Chaker Khazaal: Confessions of a War Child
Sandie Sedgbeer: You were on the panel discussion with the Arab Youth Survey, which conducted 3,500 face-to-face interviews with Arab youth aged 18 to 24, who were asked to express their mindset on issues regarding the Islamic state and various other problems. What did that survey reveal to you?
Chaker Khazaal: It revealed that the number one recruitment tactic for ISIS came from the lack of opportunity.
We made a mistake in the Iraq War. We displaced so many people, we destabilized a region. People lost their homes, their jobs. When you don’t have any opportunities in life, and someone preys on that and gives them false hope… while it’s not an excuse for someone to join an extremist group, it does help us understand how all these stupid decisions we’ve made in our history of politics destabilized a whole region, and economically demolished the Middle East, Iraq, and Syria into Lebanon, which left whole nations with economic poverty, no means to advance in life, and then a group like ISIS sees desperate people that need money or support or a father figure, and this becomes the first wave of recruitment.
I do hold accountable for the recruitment of ISIS every single politician that actually contributed to the wars in the Middle East. This is what we’ve got today—violence, fear, and chaos. And sadly, ISIS preys on that.
Even more interesting, aside from the recruitment of ISIS, it revealed that Arab youth, they don’t want war. They’re sick of it. They want stability. Sadly, we are not serving that. We’re not serving the stability of the Middle East. We are actually contributing to the destabilization of the Middle East.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Since you left the refugee camp, you have worked tirelessly. Your articles are very poignant. One article that really touched me was about your journey back to Palestine for your grandfather.
Chaker Khazaal: Yeah, that was like a pilgrimage. I was writing my new book, and I had just finished a reporting trip in the Middle East. And I wanted to spend a month or two in Palestine/Israel. So, I went to Jerusalem where my grandfather came from. Palestinian refugees are not allowed to go back, but now, as a Canadian citizen, I can go back. So, I rented a car, followed the map, and got to the village. I asked around, and eventually, I found his house.
It was closure plus a pilgrimage plus a right of return back to your roots. And that is, I think, the dream of every refugee—whether Syrian, Iraqi or Afghani refugees, everyone dreams to go back home one day. And I feel so lucky that last year, I managed to actually have this dream become true.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Your grandfather passed away in 2002, and all his life, he had talked about going home, the day that he would return, and he never made it. How emotional was that for you?
Chaker Khazaal: It is a very emotional thing. I’ve got goosebumps right now just thinking about my grandfather because he left when he was a teenager. One day, they told him, “You have to leave your home, and you’ll be back in 15 days.”
He walked on foot from Tarshiha to Lebanon and ended up in a refugee camp that eventually became the refugee camp I was born in. He always talked about his village, and I think I visited Tarshiha a thousand times before I physically visited it through his stories.
When I did visit, last year on December 29th, I think my grandfather sort of came back to life during that visit. I planted an olive tree in the backyard of the house he grew up in.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Did you have any ambitions as a child to be a writer?
Chaker Khazaal: I love telling stories. My grandfather would tell us stories. And remember, in a camp where you have no electricity, and you can’t watch television, you grow up around storytellers, and it becomes part of who you are.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Tell us about your Confessions of a War Child trilogy.
Chaker Khazaal: I really wanted to take that experience of being a refugee and put it in a narrative that anyone can relate to. Whether a refugee or not, white or black, Arab or American, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, straight or gay, every human being in the world will experience love in their life. So, I took that element of love plus the message I wanted to convey, which is that a refugee lives a journey of survival and tries to make something from nothing. So, I put these three together, and Confessions of a War Child was born.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Did you find the process of writing the trilogy cathartic?
Chaker Khazaal: Writing for me is like praying, it’s like meditation. If you’re going through anything in life, I say write about it because you’re gonna’ heal much faster than talking about it or thinking about it.
Sandie Sedgbeer: In 2015 you were named Esquire Magazine’s Man of the Year. Arabian Business magazine ranked you first in the 100 Most Influential Arabs Under 40. You speak all over the world, and you’re hosting the Thomson Reuters Foundation conference in London in November. You’ve accomplished a great deal, and you’re not even 30 yet. What’s next for you?
Chaker Khazaal: I want to try different things. I’ve done writing, and I actually enjoy it. So, it’s part of my career. I enjoy speaking. In my 30s, I want to do the acting. In my 40s, I’m gonna’ get into politics. And these days, to be in politics, you have to have good experience in acting. But, hopefully, I’ll be a good actor and a good politician.
For more information about “Confessions of a War Child” and Chaker Khazaal’s new book “Tale of Tala,” to be published at the end of the year, visit www.chakerkhazaal.com.
For move information about Sandie Sedgbeer or to listen to What Is Going OM every Thursday at 7:00 PM ET, click the picture or visit: omtimes.com/iom/shows/what-is-going-om
