“They” were terrorists, Iraqi citizens angered by Iraqi citizens like Jabber. For 4 years, Jabber was as a translator for the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom, which made him their enemy and meant having a price to pay.

“The locals considered people like me to be traitors,” Jabber said. “There are narrow-minded people – radicals and all that. It was a hazard working for the U.S. Army, but I never tried to quit just for the fact of I really believed that the U.S. was there to help the Iraqi people.

“There were a lot of issues,” he added. “It was an occupational hazard, being hunted down. I survived so many assassination attempts just by working with the U.S. Army.”

Jabber’s decision put his life and that of his family’s at risk and forced him into a daily cycle of fear. But it was worth it to him.

“I never quit because I believed.”

And so today, Jabber lives the archetype of the American promise: someone who immigrated to start; the opportunity to put his degree to work; a Constitutional right to express himself; Midwest comfort with a home in Toulon.

On Sunday, Jabber opened his fifth business in 5 months – the new electronic cigarette lounge called SinBad Vapors, on Dixon’s Chicago Avenue. Although he holds on to some Iraqi national pride, there is solidarity in that the terrors he endured are years and half a world behind him.

After the U.S. granted him a special immigration visa, Jabber arrived in America in 2007. Not only was there the daunting prospect of starting a new life, he had to get over an immense “culture shock.”

“It took me a lot to adjust,” Jabber said. “One of my first observations was how people take things for granted without realizing – power, water, garbage. I was living in 130 degrees outside with no air conditioning, no cold water, no power whatsoever. Yet we never looked at it as a challenge because it was part of our life.”

When he first arrived, Jabber reached out to friends from the military. One – Jason Adams of Toulon – encouraged Jabber to take root in the Midwest.

America has since allowed opportunities for Jabber to use his master’s degree in engineering from the University of Baghdad. Eight years after landing stateside, he has worked for companies such as Caterpillar and been stationed locally in Sterling. He holds five patents, and is now diving head-on into the world of business.

It hasn’t worked out so well in Iraq, he said. With family members still in the Middle East, Jabber said, cultural differences in the region have made it difficult to embrace American ideals.