In Gaza, As in My Native Iraq, People Yearn To Be Free | Opinion

There is a type of soft bigot who stands with murderers and dictators, like the Hamas terrorists who brutalize Gaza, and say, "I am pro-Palestinian."

I grew up under Saddam Hussein's soul-crushing oppression in Iraq. I remember that when we were waiting to find out if the Americans were coming to save us, opponents of America's campaign in Iraq would stand up and say, "I am pro-Iraqi."

Well, no, excuse me, you most certainly were not "pro-Iraqi" if you were against my country being saved from a brutal tyrant who "disappeared" and tortured Iraqi citizens and gassed his own people. You weren't "pro-Iraqi" if you wanted to cut and run years later, leaving us to the tender mercies of our new pro-Iranian government. Since those forces took power, I don't live in Iraq anymore. I live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and I want to tell you one thing: If you're pro-Palestinian, you should support removing Hamas from controlling Gaza.

On Oct. 7 in Israel, people who were living their lives were suddenly confronted with barbaric savagery. Hamas terrorists surprised Israel's border troops and violated the neighboring Israeli communities, butchering over 1,400 people in just a few hours. Over 80 percent of the bodies, including those of children, showed signs of torture and rape. The terrorists particularly targeted a music festival where thousands of young revelers were partying; they slew 260 innocents, many of whom they raped, and took at least 200 others as captives to Gaza, where their abuse continues.

It's not only Israelis who suffer under the control of Hamas; so do Gazans. Under Hamas rule, Gaza functions as an oppressive Islamic emirate where journalists are beaten and tortured, and LGBTQ people are publicly executed. Anyone who doesn't conform to Hamas' austere version of Islam is tortured and executed as an Israeli "collaborator." Gazan children are brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers and committing war crimes. Hamas uses its own people as human shields and often stockpiles military targets like rockets in schools, mosques, and hospitals.

I know how Gazans feel because I lived under an Islamized regime, which Iraq became when American forces withdrew. I thought my dreams had come true when I had the chance to represent Iraq in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant. With hopes for peace, I was thrilled to meet and take pictures with my fellow contestant, the beautiful Miss Israel 2017 Adar Gandelsman. I received death threats and was called a traitor, and ultimately, I had to flee my homeland, Iraq, for the freer shores of the United States. Today, as I previously mentioned, Iraqi law makes peace a crime and literally sentences to death any Iraqi who has contact with an Israeli.

I want to ask my fellow Americans: Do you really understand the power of the idea that our country was founded on? Even before World War II made us the indispensable nation, America was always a shining beacon of liberty to the world. Do not listen to the racists who would tell you that Muslims are different, that we don't deserve basic freedoms or women's rights, that we deserve to be brutalized by dictators and terrorists because it represents our authentic culture. Do not believe it! All that is required is for America and the Free World to stand proudly for our own founding idea—the antithesis of the barbarity we just saw perpetrated on Israel. I'll always pick a society of music festivals over one that sends butchers and kidnappers against young dancers, and I'll wager you would, too.

I lived through Saddam's Iraq, the American liberation, and what came after. The good people of Iraq yearned for America to succeed during the Iraq War. I chose America, and so did many of my compatriots that could. When democracy retreats, real people are left in the wreckage, as I know all too well. Similarly, as Americans, we invested blood and treasure in an Afghanistan with literate, educated, upwardly mobile young women. They were the bedrock of the pro-American order, and what happened when America left? They were turned into child brides.

Ultimately, America is engaged in a war of ideas with a global empire of jihad that emanates out of Tehran. Since Ayatollah Khomeini's gang of religious revolutionaries overthrew the shah in 1979, Iran has been turned into a strict theocracy where "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" are required chants. Those are not just slogans; Iran is by far the world's top state-sponsor of terrorism and the ultimate source of most of the weapons used in Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre.

Ideas matter. People understand stories, and they are inspired by visions. Americans, we must remember and restore the transformative power of our own idea—the celebration of freedom. It is delusional to call support for Hamas the "pro-Palestinian position." No one wants to live under a jihadist theocracy. If you don't believe me, go try it.

When we say that terrorists hate us for our ideas and for our way of life, this is what we mean. Take it from an Iraqi who has lived through the extremes. There are good people, men and women, in Gaza who want to be free, and see the day that Hamas is no longer engaged in bloody reprisals—just as there were, and are, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and just as there are in Iran.

Sarah Idan is a secular Muslim who represented Iraq in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant. After posting an Instagram photo of herself and Miss Israel during the pageant, she received a torrent of death threats. She and her family were forced to flee Iraq, and since then has spoken out on Middle East policy.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.