[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
Fifteen-year-old Jihad Saleh said he never had any problems with his first name until a year ago.

TAMPA -- On Saturday morning, Monica Orabi and her two teenage sons boarded a jet and left this country called America.

The 33-year-old north Tampa woman with dark hair and a slight accent came here 15 years ago from Brazil, flying high on dreams of opportunity and prosperity.

Her life proceeded as hoped, for the most part. Then came Sept. 11, 2001. United States reaction to the terrorist attacks made life difficult.

Especially for her 15-year-old son.

His name is Jihad.

* * *

Jihad Luby Mohd. Saleh was only 3 weeks old when his parents moved to the United States from Brazil.

With brown eyes and thick black hair, the Arab and Brazilian boy never had any problems with his name throughout most of his childhood.

"I heard from my friends, and girls," he said. "They thought it was a neat name."

Jihad was on a yearlong stay with his father in Brazil on Sept. 11, 2001. He watched the events on television and said he felt bad for all the innocent people who died.

The government blamed the al-Qaida terrorist network, and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who had declared a holy war -- or jihad -- on the United States.

Jihad returned to Tampa in January. He enrolled as a freshman at Wharton High School in New Tampa.

For physical science, Jihad's teacher was June Fortson. He soon noticed how she called other kids by their first names. But he was "Mr. Saleh."

Mr. Saleh?

The skinny teenager with a fondness for football asked his teacher why she didn't use his first name.

"She's like, 'Well, I don't like that name. It's a religious name and I don't like that name.' "

Jihad said Ms. Fortson suggested he change it.

It angered him and made him feel different, even though his classmates had no problem saying Jihad. They didn't link his name to the word's larger meaning, which has become sinister to many Americans in the last year.

"It made him feel like a small person, you know," his mother said. "You should always be proud of your name, whether it's Mark or Jihad."

Jihad said he kept bugging the teacher about it. Then one day, he recalls. "She said, 'I already told you why I don't want to call you by your first name.' "Then, she's like, 'Don't make me cry. My son's up there.' "

Ms. Fortson would not speak to the Times, but school district officials said her son is in the military, fighting the war on terrorism.

Weeks later, one student, who also had science in Ms. Fortson's class, started teasing Jihad on the bus ride home.

"He called me Osama bin Laden," Jihad said.

The two boys fought.

Just before spring break, Jihad told his mother about the teacher. She complained to the principal. She wrote a letter to the School Board and threatened to sue.

Mostly, she just wanted an apology.

"All this time, all these months," Monica Orabi said, "nobody actually said, 'I'm sorry.' "

Everyone agreed that Jihad should be transferred out of Ms. Fortson's class.

The school district concluded the teacher was not acting out of religious or ethnic prejudice, but out of her own personal struggles since the terrorist attacks.

Through a school spokesman, Ms. Fortson said she didn't use Jihad's first name because she wanted to protect him against a possible backlash.

But Orabi said the teacher's actions drew more attention, not less, to her son.

"Instead of teaching them the right things, she's teaching them how to be prejudiced and to pick someone out of a crowd because of their name," she said.

* * *

Orabi said her son was not named Jihad for any religious or political reason. When she and her first husband, Iaser Saleh, had two boys, they wanted their names to reflect Saleh's Arabic heritage.

The first boy was named Nasser. The second, Jihad.

"That was one of names he gave me to choose from," Orabi said. Her husband mentioned its Islamic meaning, holy war, but she thought little of it.

Even now she disagrees with the ominous meaning that some assign to it.

"Holy war doesn't mean we're going to kill people for God," Orabi said. "It's an everyday fight for living . . . doing your best and going to heaven one day."

Orabi said the problem over Jihad's name was one of the main reasons she is leaving behind the American dream. She and her second husband, Osama Orabi, also are divorcing after a year of marriage.

The last straw came two weeks ago when a police officer at Adventure Island arrested Jihad. A lifeguard was pushing kids in the pool one by one at closing time. But when it came time for Jihad, he pushed the lifeguard into the water instead.

He was handcuffed and spent six hours in the Juvenile Assessment Center in his wet swim trunks.

He wondered why his life had changed so much. Was he being lumped together with the terrorists?

"There are bad people," his mother said. "But you can't generalize everybody."

Orabi doesn't think she'll return to live in the United States. Neither does her eldest son, Nasser. As for Jihad, he's not sure.

Maybe he could go to college here and learn about computers and technology, he thinks.

Said the boy named Jihad before he left the country named America: "I liked it until all this stuff started happening. I thought it was the best place in the world."

-- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com.

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