits and job-seekers allowance, so I imagine there are quite a few positives to being here quite aside from the absence of a lunatic dictator.
Later on Usman did a martial arts class with the kids at the outreach house, and told us his story. Before he converted to Christianity, he had dedicated his life to training in unarmed combat in the Nigerian Military, and was a CIA-trained bodyguard to the Nigerian President, as well as a top army training instructor. He taught me the basics of boxing, because both he and Isaac thought I had the build for it!
Usman prayed with the Iraqi general in the name of Christ, and it was fine, he very decent about it and took no offense.
Very unexpectedly awesome day full of me doing things I never thought I'd do. coolness.
