BY MARCELLE HANEMANN
THE DAILY NEWS
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While some might imagine the horrors of the war, Thomas need only remember. And her memories include the violence of Hussein.
Her ability to transcend the past and include him in her prayers for an end to the war provides a lesson for all who would call themselves followers of "the Prince of Peace" and for everyone who professes to have a loving heart.
Thomas was born and raised in Iran. When she was 16 and had demonstrated signs of political activism, her parents thought it would be best to send her from their home in Tehran to finish high school in Paris.
It was after the revolution in her native country and Hussein had mobilized his armies in that direction.
"It was a terrible time, and when they came to Tehran it was the worst," said Thomas.
Over night, the value of Iranian money was worth 1,000 times less than it had been and funds were frozen. And since she was in France on an educational visa, she could not work.
But her own troubles were the least of the teenager's concerns. She could no longer get telephone calls through to her parents and young sister who lived just a couple of miles from a university that could have mistakenly been considered a bombing target, she said.
"Just imagine," said Thomas. "At any time, at any second, your whole family could disappear. I was in the state of shock all the time. I thought it must be a bad dream. I have to wake up and it will be okay again."
But it was not a dream. And day after day for years Thomas worried from afar as her family struggled under the hand of Hussein.
"My parents told me they didn't know why they were at war with him and if there was a reason, they forgot," said Thomas. "They were living in confusion. They had no direction. They didn't know what they had done or what would happen next. Every night everybody would go to the basement and wait until the bombs were coming.
"My sister who was 5 or 6 years old has memories of the basement. And we were not that much touched by the war as others were."
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 in this country enabled Americans to experience just the tiniest taste of what it feels like to be under attack, said Thomas.
"The government was still in place," she said "What if it wasn't? We felt helpless. They had taken everything."
Besides physical and governmental structures, the Iranian spirit was at risk.
"There was a real psychological threat," said Thomas. "People turn it inside. Many got cancer during the war, including my dad, thanks to Mr. Saddam Hussein. And still I am paying. I wake up at nights shouting, and that was 15 years ago.
"Sometimes I thought I had lost my reason. It destroys your sense of judgment. It was like inside torture for me."
Thomas said the fears and uncertainty led to a depression that later turned to anxiety. The resultant panic attacks have left her unable to breath at times, she said.
Still, she blesses the benefactor of her pain. And when she was asked to say the "Prayer For Those Who Oppose Us" at a recent Community Prayer Service, she gladly accepted the job.
"You lose a blessing if you do not bless your enemies," said Thomas. "If you do not forgive, you have lost a blessing yourself.
"I put my focus on God. I try not to take away my eyes from the face of Our Lord, so that I can forgive this man. I think it is written, ‘If you cannot love a brother you can see, how can you love God who you do not see?' Since God is most important, everything else is a detail."
Thomas said that love is the most powerful weapon.
"We have to have a leader among us to show how love can work," she said. "There is no weapon against love. Love is not weak. It is powerful. It could destroy in a moment, like God, but chooses not to. It is not of destruction. It builds."
Thomas said she hopes that somehow the people now facing one another on battlefields in Iraq could see each other with love as brothers and sisters. That way, something powerful and beautiful could be born amidst the chaos and carnage.
The former Iranian citizen who is now living in Bogalusa with her husband, Mark, is praying for them all, including the one whose past actions still haunt her psyche.
What would she do if Hussein walked into the room and sat beside her?
"I don't want him to be an obstacle to me going to my God or vice-versa," said Thomas. "But God never said ‘Go and be his best friend.'"
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