“It just makes me want to blow my brains out.”

The soft-spoken guy in a pinstriped shirt and tie sitting across from me doesn’t look or sound like the kind of person who would do something so drastic. So what is it, exactly, that makes him feel that way?

“The media shows the people of the Middle East as collateral damage … they’re not people … they’re just all about terrorism and blowing up people and blowing up each other,” said the man. “And in reality that’s just a very, very, very small percentage of the population that is like that. And that’s not a true representation.”

Atila, a 21-year-old Biola junior majoring in business management who requested that his last name be withheld for security purposes, knows what he’s talking about. After all, growing up in Iran, even as a Muslim, isn’t easy.

No, he didn’t ride camels to a market, live in a tent, or fetch water to drink. Instead, he enjoyed typical fun: going to the beach, playing soccer and getting addicted to computer games. A nominal Muslim, Atila “sometimes” fasted and “every once in a while” did the “prayer thing.”

But what he experienced as an eleven-year-old boy, too young to even fully understand what was happening, was enough to shape his entire life.

It was one night that Atila’s father left his family with little warning and no explanation.

“Both my parents were just bawling their eyes out — and I had no idea what was going on,” Atila said. “They were like, ‘Daddy just has to leave for a while.’… So I hugged my dad goodbye. I had no idea what was going on or how long it was going to be, I didn’t really understand it at all.”

The next morning, dad was gone and the police came to Atila’s house. Then an eleven-year-old boy, Atila watched wide-eyed as the armed men ransacked his home, searching for clues or for his dad. They confiscated most of the family’s belongings and seized his dad’s businesses and properties. Then, threatened with financial ruin, Atila’s mother sold their home and moved herself and her two sons to live with her parents. Even then, police summoned her to court for weekly interrogations.

Slowly, over nearly four years of waiting, Atila realized what his dad had done.

With extra money from his second business, a little appliance store, Atila’s dad had supported anti-government organizations. But the government caught wind of a planned coup. As his friends started getting caught, his father realized he had to escape.

“He just supported them financially,” Atila said. “But that was still a huge deal (and) could get him killed.”

As time went on, Atila fought with feelings of pride and anguish for his missing father.

“It got to a point where I would hate Father’s Day because my dad wasn’t there,” Atila admitted. “And when… anybody would talk about their dad, I just hated it.”

Even people in the tiny town knew what happened. They didn’t bring the topic up, but the unspoken consensus lent silent support for Atila’s family.

“The majority of the people in Iran, they’re not happy with the government,” he explained. “There is no separation of church and state there, so everything is based on Islam. Even the laws are based on Islam. So if you are sinning, basically you are breaking the law, pretty much.”

Finally, the family found people who made fake passports, paid them $21,000 for three fake passports, and arranged to try to meet up with Atila’s father in Germany by way of a stop in Turkey. There, 14-year-old Atila, his brother and his mom hid in a safe-apartment for several weeks. After one failed attempt to leave, the day came when the family could try emigrating from another airport.

The family checked in at the airport, but with one look at their passports, they were pulled into another room. Several men in the room began to bombard them with questions on who they were and why they were trying to leave.

“And we knew for sure that we had got caught.”

A few months prior, Atila’s father had become a Christian while living in Germany and was able to talk to his family briefly on the phone about Christ. It was not safe to talk long on the phone, but his father was able to tell them about his salvation.

“And when we were in that room I remembered my dad talking about Christ a little bit on the phone, and, uh, I prayed. It was a really simple prayer… but I’m not kidding you, after five minutes some random guy walked in and said, ‘Let them go!’ And they let us get on a plane and move to Germany.”

“I believe that was an angel,” he said.

Life in Germany wasn’t angelic, though. As illegal immigrants, his family shifted from one refugee camp to another. Weeks turned into months and all the while they were not allowed to connect with Atila’s dad.

Finally, they were released and had a tearful and joyous family reunion in Wachtendonk, a northern German village 15 minutes from the Netherlands. Atila’s father taught them more about Jesus with the help of missionaries from California and the family forsook their nominal Islamic faith, embraced Christianity, and planned for a new life in America.

The American dream started for Atila’s family a few months before the reunion in Germany. Atila’s dad applied to a program that would bring people to the States soon before the September 11th terrorist attacks. The day after 9/11, Atila’s dad interviewed and was accepted, right before the program was shut down that very afternoon. But due to international complications from the attacks, Atila and his brother spent two years in the German schools as “guest” students.

“I hated it. I was not able to make any friends,” Atila said. “I could not speak the language. The culture – everything was so different. That was not a good time at all.

“But going through that whole experience, though it was terrible at the moment, it really helped me here. Because when I moved to America I had to go through that again, but at least I knew how to deal with it. I learned from the mistakes I made in Germany.”

When Atila and his family finally made it to the United States, they spent their time adjusting to life in a culture vastly different from one that had been part of their lives for so long. From jobs at McDonalds to dinners with neighbors, Atila slowly came to understand the country he had made home.

After completing high school in Lancaster, Atila hoped to attend Pepperdine. But, as a backup, he applied to Biola and Masters. When Pepperdine’s school of business did not accept him, Biola became his default. He quickly fell in love with the community, and shares that passion with potential students in his work as a Biola Ambassador.

Today Atila is proud to call himself an American and a week ago Thursday, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. And he wants America to know what the Persians are going through today.

“Since the rigged election, the fake president – I won’t even call him the president – is in power, Atila said. “People keep protesting. People are getting killed for their rights… In the beginning it was on the news a lot, but it’s not anymore even though it’s still happening… There are millions and millions on the streets literally trying to overthrow their government, they want freedom, … You don’t see that on the news, it’s gone.”