Languishing in a dungeon cell of Syria’s then-ruler Bashar Assad, surrounded by death and torture, an unknown prisoner scrawled a verse of Arabic poetry on his cell wall -– an expression of pain and love.
“My country, even if it oppresses me, is dear. My people, even if uncharitable to me, are generous,” he wrote. It’s a well-known verse, composed 800 years ago by a poet defying a tyrannical caliph.
