Outside the Highland Square library, about a dozen people formed a small circle, each with a flickering candle in hand.
Walaa Hamad stood somberly as her two children ran through the grass. A soft breeze shifted her patterned hijab. Her husband Hussam stood by quietly.
“Their minds are still back at home,” said Najah Habbiyyieh, who helps as a translator for the Hamads, at a vigil for Syrians on a recent Thursday evening. “They’re thinking about their family suffering every night.”
The chemical attack in Syria earlier this month that left more than 80 dead incited national outrage as photos and videos from the scene flooded social media. The attack prompted President Donald Trump to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the Syrian air base that allegedly initiated the attacks.
But for Syrians, the chemical attack was just the latest chapter of a horrific reality overseas. This month alone, Walaa Hamad said she’s lost four family members to the war in Syria.
“Over the past few years, these types of things have been happening on a weekly basis,” said Obada Ghabra of Cuyahoga Falls, a U.S.-born Syrian, in a telephone interview. “I don’t see the big distinction between a chemical attack occurring and an entire building being bombed and collapsing on people.”
Syria’s civil war is a complex one with not just two, but four opposing forces involved.
In the seven years it’s been waged, the death toll has risen to more than 465,000 people, along with millions of others injured. More than 6 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes as they flee to neighboring countries or overseas.
For the Hamads, the choice to leave was difficult but clear—“stay there, or escape death,” Hussam said.
They left Syria five years ago, near the beginning of the war, for a refugee camp in Egypt. They lived there until this February, when they resettled in Akron.
Since they’ve left Syria, the situation has only worsened. Hussam said in some parts, food and water are scarce, and the people there have resorted to eating grass.
It’s these conditions that many in the Syrian community list as their biggest concern. Behind opposing allegiances and opinions stand human beings — children, men, women and families — suffering with little hope for improvement.
“Of course it is a humanitarian issue” said Ahmad Deeb, the administrative director of the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent (ISAK).
Deeb said many Syrians are afraid to speak up about the war out of fear of retaliation from the Syrian government. There are mixed feelings among western Syrians over American involvement overseas, but each concern goes back to the humanitarian crisis.
“I would say probably a large number appreciate a strategic and thought-out intervention from Western powers, but some also don’t,” Deeb said. “I’d say a majority feel that they want the war to end, and if that means having Western powers intervene, then so be it.”
The issue is further complicated by Trump’s recent executive order that suspended new visas for six Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, and halted the U.S. refugee program.
“It’s difficult to be confident in the motivations behind the bombing when our president is talking about how he feels for Syrian children when at the same time, he’s refusing to let Syrian refugees come into the country,” Ghabra said. “For someone to claim to be bombing out of care is simply not true. There are a thousand other ways to help besides bombing.”
Several organizations around Akron have taken the lead in helping Syrians the past few years, such as World Relief Akron, which resettles refugees, and the International Institute of Akron, which also helps resettle refugees and provides them with resources to acclimate to life in the U.S. In addition, ISAK assists Muslim refugees and hosts trusted organizations that want to use its facilities to raise funds for Syria.
“This war in Syria is a humanitarian crisis, and we urge the international community to work together in resolving this ongoing struggle which has taken over 400,000 lives. We stand with the Syrian people and ask God to grant a peaceful end to their suffering,” Deeb said in a written statement on behalf of ISAK. “People of Syria, our sincerest prayers are with you.”
Smaller grass-roots efforts have cropped up, too, like the vigil on April 13 that was organized by members of the Women’s March on Washington. They collected donations for the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, and the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which provides free medical aid to people in Syria. Similar vigils across the country took place that day as part of a #WomenforSyria campaign.
As the dozen who attended the vigil prayed together in the circle, passersby took notice. A few women, children and panhandlers lighted candles and joined the circle in prayer.
Habbiyyieh aimed her phone at the Hamad family.
“We’re gonna send a picture to their family in Syria to show we support them,” Habbiyyieh said as she took a picture of the Hamads, who huddled together in the circle to try to keep their candles from blowing out.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com.