Living In Dignity
Sheikh Tawfiq was a shepherd. He sold his flock of one hundred sheep. And he used the profit made from the transaction to buy weapons. And then he recruited a brigade of men. His soldiers were civilians, teachers, students. When they greet him, coming on duty, it is with affection, hugging him, kissing his cheeks.Sheikh Tawfiq does a lot of smiling. His men have given him that title: Sheikh. He is obviously involved in a calling. He is doing, has committed himself to doing what he feels what must be done, at this time and this place. He has a long wiry beard, and he never overlooks the necessity to look to his prayers.
They began their collaborative dedication to doing their part to liberate Syria from the Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad close to the Turkish border. And then they slowly advanced through Aleppo's rural spaces to finally reach the city. Now they're on the front line of the city.
"We have been oppressed, prevented from thinking freely or living with dignity", said Sheikh Tawfiq. No one could possibly find fault with that simple statement and the implication behind it that they have taken their destiny into their own hands, to undo that which fate has meted out to them up to now, under this regime.
They will no longer be oppressed. They will think and live as they wish, henceforth. Or die in the trying. It is obvious that this seems a fair and just enough exchange as far as they are concerned. They appear to be in fairly good humour, intent on what they wish to accomplish, and determined to accomplish what they're so very intent upon.
It is their right. "I was fired from my job as a teacher eight months ago because someone snitched that I was an opposition supporter", one man said, keeping his name to himself.
"I got sick of teaching children things that I didn't believe in - about the Baath party, grammar rules using only the names Bashar or Maher in the examples. We need our freedom."
They're perfectly right. They do. They deserve their freedom. What will become of it if and when others take this opportunity to forward their own agendas? The infiltration of those affiliated with al-Qaeda, the Salafists, those passionately righteous jihadis moving in over the border to join the rebellion?
And those living among them as Syrians, who represent the Muslim Brotherhood.
Do they think that under these alternative scenarios, when they play out as they eventually will, but to no one's current understanding, that they will finally be within reach of their fairly modest goal, to achieve freedom?
Labels: Islamism, Political Realities, Revolution, Syria, Traditions, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 04, 2012
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