Rahman, who was born and raised in Baghdad but who has lived in Miami for more than two decades, can only describe her home in absolutes. Baghdad was once “heavenly,” the city of intellectuals and tolerance, she said.
Not anymore.
“It’s hell,” she said. “It was hellish under Saddam, but now, after the invasion of Iraq, every Iraqi will tell you — Shiites or Sunnis — it’s hell.”
Within Miami-Dade’s Arab community, which numbers in the tens of thousands, Iraqis are a minority. Many are refugees. Most live in Broward County — 50 to 120 families, by their own estimates. In 2013, Iraqis were the third-largest refugee population in the state.
For them, the past month’s whirlwind of headlines from Iraq — Sunni insurgents fighting Shiite government forces; President Barack Obama authorizing 200 additional troops to protect the American Embassy in Iraq and Baghdad’s airport on Monday; and the declaration of an independent Islamic state by extremist group ISIS — is intensely personal.