Syria's Civil War: The View From A Damascus Shrine
Traveling to Damascus gives you a view of Syria's war turned inside out.
The international community talks of arming Syria's rebels against President Bashar Assad, but in the capital many people still hope the rebels will lose.
That's the thinking we found around a Muslim shrine in Damascus, a tribute to the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. She lived centuries ago, but a Damascus doctor we met speaks of her in the present tense.
"We love Sayida Zeinab," he says. "We like Sayida Zeinab. We respect Sayida Zeinab."
We wanted to visit, so the doctor offered to guide us there. We arranged to meet beside the highway leading toward the shrine. He leaned into our car window to talk, though like many people here he asked us not to use his name.
Sayida Zeinab is holy to all Muslims, though the Shiite sect maintains the shrine, which is in a Shiite neighborhood. The doctor says it's surrounded by many guards, out of fear that Sunni extremist rebels will destroy it.
"They do not believe in shrines. The terrorists have Wahhabian ideas," he says of the Wahabbis, followers of an especially austere brand of Islam.
Assad's government has relentlessly said the rebels are foreign terrorists. There is no evidence that all the Sunni rebel groups oppose Shiites, though it is clear that some are extremist Sunnis. Fear of them has bound Shiites and other minority groups to Assad's regime.
The shrine is in an area of heavy fighting, but the doctor says he's never missed a day of work at a hospital nearby.
"I have been working in Sayida Zeinab for 25 years as a doctor," he says.
Parallels
In Damascus, A View Of Syria's War Turned Inside Out