Ibrahim Qashush

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Ibrahim Qaschusch ( Arabic إبراهيم قاشوش, DMG Ibrāhīm Qāšūš ; * September 3, 1977 in Hama , Syria ; † July 3 or July 4, 2011 ibid) was the victim of a murder during the Syrian Civil War . He was posthumously assigned the role of a leading writer and singer of prostest songs in his hometown in international media reports. As a civilian supposedly murdered in revenge for his singing performances, he became a symbol of the civil war. Later media reports, however, cast doubts on this representation.

Depiction as a murdered protest singer

There is hardly any reliable information about Qaschusch's life. His name was largely unknown in Hama during his lifetime. The American journalist Anthony Shadid , who interviewed locals in Hama about qashush in July 2011, reported in the New York Times that there were numerous rumors. In various, contradicting media reports, Qaschusch was referred to as a fireman, security guard, construction worker or popular singer.

Qashush is said to have been abducted on July 3, 2011 and was found dead in the Orontes River the following day . His throat had been cut and his vocal cords removed. A few days after his death, the news spread through pictures of his corpse that Qashush was the author and singer of the popular protest song "Jalla, irhal ja Baschar" ( Arabic يلا إرحل يا بشار, translated “Go, Bashar, get out!”), which is directed against President Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba'ath Party . The catchy song had been sung in the central Hamas square at the mass demonstrations since June and then spread as a hymn of the revolution across the entire Syrian protest movement. The rally on July 1st was the largest anti-Assad demonstration in the whole country.

Reactions

After his murder became known, Qashush was celebrated as the “nightingale of the revolution” and honored as a martyr and symbolic figure of the uprising based on reports from demonstrators inside and outside Syria . Abroad, among other things, writers' associations protested with public statements against the murder of the alleged protest singer. The case became so prominent that the American television journalist Barbara Walters approached President Assad directly about Qashush in a rare exclusive interview in December 2011. Assad replied that he had never heard of Qashush. In the spring 2012 annual report of the US State Department on the human rights situation in Syria, Qashush is mentioned as a singer who was tortured and murdered by police officers in revenge for his protest song. As such, Qashush also found its way into scientific literature.

The Syrian authorities contradicted the activist-based portrayal of Qashush as a protest singer murdered by members of the secret service and stated that he had nothing to do with the well-known song, but was an informant whose murder by strangers should now be used to incite further violence . In 2012, the blog The Truth about Syria referred to statements by an opposition activist from Hama who had confessed in custody and gave information about Qashush in front of a camera.

Late clarification by Abdel Rahman Farhood

In a magazine article published in the UK in 2016, the now exiled Syrian opposition activist Abdel Rahman Farhood confessed to his identity as the author and singer of the protest song attributed to Qashush. He said that he had learned from the media in July 2011 that the singer from Jalla, get Bashar! found murdered. Subsequently, it was not advisable for him to deny this representation, which was acceptable to both the revolutionaries and those who were loyal to the government. He did not know Qashush, just as nobody else knew who Qashush was or who killed him. As early as July 2011, the New York Times had portrayed Farhood as the writer and at least occasional singer of the song. Farhood was also in the blog The Truth about Syria in 2012 as the author and singer of Jalla, get on Bashar! been identified.

Musical appreciation

In February 2012, the Syrian-born pianist Malek Jandali released a piece of music based on the melody of Jalla, irhal ja Baschar , which he called "Freedom (Qashoush Symphony)".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e James Harkin: The incredible story behind the Syrian protest singer everyone thought was dead, in: GQ Magazine of December 7, 2016, accessed on March 21, 2017 (English)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Anthony Shadid: Lyrical Message for Syrian Leader: 'Come on Bashar, Leave'. In: New York Times . July 21, 2011, accessed January 5, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Tim Hume: Syrian artists fight Assad regime with satire, in: CNN.com com August 27, 2012, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  4. ^ India Stoughton: The War on Words, (originally published in The Outpost ), author's website April 1, 2014, accessed March 22, 2017
  5. ↑ Rafik Schami : "Prominence Journalists" and Syria: "Delusion paired with vanity" , taz.de, March 2, 2012
  6. ↑ Alastair Good: Syrian protest song that killed its writer, in: The Telegraph of July 10, 2011, accessed on March 21, 2017 (English)
  7. ↑ “Yalla, irhal ya Bashar” with English subtitles on YouTube
  8. ↑ Nour Ali: Hama - the city that's defying Assad, in: The Guardian from August 1, 2011, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  9. ↑ Shuvra Mahmud: Symbols of the Syrian opposition, in: BBC News of February 16, 2012, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  10. ↑ Exil-Pen: Protest against the murder of Ibrahim Qashoush, in: HaGalil.com of August 6, 2011, accessed on March 21, 2017
  11. ↑ SYRIA: Poet and song writer killed for a protest song, Declaration of the "Writers in Prison Committee" (WiPC) of July 20, 2011, PEN International website, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  12. ↑ Azmat Khan: Syria's Assad Denies Knowledge of Slain Singer, in: PBS Frontline of December 8, 2011, accessed on March 21, 2017 (English)
  13. ↑ United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (ed.): Syria 2012 Human Rights Report, US State Department website, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  14. ↑ cf. Nassima Neggaz: Syria's Arab Spring: Language Enrichment in the Midst of Revolution (PDF), in: Language and Society Vol. 2, No. 2, from July 2013 (English); Musa Al-Halool: Sexual Rhetoric of the Syrian Arab Spring , in: International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies Vol. 1, No. 3, December 2014 (English); Juliette Harkin: Is It Possible to Understand the Syrian Revolution through the Prism of Social Media? (PDF), in: Westminster Papers Vol. 9, No. 2 from April 2013 (English); Layla Saleh: US Hard Power in the Arab World: Resistance, the Syrian Uprising and the War on Terror. Routledge, London 2016, p. 152, 168fn17 (English); Fouad Ajami: The Syrian Rebellion. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 2016, p. 10f (English)
  15. ↑ Bassel Oudat: "Come on, leave Bashar", in: Al-Ahram Weekly of July 14, 2011, accessed on March 22, 2017 (English)
  16. ↑ a b The Truth about Ibrahim Qashoush, the Alleged Singer and Composer of the so-called “Syrian Revolution”, in: The Truth about Syria from February 18, 2012, accessed on March 21, 2017 (English)
  17. ↑ Fabian El Cheikh: Malek Jandali plays for the Syrian people. Offenbach-Post, July 31, 2012, accessed on January 5, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Martina Sabra: Syria's future as a symphony. Deutschlandfunk , March 31, 2012, accessed January 5, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Qashush, Ibrahim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Qāšūš, Ibrāhīm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian murder victim posthumously declared a protest singer
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd September 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Hama , Syria
DATE OF DEATH July 3, 2011 or July 4, 2011
Place of death Hama , Syria