Syria: Damascus & Aleppo

“They all lived next door to each other and they didn’t give a d—. They thought it was perfectly normal.” –Peter Sluglett, a British historian at the University of Utah talking about Muslims, Christians, and Jews living together in Aleppo, Syria.

My conception of Syria changed at my Middle Eastern cities class from the University of Utah.

My misconception that Syria’s wounded pride over Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and the West meddling in its affairs drove it to hang out with some bad friends so to speak.

Today I learned that Syria realizes that war with Israel is not always the best option so it supports bad behavior on several fronts to have bargaining chips at the negotiating table with Israel.

Although Syria funds radical Islam abroad, it doesn’t tolerate it at home. They have suppressed and even rounded up radical Islamists in Damascus. Apparently it’s getting harder to deal with radical Islamists at home, though, because they are slowly infiltrating the bureaucracy. I appreciate the fact that Syria sees this as a problem.

There are some interesting pictures and videos of Damascus ancient and modern on Ewa Wasilewska's website, a Polish archeologist. Click here for the site.