Couple were bound for U.S., then came 9/11
By Matt Sutkoski, Free Press Staff Writer
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Somali Mohamed Abdi, 34, of Winooski and his wife were about to leave a Kenyan refugee camp for the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorists attacks that day delayed their arrival several years. Friday, Abdi and his wife, Masiti, Mohamed, took the oath of citizenship in Montpelier.
MONTPELIER — The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly ended Mohamed Abdi’s hope of escaping a chaotic African refugee camp for a new life in the United States.
Exactly eight years later, Abdi and his wife, Masiti Mohamed, stood with 89 other smiling people from around the world in the Vermont Statehouse and cemented their new life in America by becoming U.S. citizens.
The couple had fled civil war in Somalia and landed in a Kenyan refugee camp by 1998, Abdi said.
“It was very hard. There were a lot of killings and rapes and stuff like that,” he said.
Abdi and his wife were set to fly to the United States in 2001, but on Sept. 11, terrorists steered planes into Manhattan skyscrapers, the Pentagon in Washington, and a Pennsylvania field, killing more than 3,000 people. Tightened security in the wake of the attack kept the couple in Africa until 2004.
Mohamed beamed and Abdi listened intently as U.S. Circuit Court Judge Peter Hall spoke of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
“Becoming a citizen of the United States is an extraordinary, almost magical transformation,” Hall said.
Noting the people seeking citizenship Friday hailed from 37 countries, Hall said the new citizens’ different backgrounds can only help the United States.
“Our strength is in the diversity of its people,” Hall said, quoting President Obama.
Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said the addition of 91 citizens bodes well for Vermont and the United States because all the new citizens had to be smart, motivated and willing to take risks to reach that status.
The Statehouse naturalization ceremony was festive. Cameras flashed throughout the nearly two-hour ceremony. Friends, family and well-wishers greeted the new citizens with a long round of applause, whistles and cheers after the newly minted Americans recited the Oath of Allegiance.
Abdi wore a proud expression as he strode to the front of the room to receive his citizen certification. Mohamed smiled broadly as she took hers.
Abdi said Friday was a bittersweet day in that he and his wife finally reached their goal of becoming citizens, though his new country is sad as it remembers the losses from Sept. 11.
He also said many people who want to immigrate to the United States still are stuck in African refugee camps, stranded there by the same security concerns that delayed him after the terrorist attacks.
Source: Burlington Free Press, Sept 12, 2009