Abu Khaled woke up, sweating profusely. The big and tall Black man looked around for a moment, feeling disoriented, before he remembered where he was. He was in his apartment in the town of Orleans, in the Ontario region of Canada. He was safe. It was all a dream, he told himself. For months now he'd been having those dreams. And these dreams were so damn intense that they left him questioning a lot of things about himself. Things no man should question, such as one's masculinity and sexuality. Abu Khaled was born in the town of Mogadishu, Somalia, to a Somali mother and Iranian father. On July 4, 2012, he would turn twenty eight. That kind of milestone makes a man think about a lot of things.
Abu lay in bed, deep in thought. He'd done a lot in his twenty-something years. He had a Master's degree in business administration from Carleton University in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. He was presently working for the Canadian Revenue Agency, as one of a few Black males within the nationwide organization. Although the majority of Somalis were Muslims, Abu Khaled had a secular mindset and his lifestyle reflected it. He had seen firsthand what religious zeal could do. And he wanted no part of it. Religion could be a destructive force in the lives of many if left unchecked. It tore apart his folks marriage. His father Abdullah Khaled was a Shiite Muslim from the Islamic Republic of Iran. His mother Aisha was a Sunni Muslim from the nation of Somalia. Such differences meant little to westerners but in the Arab/Muslim world, they were often cause for war. His parents divorcing after more than twenty years of marriage and his mother's death at the hands of his father shattered whatever faith Abu had left, either in Islam or in the institution of marriage itself.
Religion and culture were responsible for much strife in the world today. That's why there was tension between the great nation of Turkey and the Republic of Syria these days, and the predominantly Sunni rulers of the Saudi kingdom were rousing the Arab world and their friends in the Western world against Iran. Abu Khaled considered all this friction over slight differences within the same religion to be pointless. He lived in Canada, and embraced the ideals of religious freedom, democracy and secular government. The foundations of Western society. His family disapproved but Abu was grown, and independent. He could do whatever he wanted. Working as an executive for the Canadian Revenue Agency, he raked in eighty eight grand a year. Well, his net pay was one hundred and three grand a year but taxes in Canada were astronomical so he considered himself lucky they didn't take more of his pay.
Abu Khaled was a man of many passions. And he indulged every single one of them. He wasn't like the other Somalis, brainwashed by the Arab culture which influenced so many African Muslims. Abu Khaled partied hard, drank, and chased beautiful women. He hadn't set foot in a mosque in almost a decade and had no desire to change that. For the most part, he didn't associate with other Muslims. Not unless they were secular minded like him. As an educated Black male of partial Somali descent, a man with a good career, a nice house and a nice car, he was seen as quite a catch by the Somali women of Ottawa. The thing about Somali women is that while they act all pious and friendly, deep down they don't think much of Somali men.
