The Ethnic Tigrinya Extremist ideology of Nehnen ... - Jeberti.com

1The Ethnic Tigrinya Extremist ideology of Nehnen-Elamanan As Demonstratedby Immigration Officers VS Jamal ShokayCHAPTER 2In 2004 while living in Daytona Beach, Florida my family in Eritrea called and asked me,“Why not send your resume to Eritrean Airlines and come home and again serve your country?”The first time I did not agree with them, but eventually they convinced me and I agreed withthem. By September of 2004 I e-mailed Eritrean Airlines my resume. I received no reply. So,my family followed up for me and asked them about it. They claimed that they had not receivedthe resume. So my brother-in- law asked me to send him two copies, one e-mail and one hardcopy by postal service and I did. When he hand delivered the resume, an agreement was madewith my brother- in-law. “We need him by May of 2005, we will give him a ticket from Hollandto Asmara but he has to purchase his own ticket from the United States to Holland”. At first,since I was naïve I said okay and I was happy. Because I had practiced contributing money sinceI was in middle school, high school and had continued after I arrived in the United Statesbecause Ihad helped E.P.L.F by thousands of USD, I was so happy. I felt my country was doingwell. The dream had become a reality! The E.P.L.F slogan self-determination had come to pass!For me, it was a big deal. What a rude awakening I was in for! I later learned that dream hadcome true, but only for some ethnic Tigrigna! It was so traumatic when I found out about thesevere discrimination taking place in Eritrea that the angle of my life algebraically wascompletely changed from 0 degree to 359 degree!On May 8, 2005, I left America after being away from my home for at least ten years.My life’s journey was changed as I headed to the burning house of (Nehnen-Elamanan), weand Our Objectives Airlines. I remember that day just like it was yesterday. My wife Liz Shokaysaid before I left Daytona, “Jamal, do not go to Eritrea, you have already started your C.F.I.ground training, just finish your C.F.I. and work here as a flight instructor in the meantime”.Unfortunately, I never listened to her and what a disastrous decision that was! I left my beautifulfamily and my property and I spent a lot of money on the things that I needed which the

2Airlinescould not provide for me. I woke up at 7:00 in the morning and then I awakened mychildren to take them to school. During that time my wife Liz was working on the morning shift.My first child Moudete Shekinah Shokay was 7 years old, my 2 nd child Jamal Aim Shokay II was6 years old, and my 3 rd child Jamaya Nor’Jay Shokay was 6 years old. I dropped my children offat school and I headed to Atlanta, GA to see my sister and her family. Then my plan was totravel from Atlanta to Asmara Eritrea. I stayed in Atlanta for less than one week. After that Iwent to the Atlanta International Airport in order to check in with the U.S.A Immigration Office.After the officer had checked everything, she asked me for my identification card. I pulled outmy wallet and I showed her my Florida ID. She smiled and she said to me, “I am not asking foryour U.S.A identification card, what I am asking is, do you have an Eritrean ID card?” I washonest enough to tell the truth. I said to her "I do not have one" but I asked myself, what does shemean?I questioned her, “Why do you ask me for my country’s ID?” She said, “Young man if you donot have an Eritrean ID you will surely be arrested in Eritrea, believe it or not, but that’s up toyou.” At that time I did not take it seriously. I said to her “It’s okay; I am a member of the(P.F.D.J.) and I am also a student. They will understand my situation and also I have done myduty by serving my country.” She flat out said, “They do not care. If you have not paid yourtaxes which is 2% you will be incarcerated, and being a Muslim makes it worse.” One thing Ifailed to realize was that even if you do your duty and you are not of the Christian’s faith, or ofTigrinya ethnicity, you have no value to them, but at that time I thought I would be okay. Assoon as I arrived in the Asmara Airport the ethnic Tigrinya Immigration officers immediatelyharassed me and verbally abused me. Also they put me in jail just like she said they would! Theone thing that shocked me was, not one man of Muslim ethnicity was working as an Immigrationofficer or held any other position within the airport; that was a very sad and ugly moment for me.All of them were from ethnic Tigrinya. I couldn’t believe what I saw; hatred and ignorancetowards those of the Muslim faith was rampant and no one could do anything about it!Dealing with the ethnic Tigrinya immigration officers was one of the most difficultthings that I have ever done in my entire life. I started to communicate diplomatically. Also Itried to be friendly but that didn’t work either because their attitudes towards me, which weresupposed to be fear invoking, was oblivious to who I was. I told them who I was and what I haddone for my country and I showed them my (Harbnay)Certificate. This certificate should have

3proved to them my financial, physical, and loyal contribution to the ethnic Tigrinya people(E.P.L.F). They said "Your certificate means nothing; Ethiopian men have done the same thingsfor us". I said to them, "If any men from Ethiopia have done what I’ve done, why do we fight theEthiopian government? That would defeat the purpose and does not make any sense at all". Onthe other hand, if you think about it they were right. After 1975 the Muslim founder of the P.L.F(People Liberation Front) groups one and two were murdered. In addition the time frame of 1961- 1973 was saw mass genocide of several generations of Muslims from babies in the wombs ofpregnant women to the elders in villages, towns and nomads. With this mass elimination ofMuslim population, The P.L.F. was dominated by unadulterated virginethnic Tigrinya powerswhich came from all over Ethiopia and Eritrea with no mass reduction of their population. Atthat time 40% of the E.P.L.F (Eritrean People Liberation Front) fighters were from TigrayEthiopia. Therefore, the ethnic Tigrinya started bragging about the Tigray man power. This iswhy the ethnic Tigrinya claimed my (Harbnay) Certificate meant nothing. Also I informed themthat “Now I am here to serve my country.” They did not give a damn. The attitude they showedtowards me was “This is our country you F****Muslim get lost.” The immigration officer whowas on duty that night, Colonel Ghirmay told me, “You might be from Agame, how do weknow?” I said to him, “I am not from Agame. I tried to maneuver my way through the situation.Also I tried to be friendly but that didn’t work either. As I stood there trying to negotiate, I waslooking and observing how the ethnic Tigrinya insulted the Tigray people and made fun of them.I reflected that in reality the ethnic Tigrinya couldn’t do anything without Tigray men, like ababy without its mama. He kept saying to me “You are from Agame.” Finally, after I was sick ofhim continually saying that, I said to him, “Hey man, I am a red blooded Lowlander fromEritrean, not Agame. My mother and the women from Agame do not dress in the same clothesand they do not braid their hair styles the same way. They have different cultures. Also they donot speak the same language like your Mom and the Agame women, so what are you talkingabout? The Agame women and your mom have a lot of similarities but my mother and theAgame women have big differences and I can prove it.” I could not believe how these dirty assethnic Tigrinya immigration officers with their breaths and their bodies smelling like humanbowel movements and cow manure were questioning me!I remember that night. They had a flight to Europe and Captain Isaias was flying thatnight. Captain Isaias came to me and said, “Jamal, you could go with me back to Germany andwe will get you a Visa and you can then return back to Asmara” I said, “Okay and how nice ofyou." I was happy for him to say that but they never let me go with Captain Isaias I do not knowwhy. Then after a few weeks of mental and physical torturous abuse they let me go home. Threedays later I called “We and Our Objective Airlines” captain Mussei to let him know "I am inAsmara Eritrea and I would love to have an appointment for an interview.” He knew I was inAsmara, but he did not care. Not only was he nasty, but he was a hater too. He got his Airlinescareer free due to the expense of innocent and humble Muslims blood. Thousands uponthousands of civilian women, children, infants and men were buried in several mass gravessurrounded by markers. They were viciously killed by the lapdog ethnic Tigrinya commundas.

4The ethnic Tigrinya were not who they claimed to be. As the days and weeks went by and Ihadn’t heard from Captain Mussie I started calling them every day. They gave me the runaround. Just like they had done to my first cousin, Idreas Shokay, M.D., back in 1995 when hehad gone to Asmara. He had gone home to serve his people, but they made him run around somuch that in 1996 he returned back to Saudi, and today he is doing very well thanks to Allah.Also many Muslims scholars came to work and serve Eritrea. They were turned down withhumiliation and criticism, because they were Muslims and they could not speak the unworthyTigrinya language. The Tigrinya was fearful of them. Since I had enough knowledge of aviationand the airlines industry, I was wondering what they were going to do with me. It bothered metoo much and I started to panic. For them, since their goal was to destroy me, they never cared.However, after a month they did call me to do the interview. The day of the interview I showedthem what I had learned from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Science University in Daytona Beach,Florida, U.S.AReaders wishing to correspond with the author regarding this article are welcomed to do so.At jayshokay_Sr@yahoo.com“We and Our Objective” Shame is to be continued…...