A
man after getting married and having children has his family’s best interest in
mind. Giving them a good life, good support, food on the table and a house to
call their own. Like any man, my uncle always thought of his family first. He
was a soldier in the Syrian Army and worked with the income he was getting it.
Finally in 2007, he was able to buy a house in Damascus, suburb of Ein Terma.
We were all very excited for him and his family.
My
uncle is Ismail and his wife a scarf wearing Sunni. Their relationship was one
that everyone thought was extraordinary. They prayed next to each other, fasted
together, and went to Holy Shrines together. They would also raise their
children together in complete tolerance and knowledge of both faiths.
Ein
Terma is a mainly conservative Sunni suburb of Damascus. My uncle became very
good friends with the people living in his building and those in the
neighborhood. After some time he was able to gain their respect.
When
the problems started in Syria last year, I would call to check up on them from
time to time. They would fill me in how their neighborhood and area is fine and
nothing has happened there at all. Last August I went to Syria and stayed at
their house while I stayed in Damascus. My aunt and cousins told me how a few
weeks earlier a group of young men came to burn down a government building down
the street from them. My cousin said he went out to see what was happening and
saw people from the area standing in front of the building telling those guys
(who were apparently not known to anyone in the area) to leave as soon as
possible and not to come back. The people of the neighborhood stood as one and
did not allow anyone to try and terrorize the area. They left with no incident.
The
third day I was there, after Iftar dinner (it was Ramadan) we were sitting on
the balcony and saw a group of guys down the street start clapping and yelling
for “freedom” I could see many of them had phones out (videotaping I am
assuming) and then when they got to the end of the street they stopped and just
ran off. No one stopped them, they just tapped. It was my first witness of what
people were saying about this revolution, that people were videotaping then
running off and posting it. They did not return the next day or any other time
I was still in Syria.
After
I left Syria, months later I started to hear stories about Ein Terma, how rebel
forces came in and took over for a day and then Army retook it the next
day. Then I heard there were a lot
of problems rising there late winter. Families get out of there and moving into
Damascus. Many but not my uncle.
Then
at the end of May, I was speaking to my fiancé and he told me that he went to
one of my cousin’s homes in Damascus and my uncle was there. Apparently he had
been staying there for over a week.
One
night in mid-May, at 1am in the morning, my uncle was sleeping with this family
in their house when a loud knocking woke him up. He ran to door yelling for who
it is, it was his neighbor that lived a floor below him. My uncle opened the
door and asked quickly what was wrong.
“Pack
up your family and a few things and lets go. There is a taxi waiting for you
downstairs,” he said to my uncle.
“What?
Why?” my uncle responded.
His
neighbor then explained to him, he met up with some of his friend in town
earlier and they were talking about how the rebels (FSA) have started to
threaten they were going to go around killing soldiers living in the area. One
of the guys had turned to my uncles neighbor and said, “Don’t you have a
soldier living in your building?” The friend then continued to asked awkward
questions then left. Another guy sitting with them then followed the neighbor
and quickly told him, “Tell your neighbor to get out that friend of yours is
part of the rebels.”
The
neighbor had called a relative that drove a taxi and told him to be at his
house at 1am to get the family out. He rushed my uncle, his wife, and children
out of the house. They were taken to the taxi driver’s home for the night
inside Damascus. Then the next day my uncle sent his family to our village and
he went to stay at his niece’s house.
Cannot
go back to it and now up for sale. I cry when I think about the great man that
is my uncle and how he has served Syria in the army for over twenty years. And
now he is a target for doing that, his dreams shattered, his family split, and
his future unknown.
A
beautiful country filled with hospitality, promise, and love is now filled with
unrest, death, and little hope. When will this end? And if it ends will WE
SYRIANS be able to forgive each other? Will we be able to forget the blood
spilled and live with each other in peace?
I
hope so, though it will take many, many years.
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