By ADAM GONN | THE MEDIA LINE
CAIRO: "I'm half Sudanese and half Chadian but the first thing I do everyday is check out the Saudi newspapers and magazines," Mansour Alhadj told The Media Line. The founder of Mawaleed.net, a website that aims to connect children born to expatriates in Saudi Arabia, Alhadj is leading the campaign for Saudi citizenship.
"My favorite [soccer] team is a Saudi team called Al-Ahli," he said. "When the national Saudi team is playing, I always support them".
Alhadj was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, only leaving the country for the first time in his teen years, when he was forced to fly to his father's home country to continue high school, as non-Saudis are not permitted to attend Saudi high schools.
"The first time I went to Chad I was called 'the son of Saudi Arabia'," he remembered. "Nobody in Chad considered me Chadian".
"I struggled very hard to become part of the Chadian community but everybody was refusing me," he said.
The name of Alhadj's website, Mawaleed, comes from the Arabic term Mawaleed el Mamlakah, which means young people of foreign decent.
