2 00:00:01,001 --> 00:00:03,044 (acoustic music) [Usama] As an immigrant, there's always a question of home.

For me, it's a constant search, looking for traces of where I come from here in the United States.

And one day, I saw it a ziggurat on the cover of a local magazine.

It pulled me in.

It reminded me of Iraq, my birthplace now rising from the Colorado mountains.

I decided to go there as a kind of pilgrimage to find meaning, connection and maybe a piece of home.

Crestone, Colorado is a wild and weird place.

(dog barking) When I got there, I met a man who had traveled from New Mexico on his donkey and cart.

It's a tiny town, with a history of spirituality, UFO sightings, occult, and a wild vibration in the air.

And amidst all of this, the ziggurat.

(lively traditional music) Well, what is a ziggurat?

It's said that a ziggurat is a structure to connect heaven and earth.

It can be a place you meditate, you ponder, and pray.

It can also be a tourist attraction.

Calling it a ziggurat seems slightly off.

It reminds me more of a mosque in Iraq, a minaret spiraling up to the sky that I climbed as a child.

One of those blurry figures, that's me.

I'm climbing up the Great Mosque of Samarra.

About a year later, when I was in the United States, flipping through an illustrated bible, I saw the Tower of Babel, and I realized, I've been up there!

And when I told my friends, they laughed at me.

Apparently the Tower of Babel is gone because God destroyed it (laughs).

But it made sense.

The Tower of Babel from Babylon, my homeland and Samarra, they looked almost identical.

And they are both reaching for something in the sky.

So why is this ziggurat here?

And who built it?

(bird chirping) [Paul] I live here in nature.

I live as the elements.

I'm not just only like a spiritual airhead, that just sits on a cushion, don't do nothing, which is valuable.

I've lived here over 30 years.

The ziggurat was already here.

[Usama] Oh, it was already built?

It was already built.

- Oh, interesting.

I did some digging around into the history of the ziggurat, and I found out it was built by a Syrian business man named Najeeb Halaby.

- Halaby had sort of a really grand vision here.

I know too little about his background frankly.

From what I understand, he was a Christian Jordanian.

[Hanne] It says that his father was from Damascus and he was a Christian.

But, I think Najeeb was more Muslim.

It was his refuge from the world.

He spent, you know, quite a bit of time out there, praying.

I mean, it's a prayer tower.

It's where heaven and earth meets, and we're already pretty close to heaven, (laughs) 8,000 feet up.

Do we know the story of why he built it?

No, not that I... I've never heard anything about why he built it.

He built it for his daughter, who I think then became the Queen of Jordan.

[Njal] You know, even Queer Noor, you know, she may know things.

And there's a bit of a mythology around... There's all sorts of stories.

Are any of them true?

(both laughing) Oh, I'm sure some of them are.

Like the friend of mine who said he and his wife would come up here and have a cocktail in the evening sometimes.

I'm sure that's true.

[Usama] Do you have a theory why he built it?

I mean, you know what can happen when you fall in love?

You do interesting things.

Many men and many women have done interesting things falling in love.

(traditional music) When he built this place, he was really into the initial purification.

He installed a sizable swimming pool, in high desert country, to see this blue pool there, is extremely striking.

That's quite an introduction for a new love coming to such a raw country.

He would then lead his lady, his love, up.

There's only a gravel little pathway, counter-clockwise, spiraling up to the top.

(traditional music) He would lay down his jacket and they would... consum[mate] their relationship.

[Usama] Um... I'm not saying that everybody go there now and make love with their partner.

I mean, I shouldn't have said anything, but... (both laughing) (birds singing) [Ramzy] Have you ever pondered the fact that all of the noises that we hear coming from this chorus of the earth, all the insects, all the birds, are animals trying to get noticed by the opposite sex so they can mate?

And all these sounds aggregate and create a song.

So in a sense, you could say that the song of the earth is a love song.

(traditional music) [Usama] My desire to explore the ziggurat to understand how it might be connected to my own past, opened up another desire in me, to find and connect with other Arabs in Boulder.

I wanted to hear their stories and to try to understand how we can find a sense of home here.

I met Ramzy at a festival in Boulder.

He was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh and a mushroom shirt.

The fact that there aren't very many Arabs here does feel a little lonely sometimes, but, at the same time, I tend to make up for it by being very outspoken and passionate to represent my culture and my ancestors and to fill the void as much as I can myself.

I think at the very core, there is an underlying spiritual impulse that connects all peoples and pertaining to my Palestinian heritage, the spiritual impulse has been very embedded in my blood.

(enchanting music playing) There is a deep feeling of exile, there is a deep longing for home.

There is a way these medicines can help us find that deep, unshakable home that is within our own heart.

[Usama] So your coffee shop, you combine the mushrooms with the coffee?

That's right.

So we let people add the mushrooms to the drinks.

So they can order any drink on the menu, it can be a coffee, a matcha, a chai, a smoothie, whatever they want, and we can add different mushrooms to the drinks.

Lavender Lotus Dream, coming up.

I'm just proud of all the art and decor we have created in here.

My passion for the world of mushrooms actually originated when I first started experimenting with psychedelics and started witnessing the patterns that are just manifest everywhere.

You know, I always tell people that I'm a psychedelic freedom fighter.

And there is this deep impulse for liberation.

That's something I relate to as a Palestinian, as people who are also striving for liberation.

(ethereal music) [Usama] In downtown Boulder, I'd heard of another Palestinian business owner, so I went to her restaurant to talk with her.

(door squeaking) [Customer] Can I use your bathroom?

Oh, I see it.

We do it around the corner in Boulder.

You can do it between the bushes.

I'm just kidding with you.

Oh, you got it, okay (laughs).

This is my community.

I do like a lot of people coming here, to Arabesque.

I really like to take care of them.

And they're so sweet and kind.

[Usama] So when people say, when someone asks you where were you born?

It's kind of scratching your identity, you know?

Scratching who you really are.

It's hard because you are a young tree in your country.

And you come here, you just transfer all your roots and all your seeds and all your tree, and you plant it here somewhere, somehow.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

You pay already?

- I did not pay.

- Okay, 8 dollars and 74 cents.

We need to look back to give value and to give respect to the way our culture, the religion, the culture, the lifestyle, everything, everything.

And maybe this is one of the reasons I opened my own restaurant, you know?

As a Palestinian, you want to bring your deliciousness and your food to different place and different cultures, you know?

And you have to be like responsible about it.

And you have to be... good at it, because you are representing culture.

My grape leaves, I'm just cooking my grape leaves for the whole day.

People, oh, oh, this food is Palestinian, this food is so good, something like that.

So you wanted to make a difference in a different way.

Bye everybody.

- Thank you!

- You're welcome.

It's been really harsh for the Palestinian.

You're a Palestinian, you're a terrorist, or you're, you know, all this like (beep), all this propaganda against us.

So you have to work like three hundred percent more time to prove yourself, and you are good good good, and your food is good good good.

You know, just like a puppy around you.

No, this is not right.

This is not normal.

That's it.

Vent it and give it to them.

Hopefully the end of the year, we're moving back.

I'm temporarily here.

[Usama] You're temporary?

What do you mean?

Aren't you a citizen?

No, I am a citizen.

But I am, I'm like, you know, gonna go back.

And I'm gonna build my house, and I'm gonna dress up any way I want to, and I'm gonna practice the religion I like it and gonna speak the language that I want to.

In the right time, I just can't wait.

- You want to go back?

I wanna go to the heartbeat.

Of course.

Nobody business.

Nobody gonna tell me how to live and what to eat and what to dress and what kind of religion to practice.

Yeah, America has been good to me.

It's been good to me.

Why I have to deny that?

But there is something sensational about Palestine.

Most sensational of all.

(slow melancholy music) [Usama] I think this is the closest that I'll ever come to feeling like part of Iraq is here.

It's not like we wake up in Baghdad and hang out in our ziggurat, but it just feels kinda nice.

I think Ramzy and Manal, and even Najeeb Halaby, all of us are trying to leave our mark, to build something, to respond to the invisibility that America sometimes imposes on us.

That we don't count, that we're not really part of this land.

And the truth is the opposite.

We built this country.

We've made it colorful.

(lively music) It feels good here.

But I know it's temporary.

Eventually, I have to get down (laughs).

(acoustic music) (crickets chirping)