RELIGION, TOLERANCE IN SYRIA
AND BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE
By: Hind Kabawat

Copyright 2007 © All rights reserved. Designed By: Mays Domat

1926  photo in Damascus with near the Government House with Muslims, Christians and Jews.

But before I outline what I perceive to be a more balanced picture of Syrian society let me begin with one important caveat.
Tonight I address you as a Syrian national with a deep and abiding love for my country and its ancient culture;

I do not come here tonight to represent the interests, or point of view, of the government of Syria. Indeed, I am a reformer who is committed to peaceful change in my country and a member of a Civil Society in Syria.

Let me begin, first, with the whole issue of the role of religion and religious tolerance in Syria, specifically, and the Middle East, in general.
Too many people view the region as one of narrow-minded bigotry animated by deep antagonisms between Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Nothing could be further from the truth and I know from personal experience. My family are Christians and have been for hundreds of years. Not far from my  home in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited  city in the world, near one of the gates leading into the quarter, is the Chapel of St. Paul, the very site where Saint Paul was lowered in a basket after his so-called "Damascene" conversion to Christianity.  So you can see the Christian presence in my country goes back to Biblical days. And Christians have endured, even thrived, ever since, despite the emergence centuries later of Islam as the dominant religion in the country.

As an example of just how they much they thrived, let me give you an anecdote. Awhile back friend of mine Dr. Sami Moubayed gave me a historical textbook, which is sort of an early (1920) Who's Who in what was then French-controlled Syria. In it there are small profiles of the leading figures of the period in business, government, culture, education and religion. Amazingly, individuals from all major religious groups were represented: Muslims, Christians and Jews. For instance, there was Fares Khoury a Christian Prime Minister, Catholic, Orthodox Priest and the Jewish Rabai of Damascus.

Such diversity and religious tolerance squares with other  more anecdotal evidence.

Although almost everyone in the West believes that most Arabs and all Syrians are hostile to Jews and Jewish interests, nothing could be further from the truth. And that Western "bias" certainly doesn't square with the historical record.
Again, as a resident of the Old City of Damascus, I can tell you that Jews, like Christians, lived in this lively engaging community, in their own Jewish Quarter, peacefully and prosperously for a millennia. Indeed, while most European societies were practicing one form of exclusion or another on Jewish people, the "Children of the Book," as Muslims call them,  enjoyed great freedom and tolerance in Syria. Under the Ottomans, all religious minorities were treated fairly as long as they accepted the dominant role of Islam in the culture.
Arguably there was significantly more religious tolerance in the Muslim Middle East than there was in Christian Europe for hundreds of years. Indeed, Catholics did not even receive the franchise, the right to vote, in England, the motherland of democracy, until the mid-19th century. And we all know what terrible fate befell Jews, Gypsies, Catholic Poles, etc at the hands of Germans as late as the mid-20th century.

So, I would argue the historical record in the Muslim and Arab world for the greater part of the 19th and 20th  century was quite good. And in many fundamental respects, superior to the record in Europe during the same period. It is this Ottoman legacy upon which the contemporary Syrian commitment to religious tolerance is built.

Which brings me to the present moment. The Baathist government in today's Syria enjoys few friends in present-day Washington. Now I am no apologist for the entire record of the Baathist government but on one very important file, religious tolerance, they have an noteworthy record. From  his first days as the leader of Syria, Hafez al-Assad was committed to making Syria an officially secular society, which many in the West would argue is one of the fundamental preconditions for the development of a democratic society. In contemporary Syria, all religious groups enjoy the rights to practice their religion independent of government interference or control. And indeed, with the emergence of the Christian right in the US, I would argue that the historically important separation of Church and State is under more danger here, on the banks of the Potomac, than ancient land of the Assyrians.

So believe me when I tell you, as a Christian, indeed as an Evangeslist, that religious tolerance is alive and well in Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia. But skeptics might respond, what about the Syrian government's long standing  antipathy toward  Israel. Well, this is a complex and delicate issue. But it is, fundamentally, a political issue. As I argued, earlier, Syria's historical record viz a viz its Jewish minority, I believe, is as good, if not better, than most societies in Europe and North America. But frankly, there are many outstanding and complicated political and territorial issues between Israel and Syria, which have nothing to do with religion. Let us not forget that Syria remains an occupied country. And has been for over four decades.

Let us be fair and even-handed here. (I believe that if Israel withdrew from the Golan there would be a Syrian embassy in Jerusalem and an Israel embassy in Damascus in short order.) I have never been a supporter of a Syrian military presence is Lebanon. But, at least, initially and under the blessing of the United States and the International community we entered that country to prevent a sectarian genocide-and I think we succeeded in no small part. But there is no question our role, in this regard, long ago ended. And I, like many Syrians, applaud the decision of our government to withdraw from our neighbour. And I hope a new "culture of peace" will  now emerge in our relations between ourselves and our Levantine neighbour. With no interference what's so ever in their society.

Hind speaking at the talk

So let's assume the Syria/Lebanon issue will shortly be normalized. The next big issue then becomes this: Can a "culture of peace" emerge between Syrian and Israel, in particular, and Israel and the Arab world, in general. Call me crazy, but I really do not believe it has much to do with religious intolerance. To repeat my earlier  point, for most of the last two or three hundred years, there was much greater religious tolerance in the Arab/Muslim world than the Christian West. Thanks, perhaps, to the enlightened statecraft of the Ottomans. The heightened sectarianism, which has characterized the Arab world in recent years, is something of an aberration.

So maybe I am an optimist, but I truly believe a "new culture of peace" can emerge  between the Jews and Muslims, Christians Arabs and Israelis if we can summon the courage to overcome some very vexing and, to date at least,  intractable problems.

Probably the first item on the agenda is to break the cycle of  name-calling and blaming. Not long ago I was talking with my friend, Margaret Scobie, the US Ambassador to Syria, and she quite correctly noted that the time has come for some "Dramatic Gesture," like Sadat's famous trip to Jerusalem, or dare I say, Richard Nixon's trip to China in the early 1970s. Back then, it was argued that only a longstanding anti-Communist like Nixon could reframe the relationship between China and the West. Perhaps it is time the leaders of Syria and Israel to reprise this historic rapprochement.

The great irony about the whole relationship between religion and a culture of peace is that all the faiths in the region-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-have common roots and are all based upon a ethic of forgiveness and compassion.
I honestly believe that a constructive approach for the United States is to work with those Syrians, both in the government and out of the government, who believe in peace, in religious tolerance in a New Middle East. The Americans know who we are, and I believe they know that my President is an ally in this, Support him! Help us on the tough road to peace and coexistence with our neighbors, especially by allowing us to prosper and become strong. I know this is hard, that American strongly dislikes what some Syrians citizens have done. But look at the rest of us! Do not punish a whole country for the actions of a few! Give us a chance to build an alliance together in the search for a just solution to our problems and Palestinians problems with Israel and with the region.  We can do it togethers peacefully, but if we move forward as as enemies them truly extremist forces could take over my country, some religious and some secular.  Let's move together forward as allies, Come and visit us, visit our great Syria, and see this great loving nation.

I believe the time has come for all parties, Jews, Muslims and Christians, to "walk the talk," and truly create a culture of peace and compassion and forgiveness.

Once Pope John Paul II said" Let's build bridges not walls"
Enough is enough.  Let us end this tragic cycle of violence for our children's future.
Thank you for your time.

April 14, 2005
George Mason University
The Center of World Religious Arlington VA. U.S.A