This is from an American friend of mine who went to work in Syria last year, but had to return following the attack on the US embassy in Damascus. She returned shaken but unharmed to the States. Lately she has been disturbed by the number of (negative) forwards she gets about Muslims in America, and decided to make a statement about this wave of hate and her experience in Syria:
“On September 12, 2006, I was inside the US Embassy in Damascus, Syria, when it came under attack from four Syrian terrorists.
They threw hand-grenades.
They rammed a van laden with explosives into the entry gate.
They fired AK-47s at Syrian guards and innocent civilians.
They blew up their car.
They blew up themselves.
I’d heard the message that Al-Qaeda issued, that every good Muslim should kill an American. And hearing that, I still wonder, in a land where I was surrounded by Muslims, how is it that I, an American, survived?
I survived because …
Syrian Muslim guards rushed me out away from the van ready to explode
Syrian Muslim guards pushed me up the street away from the immediate violence
A Muslim shopkeeper hid me behind his counter so I, an American, would not be seen
Four Muslim women clustered around me and prayed
A Muslim woman took me by the hand and ran me up the street further from the violence
Another Muslim woman and her three sons took me into their home until the attack was over
Another Muslim woman and her husband drove me to my friend’s apartment since it wasn’t safe for me to go to my apartment
I’m hardly a convert, but I think it’s pretty clear that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Syrian Muslims.
Violence is not a religion.”