PENDLETON, S.C. (AP) - Abdul and Amani Karkour love what the United States has offered them. But the proprietors of the Village Bakery and Cafe in Pendleton object to the country blocking immigration from their war-torn homeland of Syria.
“I dreamed of coming to the U.S. even when I was 9 years old in geography class. My teacher showed us Detroit, and I thought, ’I want to go there!’” said Abdul Karkour, now 55. “I came here in 1981 to work at the Milliken plant in Marietta (South Carolina). . I had $165 in my pocket, and I learned English working at the mill.”
Within a few years, Abdul wanted to own his business. He eventually became a co-owner of Romano’s restaurant on Clemson Boulevard in Anderson. He also remained close to his family in Syria and met Amani, now 39, on one of his trips home.
Abdul became a U.S. citizen in 1997, married Amani in 1999, and they settled in Anderson. She eventually got her citizenship in 2008, well after the arrival of daughter, Maya, 16; son, Karam, 15; and daughter, Rama, 10. Son, Omar, 8; and daughter, Reem, 5, came along after that.
Abdul said he’d love to speak with President Donald Trump about Syria. He said his former countrymen are polyglots who value education and want the chance to succeed in the United States and other Western countries. He said Jews, Muslims and Christians live among one another in his and Amani’s hometown of Banyas, where people still speak Aramaic - the language spoken by Jesus and his disciples 2,000 years ago.
“I’m proud of what I am,” said Abdul, a Muslim who speaks English, Greek and Arabic. “There’s a lot of similarities between the religions, so the differences are not a big issue to me. God didn’t give me an application to fill out asking what I want to be!”
The restaurateur thinks Trump and others have some grave misconceptions about the ongoing civil war in Syria.
“I think we get addicted to TV and watch CNN and Fox News,” Abdul said. “As Americans, we see the pictures, but not what is behind those pictures.”
Amani was visiting family in Syria when the citizens began protests inspired by the Arab Spring in 2011. She said the U.S. State Department kept in constant contact with her to assure her safety. She left just as the nation’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, began a brutal crackdown that degenerated into a conflict with ISIS and other factions that has raged for six years and killed more than 450,000 Syrians.
“It was a revolution for freedom,” Amani said. “It wasn’t a civil war at the beginning.”
Her husband said, “It became civil war when Assad said he would burn the country to the ground. … Then ISIS comes, and Syrians are being killed by ISIS more than anybody else.”
The couple’s popular restaurant on Pendleton’s Village Green draws regulars from as far away as Keowee Key in Oconee County, Greenville and Anderson. Their three years as proprietors have been so successful that Abdul accepted the 2017 Business of the Year award at last week’s State of Pendleton event at Tri-County Technical College.
The couple considers the employees they inherited when they bought out Pete and Barbara Rizzo in 2014 to be family as much as their loved ones in Syria.
“When we took over, I sat them down and told them, ’Our success will be your success, too,’” Abdul said.
That success has also enabled the Karkours to help several relatives repatriate in Norway. They have also worked with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office to get medicine and supplies to Abdul’s youngest brother, Yasser, who is caring in Syria for a wife stricken with multiple sclerosis and their three children.
As much as the Karkours worry about loved ones in Syria, they are thankful that their five children can grow up in a community such as Anderson, go to schools like T.L. Hanna High School and have loyal friends.
Has recent rhetoric against Muslims and Arab speakers affected them?
“Not really,” Maya Karkour said. “Our friends defend us.”
“My friends don’t care,” said her brother Karam, who earned an academic citation from President Barack Obama that Abdul likes to show to anyone and everyone.
The Karkours are as proud to be Americans as they are to be Syrians.
“No one is more proud to be Americans than us,” Abdul said Sunday while he and Amani helped their employees clean up after a big brunch crowd at the Pendleton eatery. “We live a comfortable, normal life in America without forgetting our background. We can’t stop from being emotional sometimes about our families in Syria. The only problem they have is that they were born there.”
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Information from: Anderson Independent-Mail, https://www.andersonsc.com
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