Arnold Mehdi at his father’s Baghdad gym named after Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Reuters)

Baghdad, March 30 (Reuters): Film-star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has fans around the world, but few are as avid as Baghdad gym owner Sabah Mehdi.

In a country where Americans are highly unpopular, Mehdi was thrilled to receive a letter from the governor of California saying he was honoured that Mehdi had changed his five-year-old son Abdullah’s name to Arnold.

“Arnold is a legend. Before the war nobody was allowed to give their children western names. But now I was able to give him Arnold’s name,” said Mehdi, who has already started his son on a weightlifting programme.

When Schwarzenegger was elected the governor of California, Mehdi changed the name of his run-down gym in central Baghdad to the Arnold Classic.

Its poster shows a picture of Schwarzenegger flexing his muscles, with the slogan “Arnold name is enough”.

Encouraged by his letter from Schwarzenegger — who wrote to him once before, in 1977 — Mehdi hopes the slogan is true as his landlord asks for more rent and threatens to close the gym.

“We need help or I will go bankrupt. I hope he can help,” he said. “I have sent him a letter and we are writing another one.”

Times really have changed. Before the US invasion of Iraq a year ago, Mehdi, a former Iraqi bodybuilding champion, trained the sons of Saddam Hussein’s most feared aides, including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, dubbed Chemical Ali for his gas attack on the Kurds in 1988.

“This would have never happened before when I was training the sons of Iraq’s most important people,” Mehdi said.

“The landlord would have been too scared to mention the rent.”