Salam Means Peace - Green Grass Under My Feet
An Afternoon of Storytelling with Ahmad Mostafa
This is Ahmad. Ahmad Mostafa from Syria. Ahmad is 24 years old and has a daughter of 10 months. Her name is Lamar, which means “Sea” or “Ocean”. His wife, two years younger than him, is named Suhayla, which roughly translates as “gentle” or “easy”. He laughs when he says that most of his friends are called either Ahmad, Mahmud or Mohammed – all derivations of the name of the Prophet. His cousin, brother and sister are scattered all over Europe.
Ahmad is from a small town in the north of Syria, close to the Turkish border. He studied business and accounting in Idlib and Aleppo, where he was the 2nd and 3rd best student in his field – a recognition which made his father very proud, but disappointed himself as he was striving to be first, studying endless hours through the night, not leaving his room for weeks before the exams would come up. All his friends seem to be very ambitious. One of his friends even went to Cuba to become a dentist.
Ahmed also worked in an organisation for homeless people back in Syria, helping to provide food and shelter for citizens in need. It is during that time, now about six years ago, that he first came into contact with Ireland through an Irish co-worker and friend, who told him stories about his country and showed him pictures and encouraged him to visit. When his father became a victim to the war, he decided to leave. He wanted his daughter to grow up in a safe environment. He had to borrow money from his friend to embark on the journey. 2000€, he says. It is on his mind to finally pay him back every day. When he arrived in Greece, it was his initial wish to go to Sweden to be with members of his family. But when that was not possible, the decision was easy for him – he wanted to go to Ireland. When I ask him what his first impression of Ireland and the Irish was, he answers “the people are very, very beautiful.” He says the people here are all very nice and good. In Syria, he tells me, people are not good anymore. They used to be good, but they are not good anymore. He says he knows the words of the Qur’an very well, he studied it. But the words people spread, people like ISIS, are lies and not true to what it says in the Qur’an. The word “Islam”, he explains to me, contains the root “salam”, which means peace. But people do not spread peace, they spread war, he says. His uncle, he continues, lives in Latakia in a neighbourhood with people of different beliefs and forms of Islam. It is a very peaceful and liberal neighbourhood and people accept and tolerate each other. In Aleppo this is not possible anymore. They took his wife’s house and car and all her belongings. “Islam used to be good. Now it’s not good anymore. This new form of Islam is not good. It is not good.” It is not the Qur’an that they preach, he repeats. It used to be good, but it is not good anymore.
Before answering the question which were the first differences he noticed when he arrived in Ireland, he pauses for a moment to think. “Cars drive on the other side,” he eventually says. “Yes. That the cars drive on the other side.” His facial expression seems to be brightening up. He has a licence for driving a truck and a caterpillar. And for a normal car, of course. And while he has never learned to ride a bicycle, he loves riding a motorbike. He used to have a Mercedes back home. He really likes to drive, and he likes to drive fast. He has been in an accident once where the car overturned, but luckily nothing happened. He has been able to drive here in Ireland as well, and once pushed a car to 180km/h. Before the war, cars used to be very cheap in Syria, he tells me. Now, none of the cars have licence plates anymore, and the police do not care if you just take someone else’s car. You can just go and take any car you want, any car you like, any car you can find. And there is no running water in the houses. The cars have no numbers and the houses have no running water.
And yesterday, the Assad regime launched another gas bomb attack, just eight kilometres from where he used to live. His family has been able to flee to the Turkish border. “Bad words are too good for Assad,” he says. There are no words to describe him, you just cannot describe him. All that Ahmad wants is peace. But when people found out that he was against Assad, against the regime, and against the war, the police came to arrest him. He was sitting an exam at university when they came to take him to jail. For three months he did not have more than a handful of olives and a piece of bread to eat per day.
Here in Ireland he enjoys Irish Whisky. And Irish coffee. “I like it, I like it a lot,” he laughs, “but my wife doesn’t know!” The differences between Ireland and Syria? It is not all that different, he claims. Both countries are very green. Maybe not Aleppo, but where he is from it is just as green as Ireland. Or Ireland is just as green as where he is from. And the people are not so different either. They both like fish, and colours, and are very friendly and easy to talk to.
What his hopes are for the future? “To be happy,” he replies instantaneously, and laughs. He hopes to go back to university, find a job and pay back his friend. Then he can sleep again and be happy. “Are you happy?” I ask him. “Yes, I am happy. I am very happy. I am very happy to be here.”
