I have just returned from a visit to Syria, about which more later. One of the images I am returning with is an incident in the Sayedah Zeinab Mosque, the shrine of Mohammed’s sister and one of the main pilgrimage sites for Shia pilgrims, an astonishing place of gold and mirror glass and simply hordes of people from Syria, Iraq and Iran . (Incidentally, the very fact that we were allowed, with smiles and encouragement, to enter this place tells you something about the people, who let me to touch and look, something that non-believers are not supposed to do).
In any case, a man approached me and told me that he was a Shia who lived in London but originally came from Southern Lebanon. He was very cheerful and friendly, and , as with everyone we met in Syria, there wasn’t a trace of personal resentment against individual Americans or British people that we could detect. I said I hoped that his family had not been too badly affected by the war against Lebanon last year. He replied that in the first Israeli attack his house (empty) had been completely demolished, and that in the second attack his best friend from childhood, a man with a wife and ten children had been killed outright. " I’ve never been political," he said, "but enough is enough. Now the gloves are off. No hostages from now on. I am thinking seriously of going to Iraq to join the resistance to the occupation." Not surprisingly, he did not distinguish between Israel and the United States. He spoke quietly and conversationally. It was particularly disturbing, coming as it did from a prosperous, middle class and respectable man, who lives in London and cannot be involved in terrorism.
How can followers of Epicurus be indifferent to a tragedy such as this?
Instead of bombing and bullying we should be finding ways of engaging with the moderate Moslems, who just want to live their lives in peace. We should be reducing the illicit support they give to extremists. Instead, we alienate swathes of the population and stoke up resentment and fear. The good thing is, however, that ordinary people can also distinguish between the crass acts of government and ordinary Western visitors (like us), who also want to live in peace. We found an astonishing level of sophistication among the people we met. Thank goodness. they are much more worldly-wise and tolerant than some Americans one could point to.
A moving encounter that must have been. No, Epicureans cannot be indifferent to such useless suffering especially those Epicureans living in countries whose resources are exported to governments which foster irrational and violent policies.
I look forward to hearing more about your trip to Syria. Maybe even some photographs?
I am preparing, for what it’s worth, a short account of our reactions and impressions to Syria, not because in a mere 8 days in a country one can get the measure of it, of course, but because most people are even more ignorant of the country than I am. “Syrians know more of the world than the world knows about Syria”, a quote from an expert who has lived there. I’m going to put the photos on my website and will give the web address in due course.
Needless to say, the official line on Syria from the U.S Government could have been written in Israel and probably was.