Syrian Martyrs For Freedom

The New York Times has a story today on how resistance to Bashar al-Assad’s brutality has transformed the city of Homs:

Nearby was a paper glued to a street sign. “The Martyr Adnan al-Farra Street,” it said, commemorating a youth killed in the uprising. Ten blocks away on the wall of a school, was another paper: “This is the street of the Martyr Hani al-Jundi.” The story was the same elsewhere in Homs, where hundreds have died. Protesters had renamed streets where the fallen had lived, scrawling their names on buildings, walls and signs.

As the sun set, the few stores still open started closing. People broke their fast with the meal known as iftar, then many of them headed to evening prayers. An hour later, chants could be heard coming from the direction of the Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque, a landmark in the city of white stone.

“We’re millions of martyrs, heading to heaven,” they chanted together, as they marched down Al-Malaab al-Baladi Street, a thoroughfare in the city. A young woman in her 20s, wearing a white veil, called to people standing on their balconies. “What are you waiting for?” she asked them. “Don’t you want to join? There is no one left at home except you!” Boys ran toward the protest, and more cars headed in its direction.

A half-hour later, whistles sounded, alerting people to the approach of the security forces. So did car horns. “Security!” young men shouted. As shots rang out, a man ran down the street, chanting.

“God is great,” women replied from their balconies.

We often hear mostly negative things about "martyrdom culture" in the Middle East, which is understandable. While a discourse of martyrdom is by no means unique to Islam or the Middle East, such rhetoric does often accompany some of the worst atrocities we’ve seen in recent years.

But, as we saw in Iran in 2009, when pro-democracy protesters adopted the rhetoric and symbols of martyrdom for their own anti-regime cause, a discourse of sacrifice can be deployed on behalf of freedom just as easily as on behalf of murder. We’re seeing it again in Syria.