On the road in Syria

Middle East/N.Africa — By Bob Riel on June 25, 2007 at 12:17 pm

Perhaps the most famous religious conversion in history happened on the road to Damascus. Yesterday, the NY Times published a travel article entitled “The Road Back to Damascus.” The gist of the story by Seth Sherwood is that the Syria seen by travelers is actually an interesting and incredibly friendly country, in contrast to the general image most people have of the place because of its authoritarian government.

An excerpt:

As I discreetly tried to photograph a Damascus sidewalk stand of militant Islamic religious posters – including the Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his Kalashnikov-toting guerrillas – I looked around and realized that the young, rough-shaven salesman had spotted my camera.

“Where you from?” he said, in English, as women in headscarves battled for plastic shoes from an adjacent sidewalk dealer.

“New York,” I answered, lowering my lens and awaiting a tirade against my country – or worse. Instead, he broke into a smile.

“New York, great city!” he said. “Ahlan wa sahlan bi Sham.”

Ahlan wa sahlan bi Sham: Welcome to Damascus. During a weeklong visit in May – during which I explored the Old City of Damascus (including its proliferating nightclubs), the Silk Road bazaars of Aleppo and the ruins of ancient Palmyra – unexpected welcomes seemed to erupt from every corner of this ancient nation of Bronze Age, Classical, Biblical and Islamic history. No matter where I was or whom I encountered, local greetings were never long in coming.

Though most Americans might be wary of sojourning in a country whose authoritarian government stands accused of some serious charges – financing Hezbollah, allowing foreign fighters into neighboring Iraq and assassinating the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri – a week among the regular citizens of Syria and its cultural riches is eye-opening.