Syrien – ein sehr langer Text und alles Englisch

aber er ist jede Minute wert.

Dave ist ein protestantischer Nordire, der 14 Monate in Syrien syrisches Arabisch lernte. Auf Harry’s Place berichtet er in neun Folgen von seinen Erlebnissen und Einsichten.

Nur ein paar kleine Kostproben:

Where do I even begin? How am I even going to be sure people will believe me?

It’s going to be very frustrating. For example, dating could get a bit weird.

“Dave, I hear you spent over a year in Damascus. So what’s it like out there?”

How am I going to answer that one honestly without scaring her?

It’s times like this that I wish I was Jewish. At least then there’d be someone I could talk to when I get home. Someone who’d listen to me without resorting to moral equivalence or trying to pin the blame of the world’s evils on Israel and America for the simple reason that’s what you do if you’re part of the left.

I should know. I used to do exactly the same thing. That’s going to be hard to deal with. I fear I may end up losing some friends over this.

(Aus Folge 9)

I have no idea how the West views Syria.

I guess the general view is that it’s a secular state that’s acting to stem the tide of Islamic fundamentalism in the area. The reality is way more complicated than that. The longer you stay there, the more you notice that radical Islam is actually being used as both a domestic and foreign policy tool by the Ba’athists.

Of course if radical Islam attempts to overthrow the government then it is ruthlessly crushed, as anybody over the age of 30 from Hama can attest. On the other hand if you can mobilize radical Islam to serve your interests and keep you in power then this can work to your advantage on many levels.

It’s understood that attacking Israel using conventional military methods is suicide– so use a proxy. Get Hezbollah to do it from another country, so when Israel retaliates it doesn’t retaliate against you.

You keep the Islamic fundamentalists busy by giving them the opportunity to vent their grievances by fighting in Iraq against the common enemy, America, which as everybody knows from reading the opinion pieces in the newspapers Tishreen, Ath-Thawra and Al-Ba’ath is in fact run by the Jews.

As long as Israel exists and America has a presence in Iraq you can mobilize radical Islamic discontent in that direction, thus letting you off the hook. But you keep a tight reign on the radicals by specifically recruiting them via the Abu Qa’qa mosque in Allepo. Anybody who attempts to enter Iraq independently in order to fight is arrested and punished.

(Aus der 8. Folge)

We were watching Nancy laughing with Bashar Al Assad. Then we watched Walid Mualm (foreign minister) and Farouq Ash-Sharra (vice president) showing Nancy around the Hamadia market in the old town followed by a visit to the Ummiyiad mosque.

My mate and I were both shouting at the screen: “Nancy! Ask them to take you to a bookshop! Have a look and see what’s in there!” But she didn’t hear us.

She also didn’t hear us when we shouted, “Ask to go to the Abu Qa’qa mosque in Allepo! It’s the one where they recruit the Sunni Jihadists to fight in Iraq! Everybody knows about it!”

(…)

My friend looked at the screen in disgust. “I fear she’ll go back to the USA and stress how important it is to have dialogue with this bunch of thugs. Yet at the same time they’re sending people to kill US soldiers and Iraqis next door. Just because they’re charming and hospitable it doesn’t make it OK.”

I noticed that a lot myself. People will use charm to cover or disguise their bigotry. They’ll be incredibly friendly, will offer you tea, food, etc. Then the conversation will turn to why the West is against them and why so much of the media reporting of the Middle East is negative. Or they may talk about the powerful Jewish lobby in the USA and how it influences and manipulates US foreign policy.

(Aus Folge 5)

So I get back to Damascus and give a friend a copy of “Terror and Liberalism”. I see him a week later and he’s as white as a sheet. He tells me having read the book he’s so angry he hasn’t been able to sleep. He’s spitting with rage. “I knew they [the Ba’athists] were fascists! I knew it! I just had no idea just how fascist they actually were.”

Later on he passes it to a friend who takes it to a place that copies banned books. He’s careful not to get caught. He jokes about getting arrested for possession and distribution of a banned substance.

Another time I’m at a friend’s house for dinner. The doorbell rings but he’s not expecting anybody. He freezes with fear.

“Hide the books! It could be the intelligence services! Quick! Behind the wardrobe!”

He opens the door, fortunately its just children messing around. I can see him visibly melt with relief.

(Aus Folge 4)

“David, there’s a saying in Syria. It goes ‘one officer in the Syrian army can walk over the border into Iraq and take over a third of the county in just a day’.”

“What do you mean?”

“We know how the Iraqis think. We’re Arabs just like them. We know the mentality. How do you think Syria won Lebanon when everybody else pulled out? The Americans pulled out, the multinational forces pulled out– hell, even the Israelis and those boys know how to fight a war! Not only did we take over Lebanon, but we were asked to. If you want to understand what’s happening in Iraq now, look at Lebanon 20 years ago. Syria played a waiting game. Pitted one side against the other until all sides were exhausted. Then presented itself as the solution and took over Lebanon under the auspices of the Taif Accord. The west is naïve if it doesn’t realise the same thing is happening right now in Iraq. Hafiz played you for fools then, Bashar is doing exactly the same thing right now.”

Then he said something that hit me like a punch to the face:

“You know what pisses me off the most? Not the fascists here. But the appeasers in the West. What sort of message is that sending to us? Those of us who want some reform, who want our children to live in an open society like you have in the West? The US Congress is divided on the Iraq war. The rulers of this place are laughing, they know it’s a waiting game. They’ve done it before. Like I said, this isn’t anything new for them. They did it in Lebanon. They’ll do it again in Iraq.”

Normally I got annoyed if people spoke to me in English. But I learned more in talking to Farouq and Zahiir than in the previous 10 years listening to so-called experts on the Middle East.

(Aus Folge 2)

Kanan Makayia famously described Iraq under Saddam as The Republic of Fear.

Syria under Bashar Al-Assad is slightly more subtle; it’s best described as The Republic of Paranoia.

The paranoia is everywhere. You feel it, you can practically taste it. Everyone feels as if they’re being watched. At all times and at all places.

See those pictures of Bashar everywhere? On the streets, on people’s cars, in the restaurants, outside the Barada sports club, above the Tishreen Stadium swimming pool, etc. They’re saying, “We’re watching you mate”.

Syria’s a strange place. Nothing is as it seems. Nothing. On the surface everything’s fine, people are friendly and very hospitable, everything looks pretty much Western: clothes, food, music.

But as soon as you go under the surface, especially when you punch a hole through the language barrier, you enter a Bizarro-Land where the rules have changed but nobody will tell you. Where reality and logic cease to exist and it seems as if everyone turns into Muhammad As-Sahaf (Saddam’s information minister), denying what’s in front of them.

(Aus Folge 1)