Smokeدخان

We have reached the boarder of Turkey, and at this boarder I leave behind my tears, my losses and this diary. If you read this now please say a prayer for my family, and most importantly for Raja and Altaf. May their spirits be at peace in heaven.

Bismillâh ar-Ra.hmân ar-Ra.hîm 
Al-.hamdu Lillâhi Rabbil ‘âlamîn
Ar-Ra.hmân ar-Ra.hîm 
Maliki Yaumid Dîn 
Iyyâka Na’abudu Wa Iyyaka Nasta’în
Ihdinâs Sirât al-Mustaqîm 
Sirât al-Ladhîna An’amta ‘Alaihim Ghair al-Maghdûbi ‘Alaihim, Wa Ladâllîn. Amin.

-Arabic Prayer-
In the Name of God, all-Compassion, all-Mercy. Praise to God, Lord of all worlds. Compassionate, merciful Master of the Last Day, You alone do we worship and ask for help. Guide us on the straight path, the path of those in your grace. Not the path of those in anger or wandering astray. Amen

Waterماء

Maarku
This picture was taken after he found out that his father has
ended up in a camp in Jordan. It may be weeks or months until
Maarku and his father can be reunited. 

While walking I met a boy today named Maarku who said he was 17, but that he couldn’t remember anything from when he was 14… nothing on from when the attacks started. I asked daddy about it, and he said it was selective memory. I also asked some of the adults that we were walking with us what daddy meant by this term, and they said that it is when we modify memories to suit our reality. I guess the boy was unable to cope with his memories of the bombings, so his mind chose not to remember them at all. I also found this link, which helped me understand this phenomenon a little bit better Selective Memory & Repression. I hope I can feel like the Maarku, so I can forget…

Infernoجحيم

The migration patterns of Syrian refugees, my family make up
just 3 of the nearly half million Syrians walking the 752 km to Turkey

Today we will begin walking. We are walking for 10 hours a day, en route to Turkey, where hopefully, our lives will be better. I pray that there, we won’t have to stop brushing our teeth half way through a stroke so gunmen won’t hear us. There are families walking with us, in fact 7.6 million people are leaving our country, and of our 22.85 million people, over 11 million have been displaced Syria Refugee Migration.

Ignitionاشتعال

  An ISIS soldier holding their trademark which states the
shahada (declaration of faith). It reads "There is no god
but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God"

Today we lost Raja, we lost our home, and we lost our hope that our country’s government will provide protection for us. ISIS has began to invade our country, defeating their rivals, the Shia extremists, and neighboring terrorist groups. ISIS has become the most dominant terrorist group in the world, and they have succeeded in their objectives to build Islamic states across our nation. They have suicide bombers, AK-47’s, and most of all, unwavering lethal intensions.  I asked momma why people would do such a thing, and she filled by head with a similar explanation to the time when I asked daddy about Raja…excuse me a moment, her name brings tears to my eyes.

I am back…anyways momma explained that ISIS soldiers’ decisions are influenced by their id, a part of their psyche that is irrational, instinctual, and contains their darkest wishes, prohibited by social convention. Momma went on to explain that their decisions are unconscious, and that their egos are not able to appropriately mediate between their id and superego. This imbalance, she said, causes them to be this lethal. To be completely honest I don’t care what momma says about id’s, ego’s, and superego’s, I just want to kiss my brother and sister goodnight, instead of sending kisses up to the starry sky.

My family gathered around a small radio to hear this  broadcast by Chanel 7 News on the bombing near the Children's Hospital in
our old city Damascus
See Israel National News for the full report