Swampscott family worries about relatives in Syria

SWAMPSCOTT – Even thousands of miles away from the uprising in Syria, Swampscott resident Sam Khatib chooses his words wisely when speaking about the violence that has wracked his home country for more than a year.”It makes me sad,” he said, staring out at the ocean that abuts his Swampscott home he shares with his wife and three children. ” ? It’s been a year, over a year, and nothing has really happened.”Khatib hasn’t lived in Syria since 1980, when he moved to America to attend the University of South Carolina and met his American wife, Keli Khatib. But his family and friends living in the Middle Eastern nation are at the center of a violent political uprising against the country’s government that flared in the spring of 2011 and continues to make headlines today.Khatib says he speaks often with his mother, father, two brothers, aunts, uncles and their families living in Damascus. The capital city has so far avoided the violence and bloodshed caused by rebel fighters fighting the Syrian government led by longtime ruler Bashar al-Ashad, but Khatib said there are occasional bombings in his family’s town.”I call them whenever possible,” he said. “You’re more worried about things than you have been in the past.”Even as his concern grows, Khatib said he’s not able to speak freely over phone lines connecting to Syria for fear that someone may be listening.”The most you’ll hear from anybody on the phone is ?We’re OK,’ and ?Everything’s fine,'” he said.Khatib keeps his opinions muted as well. In March, he and his family attended a rally in Boston for the Syrian people, where his 13-year-old daughter, Cenna, read a poem she wrote about freeing Syria.”Reading terrible but true things on the signs, thinking of families in Syria including mine. Suddenly an angry ball of fire burns within my soul. I begin to shout with the crowd: ?DOWN WITH ASSAD!’ DOWN WITH ASSAD!'” the poem reads.Read the entire poem.But Khatib said he attended the rally simply to support the Syrian people caught in the crossfire.There are about 1,400 Syrians living in the greater Boston area, according to U.S. Census data.”We’re worried for the future of the country and the stability of the country, and for the violence to end, because if the violence escalates, it will be lose-lose for everybody,” he said.He said it’s been difficult to get a handle on what exactly is happening in his country with so many conflicting reports from rebel fighters and the government. One thing is for sure: People are dying, he said.”But you do know unquestionably that there is suffering, there is killing and there is people dying, and we’d like to put that to an end,” he said.His family here in Swampscott has also been put on edge by the violence. Khatib has shelved indefinitely plans to take his 16-year-old son and his son’s friend to Syria.And Keli Khatib said it breaks her heart to think of the bloodshed happening to such a warm people.The tall, blond-haired, green-eyed woman said the Syrians she has met made her feel welcome in their country every time she and her family visited Sam Khatib’s relatives.”They are so hospitable I couldn’t even describe it to you,” she said. “It’s like stepping into a different world.”As she spoke, a necklace with a charm in Arabic swayed around her neck. The converted Muslim (she said she converted to the religion her husband and children practice after the Sept. 11 attacks) said it translates to one of the Syrian’s favorite phrases, “God willing.”Sam and Keli Khatib said they have to practice the prayer inscribed on her necklace every day as they hope Syria and its people move toward a more stable future.”That’s all we can really do at this point,” Sam Khatib said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].