BANGOR, Maine — In 2006, Ali Ashour fled his home in Iraq after his father was murdered and his home destroyed in the sectarian violence that pitted Sunni and Shiite Muslims against each other in the wake of the U.S. invasion.
Seeking a safer place to live where they could freely practice their faith as Sunni Muslims, he and his family sought refuge in Syria, but they were forced to flee to the United States in 2008 because of the rising violence.
On Friday, 26-year-old Ashour finally found a safe and permanent home when he and 22 other foreign nationals took oaths of allegiance to become U.S. citizens in a ceremony at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Bangor.
“It means a lot to me, because I lost the feeling that I had a home when I was in Iraq,” Ashour said. “I couldn’t feel anymore that I had a home there because I lost my father and I lost my home, too. Now I have a home.”
“We came to the United States of America looking for religious freedom first and safety,” he said.
After his father was gunned down at their home by a group of Shiite militants, Ashour says he was unable to attend high school in Iraq or Syria because of the danger caused by sectarian violence.
When he and his family arrived in Virginia after going to the United Nations in Syria and applying to come to the U.S. with a green card, he was able to obtain a high school diploma. They later relocated to Portland.
He expects to receive his associate’s degree in computer science this summer after completing classes at Virginia Western Community College and continuing his education at Southern Maine Community College.
Ashour said he plans to pursue his bachelor’s degree at Central Connecticut State University, and he is considering changing his major to mechatronics and robotics.
“It’s very tough, but I will do my best,” he said.
He is the last of his immediate family to obtain U.S. citizenship after his mother, sister and two younger brothers did so in 2013, and his older brother — all residents of Portland now — obtained U.S. citizenship 10 days earlier.
While Ashour said obtaining citizenship is relatively easy, if you follow the rules, his success story comes as many Americans, fearful of allowing terrorists into the country, seek to restrict the admittance of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
On Thursday, the U.S. House voted 289 to 137 for a bill that would tighten screening procedures for Syrian and Iraqi refugees in response to last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 137 and injured 352.
If it passes the Senate, White House officials say the president will veto the legislation that would require the director of the FBI, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the director of national intelligence to confirm that each applicant from Syria and Iraq poses no threat.
Ashour said Friday he is saddened by the rhetoric against Syrian and Iraqi refugees that he has heard recently.
“It makes me feel very bad because those people are looking for safety and running away from the war and from serious danger, and they really need help, and I wish that the United States government could help them,” he said.
“It’s more complicated than we see on the news,” he said. “There are too many different groups fighting, and the people are looking mostly for safety. Before war, before money, before food, most of them are looking for safety, and that’s why we’re out here.”
Those taking their citizenship oaths Friday renounced their allegiance to foreign states, swore to uphold the Constitution and to serve in the armed forces if required by law.
“The United States of America is now your country, and by becoming citizens of the United States, you are continuing a tradition that is as old as the country itself,” Judge John Woodcock told the applicants. “The history of this country is a history of immigration.”
Ashour said he still has an aunt and two uncles in Iraq.
“Their opinion is that if we can help them to come to the United States, it would be good for them, because life there is very hard and very dangerous, and there’s no opportunities at all, especially for youths,” he said.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.