Commentary

The Annals Of Native Advertising: Syria Travel Edition


COME FOR THE ADVENTURE.

STAY FOR THE APOCALYPSE!

HOMS, Syria—They used to call it Emesa, and before that, Zobah, this magical, garden spot on the fertile banks of the Orontes River, a fortnight’s stroll from Damascus. The sweet perfume of the fig trees, the caress of the desert zephyr -- they are the blandishments of Paradise. For 14 centuries Homs has been a jewel of Islamic dynasties, and a crossroads for agricultural trade at least two millennia preceding. The history still pulses through the sun and rubble. The world’s most intrepid adventurers have come here to make it theirs.

Here, in the cradle of civilization, they devote their lives to see a new society emerge -- perhaps soon to envelop the globe. Men of faith and grit converge here with a vision, the stuff of prophecy and belief uncorrupted by the compromises of the selfish and weak.

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And who might they be? Well, they are largely the next generation -- youthful dreamers unwilling to leave the future in the hands of the entrenched powerful and worldly rich. These young idealists -- armed only with principles and knives and Kalashnikovs -- seek no less than to change the world.

Of course, there is nothing new about likeminded people devoting their lives to labor as one, united by shared belief. Pick your favorite: Rotary International, the Imperial Army of Japan, Amway. But history may never have seen the like of of ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah

Have you heard of it? Perhaps not, for the movement is known by many names, each evoking that familiar frisson of recognition, here in Syria and around the world. Whether kidnapping infidels or beheading journalists or simply mass-murdering Shia, the organization known by the locals as Da’ish is -- like Donald Trump and Kanye -- undisputedly a force to be reckoned with. Flinty warriors all, building a global caliphate with a spring in their step and a Sunni disposition.

And nowhere more effectively than Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, where redevelopment had languished under the dictatorial rule of President Bashar al Assad. Those who in past decades under these cerulean Mediterranean skies had trod the ancient streets, it is fair to say, wouldn’t recognize the place. The youngsters of Da’ish are as tireless and committed as they are rambunctious. As someone once put it: “Change you can believe in.”

Come to Homs for the ruins. Stay for the atrocities! 

Some controversy has swirled around the work of what many Westerners refer to as ISIS or ISIL, much as controversy often follows bold ideas, such as Obamacare and KFC’s Double Down. But nobody will ever be able to accuse them of “mission creep.” Under the tutelage of their caliph -- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- they will not quit until they have witnessed Muhammad’s end-of-times prophecy.  This will involve a titanic clash in nearby Dabiq (make a day trip!) in which true Islam triumphs over infidels and apostates, with the help of guest celebrity Jesus Christ. It is much like Mike Huckabee’s apocalyptic vision: the wicked will burn, the just will enter paradise -- only no cable gigs in the meantime.

But it all started here in historic Homs. Pay a visit. You might conceivably survive, Insha’Allah.

 

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