BLOGS

 

 

This is the story of tragedy number 42,049 that recently was forced upon my brother-in-law, his 3 year old son and his 6 year old daughter in Damascus (A video has been provided, however, the source has been deleted from the web). 

 

 

On November 11th our life was abruptly interrupted by news of our own fallen hero. Shadi and Mu'ath's mother had been searching news and YouTube videos when she came across a video calling for someone to identify an ID-less martyr. Once she watched the video, she was horrified to recognize the lifeless corpse as her devoted, loving son Mu’ath. Mu'ath was a civilian, innocent and unarmed. He was randomly pulled over and his car, money and ID were stolen. His hands were bound together and he was shot in the back of the head. Mu’ath was left on the highway in the most inhumane manner.

 

 

My mother-in-law herself was lucky enough to have survived the massacre in Daraya (the worst massacre in the conflict thus far which was covered in a documentary by Al Jazeera). She and her daughter escaped their building about fifteen minutes before it was bombed aerially . She tried taking shelter in the bomb shelters but they were at max capacity. Thank God she was able to flee to another city as the massacre in Daraya claimed about 700 lives that day. Assad’s forces went from bomb shelter to bomb shelter slaughtering people like cattle.

 

 

There is much more to tell and I have written a eulogy with details that I presented yesterday in a memorial service held at Georgetown (attached alongside an Arabic eulogy written by Mu'ath's sister Nour). I would appreciate if you consider sharing this story of the ongoing tragedy in Syria and would be willing to provide you additional information and Mu'ath's family pictures.

 

 

Nearly 45,000 people have died in this conflict thus far. All of whom have grieving families just like us. We must put names to these numbers and share their stories.