mufid Synop

Mufid Azazi is a member in one of Seattle's Muslim extremists cells. Plucked out of military service in Iran, by his father who arranged his marriage and then had him shipped to the USA in a business trade. Mufid is inwardly angry at his father and all his mechanisms to control his life.

Here in the U.S. he controls his marriage, the men who come to his home and he helps to assimilate them into western society but he is too strict. His wife is obedient but pushes the boundaries when it comes to associating with his neighbors. No matter how hard he puts his Iranian made loafer down she sidles by with sweetness to gain his forgiveness.

Mufid is distant, arrogant and argumentative when he comes around his neighbors. In turn they are combatant to him, shun him, offer no arm of friendship or help if needed. Except for Daniel and Grace who are an older couple living two doors away from the high fenced in yard, commonly referred to as the compound. Mufid doesn't realize by isolating himself he is an object of suspicion and disdain.

Daniel and Grace over look all this and have made attempts within the guidelines Mari, Mufid's wife, have outlined. They speak only when she is walking around the block with the children. They talk on the phone, Mari asks many questions about life in the USA as Mufid rarely takes them anywhere. She has a car and takes the children to and from school and the mosque for services. She make her food for them to try and in turn she slips down to their house when her boy is in school, with the baby and tries their food. She is curious and finds Daniel and Grace are far from the picture Mufid has described Westerners to be.

BUT- Circumstances bring Mufid and Daniel together. Mufid can no longer hold his anger at a man that gave so much to help his wife and save the life of his baby daughter. All Daniel asks of Mufid, when asked what he wanted as a gift for his service, is his respect to listen to his side and to make his judgment based on what he hears and sees as truth not what he has surmised. Odd and very disturbing to Mufid who is all about show and the gift of appreciation that can be seen.

Slipping unseen down the alley to Daniel's house when his family is asleep, Daniel questions his loyalty to his family and culture. Mufid asks why Daniel is so different from his other neighbors who shun him. They build an association that leads to Daniel giving Mufid a story of the "Good Samaritan" and other stories from the Bible in such a way, Mufid who is clueless about the Bible in any way is being exposed to the Plan of God. Finally Daniel challenges Mufid to hold, just touch the Bible for which he is afraid Allah will strike him and his family dead for coming near. When nothing untoward happens, he accepts the New Testament Daniel offers and begins to read it, comparing it to the Qu'ran.

After while there is a curiosity that overcomes Mufid and he begins to question his own faith compared to what he feels when he reads the Bible.

BUT that isn't where the story begins. It begins when Mufid picks up a rider, a Port Authority cop at a hotel and takes him to the Airport on Sunday morning, the day before the World Trade Conference takes place downtown Seattle. For days men and women from all over the world have arrived to attend this convention. On this day, as he waits for a fare, he sees Daniel and Grace leaving to visit their daughter in Australia and also four Iranian men arrive in a compact car. They get out and enter the airport terminal.

Mufid knows these men. They are trained terrorists. He heard they were here on an important mission. All came through his hostel at different times in the last six months. Now here they all are in an airport terminal and they have given a sign they are about to go to their deaths.

Mufid is in turmoil. Does he drive home, take his family and go to the underground? or Does he do the right thing and save his new friends Daniel and Grace by telling the authorities what may be about to happen?

STATIC

Main Character #2 Profile  (E) Mufid's Character Sketch #1868394 by Quick-Quill