An Ancient Cure for War-Torn Syria
An Ancient Cure for War-Torn Syria – Christian Science Monitor editorial
For five long years, the world’s impression of Syria has been one of uprisings, civil war, refugees, failed peace talks, and the Islamic State setting up its capital in the city of Raqqa. Now the largest city, Aleppo, may fall soon to Russian-backed forces of the brutal Assad regime. On Sunday, US-backed fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces launched an operation to retake Raqqa. The conflict has splintered an ancient and diverse society, killing about 400,000 and displacing nearly half of the population.
Amid the flux and fatalism of war, however, many Syrians, along with help from Germany and others, are working to eventually reunite the country in the hope that a peace deal will keep Syria intact. Their core message: As a birthplace for civilization 5,000 years ago – one where beliefs about divinity developed – Syria helped demonstrate the idea that different groups of people can live in harmony. It can do it again.
Rather than allow one group to hold control in the future – such as the Iran-backed Alawite minority or a Sunni terrorist group – peace planners want to rekindle the legacy of Syria as a place that was often inclusive. Its population is more diverse than Iraq, yet its people have long identified with the ancient civilizations that came and went but left behind artifacts and ideas that were blended into modern Syria, one that often set a model of peaceful coexistence…
