New Threat to the Old City of Damascus?

HT: Indigo Jo

Damascus: A Plan to Destroy Paradise by Rana Kabbani

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UPDATE: I located the source for the original story at the BBC website here. Even though it appears that there IS in fact some bad plan to widen a road, some of the specific claims of the Islamica article I could not verify. I still have my doubts that the plan will ever go forward. In the meantime, I find it ridiculous that they think they can “ease traffic flow” anywhere NEAR the Old City. I’m sorry but if Venice can do just fine without cars, so can the Old City of Damascus. The fact that somebody is considering demolishing history, culture, architecture, graves, masajid, and everything else just to fit in automobile traffic is maddeningly short sighted. Most Syrians don’t own cars anyway. Only the elites do. I’m stopping now….

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As others have pointed out, there is very little evidence in this article to support the claims made.  Most of the article is, as one person on the Syria Comment blog said, “romanticism” about old Damascus. 

I understand where the author is coming from, though.  As her family homes are located in the areas believed to be under threat, it probably means that her family is being pressured to sell their homes and are being told that these are the plans in the works.  Like others, I too have a lot of doubt about whether these plans will actually be carried out.  My MIL has been told for at least 8 years that the entire block of her apartment building in another part of the city was going to be leveled for new construction and that she would get some kind of compensation for it.  Well, it never happened.  Then again, as I mentioned over at Indigo Jo’s, with 1.5 million Iraqi refugees living in and around Damascus, real estate prices in Damascus have literally tripled in the past 5 years.  Dh’s family’s next door neighbors have been pressuring my in-laws to sell their shares of their houses together in yet a third part of the city to a developer.  It seems suspicious and unlikely to me because both houses are deep inside a Hara (not close to a main street) and would be useless to a developer unless they could buy up the entire Hara.   But most of the people in Syria are so poor that when you tempt them with such outrageously high real estate prices, many people are drooling at the idea of selling.   Many contemplate a life in the cheap suburbs– years ago I met a sister from a well-off family from part of the Old City who had sold their bayt arabi “to buy three apartments in the suburbs”.  !!!

What Sr. Rana Kabbani does not mention in her article is that this is not the first time there has been a threat to the Old City, and the last time (I believe in the ’70s) there was a big uproar over it, including major controvery over the way the renovations were undertaken on the Omayyad Mosque.  There has been such a movement to preserve the old houses of Damascus, at least within the Old City walls, that I can’t imagine that any plans will be allowed to slip by unnoticed.  Now if your house is outside the Old City walls (like ours is) that’s another story. 

I also can’t imagine that Iranian pilgrims (who flood Damascus every summer) are considered a more important tourist population than the Western tourists Syria is trying harder and harder to attract.  The Western tourists want to see the Old City and its houses and architecture.  Unfortunately, attracting Western and other non-religious tourists has resulted in the placement of alcohol establishments right outside the door of the Omayyad Mosque. In some ways I guess I should be at least a little happy that they are willing to court the Western tourists with alcohol because it likely means that the international pressure to save the Old City for the tourists with more money to spend will overcome any pressure to accommodate Iranian tourists who doubtless are probably not such big spenders.

Maybe people are pressuring Sr. Rana’s family to sell their houses not because of any development plans but because they want to take the houses and make them into motels and restaurants (many of the old houses are being converted for these uses) and they are being told a story of imminent destruction only as a scare tactic to pressure them.   

They’re Ruining Bab Al-Hara!

 First, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about:

Bab al-Hara is a Syrian drama that started in Ramadhan last year.  It is from the genre of shows that take place in Old Damascus similar to previous shows such as Layaali as-Saalihiyyeh (produced by the same production company, with the same actors in the same set but with different roles and story).   For the episodes of last year’s show, see my blogroll under “Syria”.   I understand that the show is broadcast on one of the MBC channels for those who pay for satellite service.  We receive the free-to-air channels and get  it at (approximately) 3PM and again Midnight EST in the US on the Qatar channel. 

We LOVED the first season of Bab al-Hara.  We have NEVER been people to watch Arabic TV very much, especially not in Ramadhan (okay, except for Hadees al-Maraya later renamed Ushna wa Shifna which is a famous social and political satire show–I don’t see it on this year though, anyone know where it is?) but we stumbled across this show, as did some other religious friends of ours and we were all hooked. 

Unlike its predecessors, and certainly unlike the rest of the shows on Arabic TV these days, Bab al-Hara is about people who are generally inherently good, religious even.  The characters got up for fajr, the men prayed in the masjid together, and as the theme song says they were mostly all men of honor and valor.  Even those who were bad are eventually redeemed– having never before known the name of any Arab actor, I now know the name of Bassam Koosa and I have to say his portrayal of the ultimate redemption of Idashari was quite good.

Of course I would have liked to see more religious references in the show, but of course I know that’s probably too much to ask of secular media with many of the actors and producers being non-Muslim anyway.  For example, when Idashari finally realizes his mistakes and “repents” for them, instead of kneeling on the floor asking God for forgiveness, he is hearing the voices of all the people he hurt and he cries out for them to forgive him.  He says the same to the men before he dies, and only then dies after saying “laa ilaaha illa l-laah”.  The lack of his actual repentance to God really irked me. 

So now on to why they’re totally ruining it this year:

This season, with the Idashari story finished, and apparently the heartwarming story of Zahra and Riyad also finished (Qays ash-Shaykh Najeeb, who plays Riyad,  is not even listed in the credits anymore),  and with the Zaeem murdered in the second episode, I don’t know what the heck the writers are doing but they’ve killed the show.  Is Abu Nar next for redemption?  Who knows.  They’ve made up with him for now but I don’t trust that.  And al-Hamdu li-laah Su`ad and Abu Isam made up and of course are not divorced.  But now Su`ad has gone crazy.  They have turned her from an inherently good person into a petty problem-maker no better than Firyal.  I can’t watch it, it makes me too uncomfortable to watch her dig herself into a hole now that she has some understanding from her husband, cooperation from Lutfiyyeh, and I honestly thought Firyal would come around and stop being mean after her uncle and last living relative the Zaeem died.   Abu Isam, who was previously a bit of a jerk, is now the peacemaker of the Hara and the one who talks sense while his wife is falling apart.  I couldn’t believe it when she told Im Ziky that with her brother as the guy in charge now, she was going to turn the tables on Firyal and “break her big head” while Firyal is threatening to “destroy her [Su`ad's] home” which is Syrian code for “ruin your marriage”.  

In the meantime, Jamileh has developed a crush on the bread delivery guy and I now suspect that the scene during the closing song of Abu Isam beating up a black-haired woman in his house must be related to that story, which means now I have to tape-record and pre-watch every episode before allowing my children (who LOVE the show too– I’ll talk about why it has been important to my children in the next post) to watch it in case they are going to completely spoil the show with some kind of “romantic” impropriety.  Arrgh!!!   I watched this show because the families were good and stable and the threats and problems always came from outside– now the families are becoming unstable from the inside and I can’t bear to watch it. 

We’re also kind of upset with the writers that they made the Zaeem (and everyone else really) be so naiive and stupid.  You KNOW there’s a spy in the Hara, and yet you have top-secret meetings where you discuss things as sensitive as sending money to the resistance fighters in the ghoutah WITH THE DOOR AND WINDOW WIDE OPEN AND STAYF SITTING THERE LISTENING?  Even AFTER you saw his door locked with his cane inside and him not there?  And you know he randomly disappears for days at a time and mysteriously reappears?  And even the ever-vigilant and smart Abu Shaab doesn’t think of this either?  And then you walk around alone at night and pick up the cover of the knife off the ground not thinking that somebody might be sneaking up behind you to kill you?  And when the Zaeem dies his last words are that he was suspicious of “you” (we don’t get to see the face but we all know it’s Stayf) — Okay, if you were supicious then why did you let him sit outside your office hearing top-secret conversations again? 

Ultimately, however, those things don’t bother as much as the fact that I can’t let my children watch the show anymore until I preview it.  As I said I’ll go into more detail about how this particular musalsal has actually had an important role in my childrens’ lives this past year in a separate post inshaa Allah.   I just had to vent my frustration with the show now. 

Culture is Important in an Islamic Upbringing

One of the main issues I want to explore on this website inshaa Allah (if I ever get around to posting– again, no promises!) is the issue of Muslims and culture.  Honestly, I never used to believe this was important until a friend of mine became interested in it herself and started sending me lots of articles and things addressing the issue. 

A little background so you know where I’m coming from:  I was not raised Muslim but I have been Muslim since I was very young, so I have the odd position of feeling like I’ve been Muslim all my life, I “grew up” Muslim in high school and part of middle school, and I’m American in every sense of the word and my family is not Muslim and I was raised with “non-Muslim”, “American” (I won’t sub-divide that into all the American subcultures to which my family belongs as well, but that may come into my discussions at some point) culture and sensitivities. 

As a teenager I spent a lot of time at Muslim youth camps and conferences and leadership seminars and had lots of Muslim friends and still dealt with all the things that “converts” deal with both internally and externally.  One of the things we always heard a lot of at Muslim youth conferences was that we should vote and get involved in the political process here in the US, but at the same time everyone (immigrants, children of immigrants, and people born here) should give up their “culture” because, “we don’t have a culture, Islam is our culture” or “Islam doesn’t have culture”.  At the time and now I still understand the rationale behind these statements:  

One  idea was that we were all trying to unify on what Islam teaches and eliminate any cultural barriers between us (like the infamous divides between Pakistani, Arab, and African-American Muslims) to form a unifed American Muslim community.  

Another idea is that we were trying to separate between the true teachings of Islam and the un-Islamic practices of many Muslim cultures whether it related to odd theological issues like saint worship or women’s rights issues or whatever. 

So my Pakistani friends and my Arab friends were mostly all eager to show that they rejected the culture of their parents (”Arabs don’t speak Qur’anic Arabic, they speak trash Arabic”, “Arabic music and TV are so awful and un-Islamic”, “They have so many haram festivals in Pakistan”, etc.)  and at the same time we were all rejectionist of everything about “American” culture especially as we all experienced it in public high school (”It’s all promiscuity and drinking and smoking and greed and violence”, “Don’t celebrate Halloween because it’s a pagan holiday”, etc).  The problem is we were only talking about the bad parts of each culture and never stopped to think that there might be positive elements of each culture that we could find ways to include in our lives. 

What got lost in the process is the part where a Muslim is allowed to have a cultural identity that at the least does not conflict with Islamic teachings and at its best can complement and strengthen Islamic identity.   I think it has really only been since September 11th that Muslims in America have really started exploring this issue thoroughly and in the open (or at least that’s when I have been seeing it more).  I have been reflecting and thinking about this for a few years, especially now that I am raising children with dual nationalities.  I hope to post thoughts on the issue of dual nationalities, dual languages, and how all that relates to Islamic identity here when I get a chance inshaa Allah.  

In short, I have become convinced that not only is it Islamically beneficial and important (yes you read that right) to have cultural affinities and rituals that are not necessarily religious per se, but that it is in fact necessary as part of raising religiously and socially healthy Muslim children who will grow up to be practicing, religious, Muslims even in a majority non-Muslim country. 

I will expound on this idea more in the future inshaa Allah.

Ramadhan mubarak! 

TheLadyoftheHouse

Welcome to the Arabic House!

Bismi l-laahi r-raHmaani r-raHeem

As-salaamu `alaykum wa raHmatu l-laahi wa barakaatuh!

Welcome to the Bayt Arabi or “Arabic House” blog!  Here I will post relevant information and resources from our family.  We are a Muslim, Syrian-American family (Literally– I’m American and my husband is from Damascus) living in the Southern US, raising and homeschooling 3 gifted children (all girls) and awaiting the birth of our 4th child in late August/early September.  

I intend this  blog with deal with the following issues:

• Islamic Homeschooling
• Giftedness
• Raising Muslim children
• Raising bicultural children
• Raising bilingual children

Unlike my previous blog (for those of you who know me) I won’t talk much about spiritual issues here.  I learned the hard way that spiritual parenting is too controversial a topic and that addressing it puts me at risk.  Instead I’ll be focusing on information and resources about what has worked for us in developing a routine and style of homeschooling that incorporates the best of both our cultures within an Islamic framework.   I can’t promise regular posts here, as I am a busy person with multiple responsibilities, but I’ll do my best to make this blog useful to those who choose to read it. 

wa s-salaam

“The Lady of the House”