Polish Muslims bury 19-year-old Syrian man drowned near Belarusian border | Migration News

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Bohoniki, Poland – His name was Ahmad al-Hasan and he was 19 years old. He wanted to continue his education as he started in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.
But his dreams will never come true.
On October 19, his body was found in the Bug River in eastern Poland, near the Belarusian border.
According to his surviving friend, a Belarusian guard pushed al-Hasan into the water. He couldn’t swim.
He was killed in a grave on Monday evening in a Muslim cemetery in Bohoniki, a few kilometers from the Belarusian border. The Imam did not perform the usual ablution. After a month in the Polish morgue, al-Hasan’s remains were too decomposed.
Reciting the prayers, the voice of Imam Aleksander Bazarewicz cried out in the dark and gloomy woods. Dozens surrounded the tomb to pay their last respects.
“This is not the end. Death is not a tragedy, it means that God has a better place for Him alone. He died in a tragic death, he drowned, so he has the status of shahid, a martyr, ”the imam said.
The three Muslims there, like al-Hasan, were refugees who had come to Poland in search of a better life. Both were members of the local Tatar community.
Syrian doctor Kasim Shady, who has taken up residence in Poland, telephoned al-Hasan’s family. They saw the body of their brother and son descending into foreign lands.

“Let him work in peace,” Shady said. “I am also a refugee and I managed to build my life here. I’m a doctor. But many people did not manage to escape. We are glad that our brothers agreed to bury us here. We wanted more people to come, but not everyone was able to join us. ”
At least 11 people have been reported dead in recent weeks on the border between Poland and Belarus.
The crisis began in August and since then thousands of refugees have tried to enter Polish territory, on the eastern border of the European Union.
Those who managed to break the border spent weeks in the border forests, where Polish guards allegedly drove them back to the Belarusian side.
The international community has blamed Belarus for the situation, saying Minsk is trying to destabilize Europe.
Earlier this year, Belarus opened a number of tourism agencies that deprive citizens of several states in the Middle East and Africa and offer an easy and inexpensive way to reach Europe.
Critics have said the move could be an act of revenge against Poland, which last year backed protests against longtime President Alexander Lukashenko.
Although many travel agencies have been forced to close, and countries like Turkey now refuse to leave Iraqi, Yemen and Syrian citizens on Belarusian planes, the chaos is far from over.
On tuesday conflicts It erupted on the border between the Polish guard and refugees, and aid workers have warned of a humanitarian disaster.

Polish authorities have identified an emergency area on the Belarusian border, and no one can enter, including journalists and NGOs.
As a result, hundreds of refugees who manage to cross into Poland remain stranded in the forest without access to humanitarian aid, food and water.
For local Muslims in Bohoniki, it is a test of the border crisis.
Tatars have lived on the border of Poland and Belarus for centuries.
In the second half of the twentieth century, King John III of Sobieski of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania were invited to the territory to help his army defend the kingdom.
Since then, Bohoniki and Kruszyniany, two villages close to the Belarusian border, have been the center of Islam in Poland.
The Tatars loyally served the king and successive governments and fought for Poland in the wars of the twentieth century.
In 1919, they organized their regiment, fighting alongside the Polish army and proudly wearing a Muslim crescent in uniform.
But the descendants of Tatar defenders of Polish borders are reluctant to accept the current narratives and actions of the Polish government.
For them, people looking for shelter on the border between Poland and Belarus is not a threat. It is the people, the brothers in the faith, who are losing their lives.
“We should provide water and food. They are not a threat. They are afraid of us, they don’t know how people will act when they see it. I feel great pity for them, for the kids, for the little kids. The people are very warm at home and these people are outside, in their only clothes, it’s amazing how they survive, ”said the Muslim Tatar Ali.
“I feel bad. Once, [Jarosław] Kaczynski (leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party) said Poland is for Poles and Catholics. It breaks my heart. Here, too, Orthodox Christians and Muslims, Tartars, how can anyone say that? ”
Officially, the Muslim community does not criticize the actions of the government.
But local Muslims, along with activists from across the country, have been involved in collecting sleeping bags and warm clothes for refugees scattered in the Polish forests.
After the funeral, a small mound covered the tomb of al-Hasan.
Imam Bazarewicz placed a large pine branch on top. Entrepreneurs left a red lamp next to them, the same kind of light they use as they walk through the woods in search of the people they need.
“There is nothing good in this world. But we can’t give up. We need to help people, we need to feed them, ”said Eugenia, a 75-year-old Muslim Tatar. “I never thought something like that was possible.”
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