Possibilities of the Syrian revolution.

It has turned out far worse than we had imagined. I though that when this started, things would be over very soon and I would be able to visit Syria within months, without having to fear whatever bastard's bad mood at airport security.

It has turned very bloody indeed. The regime is now attacking and shelling Damascus and Aleppo, after having subjected the rest of the country to murderous repression. They are willing to turn an entire country to fire and ash.

I know that Assad's end is coming, although when that will be is not clear. Unfortunately, what comes next will be very difficult. From the smaller Jihad to the greater one. However, I wish to strike a note of optimism, no matter how hopeless things seem now.

In the minute-by-minute updates, be it on social media, newspapers or news channels, something has been lost. It is no doubt viewed by many outside of the Middle East as yet another blood-stained chapter in the region's history. I imagine many also feel that the region's problems are due to complex forces that are difficult to understand or untangle.

Whereas, say two generations ago, Syria figured much more strongly in people's imagination (at least in the West) due to its essential importance in the history of early Christianity, current secularisation has relegated the Levant in popular imagination to just another Arab backwater.

It has never been a backwater.

As one writer put it, the coastal ports of Syria served as its link with the wider Meditteranean, while its "desert ports" would recieve the winds blowing all the way from Central Asia, India and China. It lies at the juncture of three continents and ecological zones - No doubt its position, with an overlap of peoples, ideas and abundance of food contributed to it becoming the Cradle of Civilization.

I wonder what it must be like for other Arab countries. Syria has ancient ties simultaneously to the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, as well as bearing host to a diverse array of people, be it inhabitants or travellers. I have Armenians, Kurds, Assyrians and Circassians in my cultural frame of reference that, say, an Egyptian or Yemeni would not. Syria is also important in early Islamic history, with many Muslim pilgrims visiting it from all over the Muslim world.

The point is this. Whatever happens in Syria will reverberate far and beyond our borders. While the average person on the street doesn't recognise this, foreign diplomats do. Much as they would all love to intervene to sway things in their favour, however, the potential disastrous complications that would result stays their hand.

But even the diplomats are blind. Chuang Tzu once said that the final stage of human degeneracy was the development of politics. They are only interested in what they can secure in their "national interest". I can assure you, they don't give a flying fuck about us or our martyrs.

Some journalists have cottoned on to this. Here's Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian:

"It's an optimistic prognosis for a region that could be about to explode in bloody violence. But the fate of Syria will be decisive either way. If Assad holds on, then the Arab awakenings of 2011-12 will only ever have been a partial success. But if the Syrian rebels succeed, they will have achieved a sweeping victory. They will have effected a revolution without the full-blown foreign intervention required in Libya and more completely than in Egypt, where the security apparatus remains in place. That the revolt will have taken so long may even be a sign of strength, proving a depth and resilience that overnight insurrections elsewhere could not match."

Or Rami Khouri

"This leads me to conclude that the bigger story that links Syria with the other Arab uprisings and recent Middle Eastern developments is that the will and actions of indigenous Arabs, Iranians and Turks will always have a greater impact than anything done by powers abroad. The striking inability of the Americans, Russians and their assorted allies to shape events in Syria follow similar serial failures in recent decades in their attempts to promote Arab-Israeli peace, democratic transformations, economic trajectories or other such strategic issues.

Only when local people across the Middle East took matters into their own hands did conditions change, and history resume. The sentiments of ordinary people such as those in Bab al-Hawa, Midan, Deir al-Zor and Deraa are far more significant that the pronouncements of the world’s powers. The sooner we learn this lesson, the better off we will all be."

What is mentioned above by these two commentators is right. But I wish to draw attention to something else.

Syria is now undergoing a tremendous crisis, straining our society to breaking point. I do not doubt that the struggle to rebuild our country will be very difficult. However, something wonderful indeed may come out of all this. Syria is tremendously diverse, yet mostly conservative and religious. If a society such as this can be at the brink of the abyss and be able to pull itself back, then the ramifications could last for a very, very long time.

Europe tore itself apart in the wars of the Reformation, no doubt contributing to its subsequent secularisation in part. It's a very common theme, in Europe at least, that religion divides peoples and foments violence and strife. I wonder sometimes that perhaps the notion of objective truth itself has been devalued as a result of this (Postmodernism - the refuge of self-righteous anti-imperialists), with the idea that perhaps any idea held too strongly held can lead to murderous violence.

If our revolution succeeds, and we do not collapse into sectarian civil war, then from now on, when history books are written, I would hope that the Syrian uprising be the thing that gives lie to the above secular viewpoint. We can say to others that we succeeded where Europe failed. That we can hold the deepest faith while refusing to descend into mindless violence. That the Humanism inherent in the Semitic narrative of Adam and Eve will not be smothered by stupidity, anger and pain.

One cannot deny that sectarianism is taking root in Syria, owing to the regime's deliberate efforts in combination with the short-sighted support of the openly religious leaders of Iran and Hizbullah. If extremist militants are indeed present in Syria, there is the future risk of bombings and attacks against minorities (particularly the Alawites). Despite all this, I remain optimistic. We have undergone a trauma which may have pushed less resilient nations into much more savage violence. I hope that in the midst of such savagery, we remember who we are, and Syria will prevail.

Khalil Gibran

" The man who enjoys neither hostility to evil nor support of what is good, will not know how to destroy what is evil in himself nor safeguard what is good.

I love him who was crucified by the moderates. When he bent his head and closed his eyes, certain among them said, as though comforted: 'At last this dangerous extremist is no more'

And I love those who have been sacrificed by fire, excecuted by the guillotine for a thought that invaded their heads and enflamed their hearts.

I love you, O extremists, you who are nourished by unfathomable ardours. Each time I raise my glass, it is your blood and your tears that I am drinking.

And each time I look through my window at the sky, it is your faces that I see.

And when a storm rises, it is your singing and your praises that I hear"