A Third Ramadan!

Issue # 74 – Sunday July 21, 2013

A third Ramadan passes by since the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution, bringing a terrible blow for the Syrian people who wagered on a victory of the revolution at the beginning of its first Ramadan. The promises of victory were deferred to Eid Al-Fitr (Festival), then to Eid Al-Adha, then to the following Ramadan and then to Eid Al-Fitr again and again. The Syrian Revolution has entered its 29th month which wiped away, at least among the common folks, any hopes for an imminent victory or of a happy ending that matches up to the accumulated pains over those past months. Fears and presentiments of the future started to fill souls instead as dogmatic, national and political holders begun to divide that future for themselves, whereas the people who aspired to nothing but liberty and dignity, and indeed sacrificed the lives of their young, intellectuals and activists, for their aspirations are helplessly watching. The vision of Ghiath Mattar, Yehya Shurbaji, Mishaal Timmo, Bassel Shihadeh and many many others started to fade with the emergence of Jabhat Al Nusra, Sharia Committees, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and last, but not least, the Kurdish State Project which conforms with the intensifying sectarian divisions. Meanwhile, Syrians are helplessly at loss and unable to express their disappointment and despair.

Let us for a moment stop blaming Assad regime, which proved to be the devil through its crimes and atrocities. Let us acknowledge our responsibilities towards ourselves, we citizens of Syria who foster the environment of all of these divisions and disputes. What justifications do we have for our silence and negligence, or for evading responsibility for guiding the revolution? None will hold before the souls of martyrs, the suffering of detainees, and the dignity of displaced, which has been expropriated in Arab countries. Those of us who are carrying arms must know that no victory will be achieved without unity, agreement, reconciliation, or coordination. It is not with our guns aimed at each other over a flag, a designation, or a national or a religious agenda that we win. Let us acknowledge our responsibilities anew, as media workers, activists, politicians, intellectuals, and religious scholars; for mutual accusations of treason and ambivalent stances lead nowhere! Let us be true to ourselves, and learn from the enemy that is strengthened significantly by our division and further by the unity of its decisions and its aims.