2 April 2011

Frday

Dispatch from Damascus

4/2/11 Amina A.

Everyone here knew that Friday was going to be the ‘big’ day and the day that we hoped we’d learn the answers to many questions. Who speaks for Syria: the President or the Opposition? Will reform and liberalization happen? Are we facing a downward spiral towards civil war?

Wednesday, President Assad had addressed the Nation for the first time since the beginning of the crisis. He’d expressed regret over the deaths of protesters though phrased in very much a ‘mistakes were made by both sides’ manner; the Police had overreacted but to what he claimed was violence initiated by both sides. He claimed that most of the protesters were genuine and patriotic but misguided by an element of foreign backed conspirators against our country. The promise of a lift of the Emergency Laws and other reforms that we’d heard earlier seemed to vanish in a blaze of cheers and applause for Assad.

We in the liberalization movement were dismayed, to say the least. Our hopes seemed to have been dashed and we knew that we’d need to rally to push harder. While he hadn’t gone as far as some foreign media characterized him and said no to reform, he hadn’t gone much of anywhere. It was as if the last few weeks hadn’t happened.

Friday came and with it anticipation of what would happen. I live in the Old City of Damascus and, when the time neared for Jumaa Prayers, my father and I walked together towards the ancient Umayyad Mosque, the center of Islam in Syria. As we neared, we saw that there were security personnel and Assad supporters all around the area. We conferred and we decided that it would be best if he'd go in but that I would go somewhere else instead. He had the sense that things might get ugly there and, though I am no child (I’m 35), if things got ugly, he didn’t want to see me groped or worse by police. At the same time, he decided to go in as he has many strong contacts in the regime; he was in government years ago himself while many in our family are well known. If things got especially ugly, he reasoned, he could play the role of negotiator and defuse a situation. He has served in the past as a line of communication between disparate parties here (what can I say – my father is a well respected and compassionate man who always sees the best in everyone and people who know him know that. Heck, he accepts me as I am and has never doubted me even in my most unusual decisions!)

As it turned out, perhaps we should have done the opposite of what we did do. He went into the mosque and, so he said later, the service went ahead even if the tension was thick enough to be cut by a knife. Afterwards, when the worshippers came out, the government supporters were chanting in favor of the regime, waving flags and pictures of the president. There was shouting and even some shoving but after perhaps fifteen minutes, the crowds dispersed. He went back home with some friends of his and they spent the afternoon playing backgammon and drinking tea.

Meanwhile, I had headed south and out of the Old City; one of my friends in the opposition had texted me that she was at Rifai's mosque as were a lot of other oppositionists. So I made my way there, making sure as I did that my scarf was tied tightly over my head. I passed more government supporters and many more police before getting there just before prayers began. I slipped out of my shoes and, having already made ablutions, proceded to the women’s area. Looking around as I did so, I recognized quite a few faces of women who have been in the protest movement from the beginning, faces I wouldn’t normally expect to see in mosque on a Friday (not to name names, but there were Christians and Druze women as well as Muslims there!). I knew I had come to the ‘right’ place.

When the service was finished, there were calls from the men’s area for freedom and of the takbir. We were talking of where we should march to from the mosque as the first people tried to leave. The military, however, had surrounded the mosque while we were praying and, now, wouldn't let us out. Some did get out but they were beaten by the police with batons. I don’t know how many were able to get out but, inside, we heard the ‘Pop! Pop!’ of gunfire. They were using rubber bullets and no one was killed there.

We were locked inside almost all day. Inside, intense discussions were had about the future, not just the next few days but what we want to see from a New Syria. Among us were liberals, democrats, Arab and Syrian nationalists, members of the Muslim brotherhood, even some communists and disillusioned Baathists! The atmosphere though was one of unity and hope and free exchange of ideas, things uncommon here. We spoke of our desires for the new society we hope to see emerge from all of this. The slogan that we developed and we all quickly adopted was 'the People of Syria are One!' and chants of that message of unity echoed among us. Eventually, after darkness had fallen, the regime pulled back and let us leave. I returned home exhausted from the day.

Inside the mosque, we had followed the news from elsewhere. In Dera’a, there were thousands marching in protest against the regime and its crackdown there; all over the south, in the villages and smaller towns, the movement had spread and the whole regime seems to have taken to the streets. And there was shooting down there. In Duma, an outer suburb of Damascus, there were sharpshooters posted on buildings’ roofs who had fired into the crowds and provoked the police. Who they were is unclear; rumor claims many things. Further north, in Homs, thousands on each side had clashed in the streets. In Latakia and Baniyas, there were more protests and more violence.

From beyond the borders, there was repeated on al-Jazeera a press conference of the Muslim Brothers in Istanbul, calling for the government to step back and to reform. Turkey, a country that has grown much closer to Syria over the past few years, had pressured the regime to liberalize while Iran, long an ally but with fading influence, has pushed for a crackdown. From the US, mixed messages have come; some American senators – like Joe Leiberman and John Kyl – have all but called for a US invasion of Syria, something that would be the worst possible thing for the cause of reform as no one here wants that. Others in the administration are more restrained.

We don’t know what happens next; we are apprehensive about the future but, I believe, all of us, whether for a more democratic Syria or supporters of the regime want some of the same things: a better, stronger, more prosperous Syria and a united one. We do not want a civil war or a foreign invasion.