How
a nearly unknown businessman named Khaled al Ahmad became Damascus’
secret liaison to the West and quietly dealt Syria’s grinding war
to a close
by
Rania Khalek
Part
6 - “The problem wasn’t the protests, it was sectarianism”
The
important thing about Hammeh is how organic the reconciliation
process was, with locals working hard to repair the area’s social
fabric through local initiatives spearheaded by young people in
Hammeh, such as the children’s festival organized between Hammeh
and Jebel Wurud.
The
first thing Temkeen did after the reconciliation went into effect was
purchase a building in Hammeh, which they turned into a non-profit
educational institution called Steps Education Center to help fill
the gaps in schooling for kids who couldn’t attend classes during
the fighting as well as job training for adults in software
development, programing, website development, IT, electrical
engineering and cooking. They also hope to use these educational
initiatives to undo the damage from Islamist ideology spread by the
armed groups.
What was
most striking during my visit to Hammeh was the ratio of schools to
mosques. I lost count of the number of mosques after I reached six. I
asked Ebrahim how many schools were in Hammeh. He said five, but that
includes just one high school. This was a noticeable pattern in areas
of Syria that fell to the opposition—the mosques seemed to exceed
the number of schools.
After
2000, when Bashar al Assad took over the presidency following his
father’s death, he relaxed some of the country’s anti-religious
laws and thousands of new mosques were built. A senior official with
the ministry of public record estimated that 10,000 mosques were
built under Bashar. This number does not include the Koran
memorization schools the government sponsored during this time. Many
of these mosques were funded by private donors from outside the
country, mostly from Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Ebrahim
and his friends explained to me the role of the mosques in the
protests that erupted in their town and later the role of foreigners.
When the
uprising began, boys would pour out of the mosques after Friday
prayers to protest after being riled up by their local sheikhs, said
Ebrahim.
“There
were never any problems in Hammeh that I can remember until 2011,”
he said, explaining how the conflict in Hammeh evolved. “When
the protests started here, a lot of young men went out and protested.
They usually went after Friday prayer, the imams encouraged it. The
problem wasn’t the protests, it was sectarianism. Hammeh is Sunni.
There are neighborhoods around it that are Alawite and Shia.”
Ebrahim
continued, “In 2011 it was just harmless protests. But in 2012
it became sectarian. Within 10 days heavy weapons were coming in. In
2012, we also found foreigners here, they started fighting the Syrian
army. There was a Jordanian man living in Hammeh. He fought in Iraq,
then came to Syria and settled here. The Jordanian man played a role
in arming the protests. Then there was the first agreement in
beginning of 2013 for a truce and it lasted two years. We all left
during this time, living outside Hammeh. We didn’t try coming back
because it was too dangerous.”
Ebrahim
fled to Lebanon, got married and then returned to Hammeh in 2015. But
the situation deteriorated again. This time he stayed and joined his
friends in efforts to assist his community. He spoke out against
sectarianism and volunteered with charities that delivered
humanitarian aid.
His
activism angered the Baraa Bin Malek brigade, one of the Islamist
insurgent groups based in Hammeh. Ebrahim had posted a plea on
Facebook to stop the violence and accept different religions, “so
this brigade threatened me, they said I know your father, where you
work.”
Ebrahim
was forced to flee to his grandfather’s house outside of Hammeh but
soon grew tired of hiding out. “After a month, I thought I have
to come back because we have to stop this ideology from spreading. I
thought maybe I can change someone’s mind if I talk to them.”
But the
conditions on the ground made his work impossible.
“There
were two brigades active in Hammeh throughout the conflict. In the
last six months, before the reconciliation, they split into forty
brigades because of infighting,” he recalled. “Each one
had its own particular ideology and each one thought the other wasn’t
religious enough.”
The
rebel groups detained Ebrahim at the beginning of 2016 and
interrogated him. “They accused me of dealing drugs and
spreading an unacceptable ideology and being a kafir (infidel). I
used to have long hair; they made me cut it. I stopped leaving the
house and stopped all activities out of fear. My only contact was
with my family,” he said.
“When
they started the negotiations for reconciliation there was a military
operation in Hammeh,” Ebrahim continued. “That’s when I
was happy, people started to understand and say we don’t want this
terrorist group here. The reason this agreement works here is because
people started to protest against the rebel groups. They demanded the
rebel groups leave. It was the same in Qudsaya. The armed groups
realized the people don’t support them here, that’s why they said
yes to the agreement. They left. After that we were safe, there’s
no rebels anymore. At that time, we became active again and have been
trying to convince everyone to accept other people, to be inclusive.
We started out just four of us. Now there are 40 people in our
organization.”
In 2010,
the population of Hammeh, per the census, was 25,000. The population
now is believed to be even higher given the number of people who have
returned in addition to the internally displaced who have moved to
Hammeh.
In 2016,
the main street of Hammeh was empty. Today it is bustling with cars
and families pouring in and out of local shops. Four of the stores on
this street are owned by women. The boys point out that when the
armed groups were in charge you couldn’t find a single woman
running anything. In fact, women were rarely even seen in public.
Nearby, the sound of children frolicking around a newly reopened
public swimming pool filled the air. Not long ago, the pool served as
a base for a band of insurgents.
***
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