Word: omar
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...backseat began to kick and pistol-whip him, ordering him to "confess" to being a Sunni and demanding to know his name. For months, Omar had heard stories of Sunni boys and men being snatched, tortured and killed by Shi'ite death squads. Because Omar is a common Sunni name, he claimed to be "Haider," a Shi'ite. But not only did his captors know his real name, they even knew that Omar had been named after his father. "They kept saying, "Omar, son of Omar, you have an evil name," he says...
...next two hours, he endured constant beating as the car drove around the neighborhood. Only when the car ran into a checkpoint staffed by U.S. troops did Omar realize he might not be killed. Rather than risk being discovered by the Americans, his captors opened the door and tossed him into the street with a warning: "You may escape now, Omar - but with a name like yours, you're never going to be safe...
...death squads responsible for many of the worst recent atrocities, no Sunni name incites more bile than Omar. (The original Omar was Islam's second Caliph and is reviled by Shi'ites who believe he worked against the interests of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.) More than a dozen Omars interviewed by TIME say that when they produce identification cards bearing their name, they regularly endure harassment by Shi'ite policemen and government officials. Others have met a more gruesome fate. In a single incident last earlier this year, the bodies of 14 Omars were found...
...Iraqis know that this may not be enough to protect them. In the days following Omar Farooq's harrowing experience, his family quickly acquired fake IDs for all its children. Seeking police protection was never an option - many of the cops in the neighborhood are former members of the Mahdi Army, the violent Shi'ite militia loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The family didn't feel it could turn to Shi'ite neighbors for support, either. Since the Feb. 22 bombing of the Shi'ite mosque in Samarra, relations between Shi'ites and Sunnis in mixed neighborhoods...
...Instead, the family locked itself indoors and set up a round-the-clock watch at the front gate. When the black Opel returned to the neighborhood one evening, Omar's older brother Mohammed chased after it, firing his Kalashnikov into the air. The car never returned, but the family decided it had had enough. Omar and his mother fled to Jordan. Speaking to TIME shortly before leaving, Omar worried that he might never return. "To be forced [out] because of my name ...," he says, before his voice trails off. The grim reality is that for Omar and countless others like...