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DALLAS TWP. — The screen showed the image of a man’s leg badly injured the length of the thigh.
Anas Allouz told the crowd this was the moment the Syrian civil war hit home.
“I remember this all the time,” he said during a presentation at Misericordia University Thursday. “I feel so old.”
At age 22, Anas spoke of events that consumed nearly a third of his life. He recalled the day of his father’s injury clearly. “That was Aug. 10, 2011,” he said. He also showed the image of a car damaged nearly beyond recognition. A friend on his way to a job in a pharmacy died when a bomb hit it.
Until the war, “I was living a normal life in my lovely homeland,” Anas said. “The only problem: No option for us to say anything against Syrian government.”
Even not speaking out was not enough. Anas contended his older brother Mohammed, now 24 and also a refugee living in Wyoming Valley, was arrested “for no reason. We didn’t know where he was for about five months.”
After the presentation, his brother recounted being stopped by police, beaten to the ground and kicked. He gestured that they handcuffed him and took him away.
Calling his migration “a journey to the unknown,” Anas recounted escaping to Jordan, with members of his family following. “I was in Jordan for almost three years,” he said, with about half of that spent going through the vetting process for a chance at migrating to the United States.
“The U.N. interviewed us 15 times, about,” he said. Catholic Social Services Immigration/Refugee Services Director Sonya Sarner explained U.S. and U.N. officials conduct numerous interviews to make sure the stories of each family member is the same, while other agencies conduct background checks.
“We left everything behind us,” Anas said, “money, houses, our cars, and of course our big loss was our lovely homeland.
Yet Anas and the other members of his family expressed nothing but appreciation and happiness about a chance to restart life in America. He noted he went to work in a restaurant his second day in the area, and that he has been taking English as Second Language courses while trying to get a license to practice his old trade as a barber.
His 9-year-old sister, Rama, beamed when asked about her time here, attending Dana Street Elementary in the Wyoming Valley West School District.
“I Love America. I’m so happy I came here,” she grinned before launching, unsolicited, into a recital of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Sarner noted that, despite more than 4 million Syrians fleeing the war-ravaged country, her agency — part of the 11-county Diocese of Scranton — has only helped five families relocated in this area, a total of 33 people.
Anas spoke directly to fears Americans have expressed about Syrian refugees in a politically charged presidential election year. “I am Muslim,” he said. “Every society and community, there are bad people. It is the same in any country. They don’t represent anyone but themselves.
“The media shows all Muslims as bad because of ISIS,” he said, referring to the group that has attempted to set up a “caliphate” in territory seized from Syria and Iraq. “ISIS is not Islam.”
Anas concedes that, if the war ended and his country could restore peace and security, he would want to go back. But during a question-and-answer session, when the first query was whether he honored U.S. Law or “Sharia Law” his first reaction was to shrug and ask “What is Sharia?” before saying he definitely respects the law of the country.
“I miss maybe the food in my country, and my friends,” he said. “After that, it’s better here.”
Anas and his family appeared as part of Misericordia’s Mercy Week — an annual series of events designed to honor the heritage of the university’s founders, the religious Sisters of Mercy. The focus of this year’s events has been on immigration.
