In Rome, Italy, he changed flights and reached New York City's John F.

In Rome, Italy, he changed flights and reached New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport in the eve of August 13, 1972. His objective was to pursue his studies for a graduate degree in English which he achieved. In the United States, al-Jibouri had in the beginning the hardest years of his life simply because he had to pay for his own studies as well as living expenses.

He rejected an offer by Saddam Hussein's government, which was made in person by the Cultural Attaché at the Iraqi Embassy in London at the time, to pay for his schooling provided he moved from the United States to the United Kingdom. He knew that if he had accepted the offer, he would have to be used by the tyrant's government as a tool to do its bidding.

Working menial jobs during the summer and studying during other seasons, he could not earn his degree before 1978, accumulating by then many more credit hours than required to graduate. His graduation date from the then Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University) is December 20, 1978.

Despite many years of hunger and want, he became involved in the activities of the “Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada” (MSA) which later was included under the umbrella of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

In 1973, he inaugurated Atlanta's first Islamic Center, delivering the khutba (sermon) as the imam, but he soon was forced out due to sectarian prejudices mainly from some Indian and Pakistani self-appointed Sunni community leaders who were administering the MSA's activities. He, therefore, was removed as the imam, and this prompted him in the winter of 1973 to establish the Islamic Society of Georgia, Inc.

in order to introduce Islam the proper way, not by attacking this sect or that as those ignorant couple and their followers were doing, but through the medium of Islamic Affairs bi-monthly newsletter which started publication in January of 1974. The founders of the Islamic Society of Georgia, Inc., were, in addition to al-Jibouri, Dr.

Akbar Ali Zaidi, a Pakistani-American who worked for the statistics department in the famous Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, who served as the Society's President, and Muhammed Zafar Mahdi, also Pakistani, who was studying for his Ph.D. at Georgia State University and who served as the Society's financial secretary. Later, they (10) were joined by Dr.