One of the first National Dialog Sub-Committee Meetings in Homs, 2012.. Photo:SANA
Feb 21, 2014, nsnbc
The head of the Syrian National Dialog Committee for the Qalamoun region, Ahmad Amin Saad Eddin, and the Muezzin of the Great Umayyad Mosque, Sheikh Fahd al-Maghribi have been assassinated by terrorists. Both were prominent voices for peace, reconciliation and the rejection of violence and terrorism.
Saad Eddin has been a uniting force and active participant in creating dialog and reconciliation in the Qalamoun region. Police informed the Syrian news agency SANA, that the body of Saad Eddin was found on Friday, near the town’s eastern cemetery.
Terrorists also assassinated Sheikh Fahd Ahmad al- Maghribi, the Muezzin of the Great Umayyad Mosque, located in the same area. Al Maghribi was on his way to meet an acquaintance when terrorists shot him dead.
Although it is not almost completely ignored by Western and Gulf-Arab media, the national dialog in Syria has been a strong uniting force in Syria since the establishment of the national dialog committee on a nationwide level first and the successful establishment of regional committees in early 2013.
The establishment of committees, on a regional and community level, began after months of initial, all-inclusive meetings and successful talks between Prime Minister Al-Halaqi and delegations from political parties and ethnic communities.
In early February 2014, after the foreign-backed coalition’s unwillingness to agree on a Syria based on democratic and pluralistic principles at the Geneva II conference, the reconciliation process and preparations for political reform continued, with focus on Syria, rather than on a foreign-imposed solution.
The assassination the two prominent voices for dialog, reconciliation and reform, Saad Eddin and al-Maghribi, are a tragic loss for their families and for the people of Syria. As a growing number of Syrians are mounting protests against terrorism and violence are turning out in their thousands to support the Syrian military and to defy and reject the foreign-imposed violence, however, the assassinations are likely to strengthen the will and determination for peace of the vast majority of Syrians rather than weakening them.