DIALOG PETRA AND MOUSSAB ENGLISH

Between Musaab Haboush and Anna Petra

Riggert on 21 May 2016 during a demonstration in Wandlitz ("Wandlitz Shows

Color Against Right") against a protest of the NPD (National Democratic Party-

far-right ultranationalist party) ("Stop Asylum Abuse...")

Dear Musaab,

Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.

Alledeedly, Martin Luther, a big man in our German

history,has said, and changed in his firm conviction the world.

I could also do no other, when I was asked if I want to teach

German language for you and your Syrian friends in Wandlitz

highschool. I said 'yes'. At first, I thought more pragmatically

than euphoric: Who's going to teach you all ?! And finally,

language is the key to the world.

We went to the optician, to the library, the museum, the

doctor, we organized a project at school.

You visited me and my family in our home. We celebrated

Christmas with you and then, afterwards, we could not bring

you back to the “Heim”. We stood there and could do no

other but inviting you to live with us.

I moved with my studyroom into the guest room, you moved

into my studyroom.

In the evening we sit together and talk. About family, about

politics, about traditions in Syria and in Germany, about God

and the world.

We play “ Deutschlandreise” together.

We make music together.

We listen to each other, we are silent with each other.

We read in the Qur'an, we read the Bible together.

Everything strange vanishes, familiarity moved in.

If I had known about you before your escape, I would had

invited you to Germany and would had sent you a ticket,

because your imprisonment and your escape on a boat from

Turkey to Greece seems to me unbearable in retrospective.

What, if I had lost you without ever knowing ?!

So I do not think pragmatically any longer.

I enjoy our life together. I know your history and I know

what expelled you out of your country. You are radiant and

laughing, your humor seems immortal. I am surprised. You

are a gifted man in happiness. You brought sunshine from

Syria. And even the Winter was so long, in my house the sun

was shining and it was warm.

You feel safe in Germany, you told me. I hope you will not be

afraid by the racist slogans of a few not so warm-hearted

residents .

You met unkind, impatient people. Sometimes you are

doubting yourself. You feel lost.

Look at you, what you have already accomplished. You are

very strong.

I believe so strongly in our peaceful coexistence, in the great

love that has brought us together and carries us. I stand here

and I can no other.

Let me know when you are feeling lonely, when you are sad

about losing your homeland, your family and your friends and

when the pictures of the past and the strangeness here

scares you. I want to be there for you.

I am a German. I was lucky enough to be born in a peaceful

country unlike you. I did not choose. Just as you did not

choose the war in your country. And I would like to share this

happiness with you. I can do no other.

Dear Petra,

you started this letter and ended with the words: "I can do no

other."

I understand this sentence very well.

As you know, I was born in Syria, lived a short time there and

then grew up in the Emirates. And I came back to my

homeland, to Syria before the war.

I started my studies and nearly the same time the war began.

I lived for 5 years in Latakia without my family. The war

separated us all, families and friends. My family is spread all

over the world.

And it was not my free choice to leave my country. My life

was in danger.

I do not want to kill. And I will not become killed.

I felt helpless. I have seen a lot of tears that I could not dry.

The war became a civil war, friends became enemies.

The situation got out of hand.

I left my country, I fled.

I have made myself on the search for a safe life.

I went to Turkey because all other ways were closed for me.

And I went across the sea, because it was the only way.

My targets have been to live in safeness without violence and

to finish my studies.

I came to you and I do not know how.

It is as if Allah has sent me to you.

My heart became quiet in your house in your family. I could

not imagine living in a safe house and listen to the birds

singing without listening to the gunfire aiming at me. Even

just listening to the songs of birds. Seeing only the passenger

planes in the sky and not the war machines. To see deer,

swans and ducks and not the army with their weapons.

Everything beautiful has begun here.

Your family has welcomed me as a refugee, as an exchange

student and finally as a part of the family. We share

everything.

With you I forgot the strange in a foreign land.

We share meals, traditions.

You stand with me. At all: when I am afraid, if there are

problems, when I feel lost and lonely.

I love you and you love me.

We have found new names for each other.

We share gifts and songs.

I live here among you.

I belong to you and you belong to me.