In November 2015 I traveled to Syria with an
International Peace delegation. This was my third visit to Syria in the last
three years. As on previous occasions, I was moved by the spirit of
resilience and courage of the people of Syria. In spite of the fact that
for the last five years their country has been plunged into war by
outside forces, the vast majority of the Syrian people continue to go about
their daily lives. Many have dedicated themselves to working for peace and
reconciliation and the unity of their beloved Syria. They struggle to
overcome their fear, the fear that Syria will be driven by outside interference
and destructive forces within, to suffer the same terrible fate of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Yemen, and so many other countries.
Many Syrians are traumatized and in shock. They
ask, “How did this happen to our country?” Proxy wars are something they
thought only happened in other countries. But now, Syria, too, has been turned
into a war-ground in the geo-political landscape controlled by the western
global elite and their allies in the Middle East.
In Syria our delegation saw that Christian and
Muslim relationships can be more than mutual tolerance. They can be deeply
loving. We also met numerous people on the streets of town and cities—Sunni,
Shia, Christian, Alawite—all of whom feel that their voices are ignored and
under-represented in the West. The youth we met expressed the desire to see a
new state which will guarantee equality of citizenship and religious freedom to
all religious and ethnic groups, and protection of minorities. They said this
was the work of the Syrian people, not outside forces, and could be done
peacefully.
Few Syrians we met were under the illusion that
their elected leader President Assad was perfect, yet many admired him and felt
he was much preferred to the alternative of the government falling into the
hands of the Jihadist fighters – fundamentalist extremists whose ideology
would cause the minorities (and moderate Sunnis) to flee Syria or get killed. This
had already been experienced with the exodus of thousands of Syria.
During the candlelight meeting, we heard how
Christians and Muslims in the town had been instrumental in getting the
fighters to lay down their arms and accept the Syrian government’s offer of
amnesty. They appealed to us to ask the international community to end
the war on Syria and support peace.
Our delegation was particularly sad that day as we
heard the news that the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury had publicly
announced his support for the U.K. vote to bomb Syria.
We also visited the Christian Town of Maaloula,
where the language of Jesus—Aramaic—is spoken. It is one of the oldest
Christian towns in the Middle East. We visited the Church of St.
George, where the priest explained how, after their church was burned to the
ground by Western- backed rebels, and many Christians were killed, the people
of Maaloula carried a table to the ruins of the church, offered prayers, then
started to rebuild their church and homes. If the situation is not stabilized
in Syria and the Middle East, there will be few Christians left.
The overall Middle East has witnessed the tragic
and virtual disappearance of Judaism, and this tragedy is now happening at an
alarming rate to Christians. I call upon all American and European
citizens to demand that their governments stop bombing Syria, end their
violence, listen to the voice of peace from the suffering Syrian people and
actively pursue nonviolent ways to end conflict and suffering in Syria.
Nonviolence can still work in Syria. There can be a
nonviolent solution to war and violence in Syria. There is hope and Syria is a
light to the world because there are many good people there working for
dialogue, negotiations, reconciliation and peace.
This is where the hopes lie and we can all support
that hope and those pursuing nonviolent solutions by rejecting violence and war
in Syria. [Abridged]
Mairead
Maguire
won the 1976
Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland. Her book, The
Vision of Peace, has a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a preface by the Dalai Lama
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/27/we-must-demand-nonviolent-solution-war-and-violence-syria?key=48704280
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