I love Syria

What do I love about Syria? I love the land, one of the most spectacularly beautiful countries in the world (and I’ve visited many of them). I love walking our lovely beaches, get over our mountains, seeing the desert skies, walking beside the rivers, swimming and sailing in Lattakia’s sea! my beloved Syria “O very beautiful for vast skies, for amber wavering grain, for mountain majesties, above the fruited farms.” I love our many diverse cultures, including their music, their food, their art, their sports, and their particular stories and histories.

I especially love our best national values: freedom, opportunity, community, justice, human rights, and equality under the law for all of our citizens of every race, creed, culture, and gender, not just for the rich and powerful.

Two and half years ago Syria was a very beautiful and peaceful place. The mosques call to prayer and the peal of church bells mingled above the buildings of Syria, the world’s oldest continually inhabited capital city, where Syrians liked to boast that Christians and Muslims, as well as people from other sects, they lived side by side in peace and love. People bustled through the markets. Women could stay out safely alone past midnight. Men played backgammon on the pavements with their neighbors, young men played rummy with their friends, even the children they could play safely in the streets. The Syrian accent, spread through the region by the country’s soap operas and drama, conveyed hospitality and simplicity to fellow Arabs.

Syrians take pride in their colorful history. Ancient buildings fill the landscape in old Damascus, from crusader castles to the exquisite Umayyad Mosque, the architectural masterpiece of an empire centered on Damascus that once stretched through north Africa and up into Spain.

I think millions of people, who came to our country have visited Al-Hamidiyah Souk, which is the largest and the central Souk in Syria, it is one of the most important milestones of ancient and modern Damascus where many historical events took place, hundreds of years ago making it a tourist attraction and a very famous market at the same time. I want to ask the millions of Arabs who visited this Souk, if you have forgotten all the beautiful things in our country, can you forget this special Souk, or the prayer in the Umayyad Mosque?.

 Before this crisis in my country, I used to go with my friends, not only to buy things, or to pray in the Umayyad Mosque, but also to watch the hundreds of people, who came from all around the world, specially to this Souk, you know, when we came back home, we feel as if we were in a journey around the world.

Where once you arrive in the souk, you can hear the voices of sellers welcoming its visitors and attracting them to their two-story shops spreading along the two sides of the road separated by archeological pillars decorated with luminous lamps. While you are passing through the souk, you can imagine an aesthetic picture encompassing all the values and elements of enthusiasm and suspense inspired by the alleys of the market which have different names according to the commodity they are specialized in selling. Some of the most important commodities of the market are the oriental artifacts such as mosaic paintings, copper tools, al-Aghabani (a type of cloth), silk, Arab carpets and others.

The people of Syria were also as mosaic paintings, they were the most wonderful treasures featured in around the world.

Did you remember the Umayyad Mosque, where you prayed after your visit to the Souk, I want you to pray with me now, for peace in Syria:

Our God, you witness the war in Syria, we beg you to bring peace to our beloved country, we pray for all who are working for peace, for all the leaders in the world, who hold a thread of control and power, for the religious leaders, to help the citizens who want peace and love.

We beg you God to bring unity to Syrians, to save their country from destruction, to bring reconciliation through truthful dialogue.

Oh my God, we witness now struggles within families, after we were all one family, we pray for the divided family in Syria, to put their hands together to build Syria.

We beg you God to replace love and compassion, in those who have darkened minds, and those who have hate-filled their hearts.

We pray in the name of God, our source of inspiration and confidence, our source of light and love.  Amen.

Butheina Al-Nounou