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New Year’s Eve in Bab Touma, Damascus. Hannah McCarthy

Syrians celebrate new year without Assad, as leading rebel group shifts to governing fractured country

Journalist Hannah McCarthy travelled to Syria on New Year’s Eve to observe the ‘festival atmosphere’, as many took to the streets to celebrate.

In Beirut, a day before I left for Damascus, I had coffee with a Syrian friend who works at a coffee shop in Gemmayzeh in East Beirut.

The area had been left untouched by the Israeli air strikes that levelled so much of the southern suburbs of the city but the economic tail-spin of the war between Israel and Hezbollah had still been felt here.

After months of little foot traffic on the usually busy thoroughfare in Gemmayzeh, the coffee shop was closing down and my friend was going to have to look for another job.

Would he return to Syria, I asked. It’s not that simple, he said. He had a life in Beirut: an apartment, a dog and a girlfriend, and if he crossed the border into Syria he would have difficulty returning on a Syrian passport.

Of course, he was happy that Assad had fallen, but returning to Syria was not a straightforward decision for the millions of Syrians who had sought refuge from the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.

14 years of civil war is a long time, 53 years of the Assad family’s rule even longer.

IMG_1226 Torn posters of Bashar al-Assad, who fled Syria in December. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

My friend wasn’t religious and abhorred violence. His refusal to pick up a gun left him with little choice but to leave Syria or face lengthy military conscription in the Syrian army. But he said he was willing to give Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group that overthrew Assad in December, a chance and hoped that Ahmad al-Sharaa would be “smart”.

“Syria needs security,” he said. “That is the most important thing. Everything else comes after but first we need an end to violence.”

As I crossed into Syria on New Year’s Eve, I saw the return of Syrian officials to the border control offices that had been left deserted since 8 December. I grumbled as I waited nearly two hours for an entry stamp, but, in truth, it was a sign that the HTS regime was trying to restore order after a tumultuous few weeks.

IMG_1215 Bullet casings by the Syrian-Lebanese border. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

Also waiting to enter was Abdullah, who was visiting Syria from the Netherlands for the first time in 14 years, with his father. “I have lots of family waiting for me in Damascus,” he said excitedly.

On the road into Damascus, posters of Assad had been torn down and a Syrian army tank still lay deserted on the main highway.

In the main square of Bab Touma in the old city of Damascus, a festival atmosphere had taken hold. The neighbourhood lies in the city’s Christian quarter and was decorated with Christmas trees, with Santa Clauses selling flashing balloons and children asking their parents for candy floss.

9F6A3407 Syrians pose with flags depicting rebel fighters on new Year's Eve in Bob Touma, Damascus. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

Syrians sang anti-Assad chants and posed for photos in front of large screens displaying the rebel’s Syrian flag which replaced the traditional red with green.

9F6A3402 Dozens took to the streets of Damascus to ring in the New Year, including Sidr (pictured) and her sister. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

Among the revellers were Syrians visiting from Lebanon where they had sought refuge when the civil war broke out. Sidr and her sister had travelled from Akkar in northern Lebanon for New Year’s Eve. Draped in the rebel’s Syrian flag and holding a rose, Sidr said this was her first time in her home country in 15 years.

9F6A3430 Destroyed police cars outside a police station in Damascus, which is now operated by rebel fighters. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

In front of the police station on the square, several crashed police cars with smashed windows were parked. The station is now manned by rebels in military fatigues with Kalashnikovs slung across their bodies. Two of the rebels occasionally toured through the crowds celebrating in Bab Touma square but mostly they surveilled the revellers from the station.

9F6A3421 Rebel fighters patrolled the streets while celebrations took place across the Syrian capital. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

In December, an agreement was reached for the rebel factions to become part of Syria’s Defence Ministry, while soldiers who defected from the Syrian army would also be incorporated into the country’s formal military structure.

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic forces in northern eastern Syria have not yet signed up to the deal, a sign of the difficult year Syria could have as what type of post-Assad country will be formed comes into focus.

9F6A3367 Santa Claus, balloons and candy floss were on offer for families attending the celebrations. Hannah McCarthy Hannah McCarthy

HTS leader Ahmed Sharaa has said he is not interested in new conflicts and in 2025 will be embarking on a diplomatic mission to convince Western officials to remove the sanctions imposed on Syria under the Assad regime.

The leader has said it will take a year for Syrians to see real change and that he expects it to take up to four years to draft a new constitution and hold elections. Syria is a Sunni Muslim majority country, but with several sizeable minority ethnic and religious groups, as well as a significant secular base.

Sharaa says he wants Syria’s constitutional arrangement to ensure all groups can participate in government, but has said it should not be based on a quota system, similar to what has been used in Lebanon and Iraq (as well as Northern Ireland). This quota system doles out ministries and state positions based on party or sectarians affiliations and Sharaa has said these models have resulted in chronic state paralysis and a failure to deliver even basic needs.

On New Year’s Eve, the battle-hardened rebel leader met in Damascus with senior clerics from Syria’s Christian minorities, whose numbers dwindled sharply during the civil war. A few days earlier, hundreds of protestors had taken to the streets in Damascus including in Bab Touma to demonstrate against the burning of a Christmas tree in Hama and chanted “we will sacrifice our souls for our cross.” Syria’s new Islamic leadership wil face a new type of battle in 2025 to reassure and unite all of Syria.

Meanwhile, many displaced Syrians are returning to survey the wreckage of their homes, with questions of what happened to their loved ones at the hands of the Assad regime. Wafa Moustafa left Syria after her father, Ali, was forcibly disappeared during the Syrian uprising in 2013.

At a gathering in Damascus where Syrians held posters of their missing loved ones, Moustafa said: “Our search for our loved ones did not stop yet. It will not end until we find the full truth of what happened to them. We accept nothing less than knowing all details related to what happened to them, who is responsible for their detention? Who tortured them? If they were killed, unfortunately, who killed them? And where they were buried.”

Hannah McCarthy is a journalist based in Beirut.

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:37 AM

    Syria and the Syrian people have seen so much blood and conflict as have others in that region. We can only hope that 2025 marks a change and that some kind of normality and peace take hold.

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    Mute North Dub
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:39 AM

    @Bert Carolan: So much like Afghanistan.. how’s that new regime working out?

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:47 PM

    @North Dub: Different places, different people.

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    Mute Alan Kennedy
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:57 AM

    I’m sure the CIA will divide that country up as best they can!

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    Mute Peter McCormack
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:15 PM

    Hopefully all the Syrians that came to Europe will go back home and rebuild their country..

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    Mute Jack Hayes
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:42 PM

    @Peter McCormack: If only to be free of bigots in their lives.

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    Mute Padraig O'Brien
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:46 AM

    Let’s wish them well as they try to sort out their problems and hope that the warmongers. Israel, Turkey, NATO etc al don’t interfere with them!

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    Mute Sergej Simonov
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:33 PM

    @Padraig O’Brien: let’s hope that terroristmongers like Lebanon, Iran…born/carrier palestinian terrorists won’t interfere with them!

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    Mute Brian D'Arcy
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:45 PM

    @Sergej Simonov: The ignorance is astounding, how many have Israel slaughtered and not a terrorist state.

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    Mute Sergej Simonov
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:33 PM

    @Brian D’Arcy: the ignorance is astonishing – palestinian and lebanese career territororisrs wanted to cross the border and slaughter hard working Israeli people unopposed. They might start actually working eventually but not to curry terrorist acts in several generations.

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 8:45 PM

    @Padraig O’Brien:
    You forgot to mention China, Iran, and your Masters in the Kremlin

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    Mute Patrick Newell
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:28 PM

    Its great to see Assad gone, but sadly one dictator may just be replaced by another type, only this one is supported by the western powers to cater to their self interests

    Sad to see how many countries and regions the western powers have helped destroy or turn upside down over the years and decades, but yet have the nerve to complain about the likes of china and russia being the bad guys…….

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:05 PM

    @Patrick Newell: Well, Russia is certainly a great evil, both to those peoples within its own borders and those who have the misfortune to border it.
    By contrast China is almost benign, although it too oppresses its people and threatens those in other lands who want to remain free of it.

    But the greatest purveyors of evil across the World has to be the US.

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    Mute Thomas Sheridan
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:58 PM

    @Patrick Newell: You’re very uninformed on the Syrian politics.
    The west does not support the new regime but mainly acts in supporting the Kurds and disrupting ISIS.
    Why do you think Israel recently demilitarised much of it.
    Most of the wars have been between different Muslim factions – because that’s what these people do. You also seem to be ignorant of the role of Russia in these ME countries and large swathes of Africa as well as the Chinese colisanition of large parts of Africa through economic means.
    But, hey, keep knocking the west because they are the ones that pay your dole.

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 8:50 PM

    @Thomas Sheridan:
    As the saying goes, if your over 25 and still a communest your brain dead.

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 8:56 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere:
    Somebody has to sort out the bad guys for us.

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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:10 PM

    Who’d have thought Hamas and Hezbollah attacking Israel would lead to Assad falling and Russia running for the exits? Disaster for the mullahs of Iran.
    I sincerely hope the Kurds aren’t thrown to the wolves again.

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    Mute Oliver Cleary
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:20 PM

    @honey badger: Tend to agree with you on this Honey Badger. Israel will end Mullah rule in Iran too.

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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:24 PM

    @Oliver Cleary: I think the Iranian people will. I imagine watching your government throwing billions at proxies while the country can barely keep the lights on is losing its appeal.

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    Mute Patrick Newell
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:31 PM

    @honey badger: Oh please let your mates in Israel kick off with Iran…..I wanna see all Israels mates in murica and co literally S&P themselves when they realise blowing up a rag tag group like hamas in gaza is not on par with taking on a well armed and ready Iran army

    Maybe then Israel will have its weekly allowance of aid and state of the art weapons taken away by big brother Uncle Sam and made fight by itself for a change

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    Mute Sergej Simonov
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:39 PM

    @Oliver Cleary: Israel will also end rule of career palestinian terrorists and they might start learning how to work and do something useful but not to turn hospitals into terrorists bases.

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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:53 PM

    @Patrick Newell: There’s no need to kick off with the mullahs. Let the Iranian people boot the theocratic headbangers out.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:00 PM

    @Sergej Simonov: Israel is the racist supremacist colonial enterprise from which all the evil in that region flows.

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    Mute Liam Boyne
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:13 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I find it cute, the way all your accounts give a toss about religion and Gaza, please stop Jimmy Wallace/Dermot Blaine lol

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    Mute Sergej Simonov
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:38 PM

    @ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: That is why Egypt built two walls on Gaza border and ready to shoot dead any palestinian trying to cross the border! Nobody needs born terrorists!

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    Mute Brian
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:44 PM

    @honey badger: Why is their any need for America to intervene in the name of democracy in other countries that are ruled by “headbangers”, like Iraq .. and not Iran ..? You’re happy to see the people of Iran be no doubt slaughtered in their thousands against a deadly regime in order to boot them out. If Iran are the root of all evil in this region as stated.. then why don’t the US and Israel go to war with them and save the Iranian people and ensure peace reigns in the region ?

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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:20 PM

    @Brian: Still desperately chasing that ‘gotcha’ via another ‘shit-take’? Bad faith projecting is boring, Brian. Do better.

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    Mute Brian
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:33 PM

    @honey badger: It’s a genuine question.. which you are, again, unable to answer. It seems to me your understanding of geopolitics is non existent. You have such a simple(tons) view of the world. When you post your drivel and get a follow up question.. you are unable to put a coherent sentence together.. much easier to deflect from your own shortcomings.. The journals pseudo intellectual stumped again.. lol. X

    51
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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:47 PM

    @Brian: To quote myself: “Still desperately chasing that ‘gotcha’ via another ‘shit-take’? Bad faith projecting is boring, Brian. Do better.”

    4
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    Mute Brian
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    Jan 1st 2025, 3:12 PM

    @honey badger: Quoting oneself for you is akin to scraping the bottom of a barrel.. you’re bereft of any intellect Honey dear.. x

    49
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    Mute honey badger
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    Jan 1st 2025, 4:27 PM

    @Brian: I’m really thrilled to read the second of your reviews of me today. I’d recommend you shake them up a bit, though – they’re getting fairly predictable at this stage. Just my opinion mind. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. ;)

    2
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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 8:53 PM

    @Patrick Newell:
    Isreal could stick Iran back in to the stone age in about one month.

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 9:00 PM

    @Sergej Simonov:
    Same with Jordan.

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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 9:12 PM

    @J B:
    Lebanon was a peacefully inclusive jewel, until they let the Palestinian arab lot in on “humanitarian” grounds.
    Palos showed their gratude by attacking Isreal from Lebanon.
    Lebanon is now a devided basket case.
    Jordon was beginning to experiencing the same thing so just rounded the Palos up and pushed them at gun point into Gaza.

    3
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    Mute H Woo
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    Jan 1st 2025, 9:16 PM

    @Brian:
    Palos can tap out at any time, just hand back the kidnapped women, children.
    Hand over HAMAS, and it stops.

    4
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    Mute joe moody
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 7:07 AM

    @Sergej Simonov: where the Jews growing up in the Warsaw ghettos “born terrorists” for fight back against Nazis??
    You are incredibly deluded..

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    Mute joe moody
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 7:13 AM

    @H Woo: when Iran smashed their most heavily defended air base with hypersonic missile’s a few months ago isreal did nothing, because they know full well Iran could level Tel-Aviv quicker than Israel can get at Tehran..

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    Mute joe moody
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 7:20 AM

    @honey badger: the Iranian people already had their revolution, it was to get rid of the brutal dictator the western colonial powers had put in place to steel the Iranians resources! You know all this surely??
    While it would be great to see a secular Iran like it was in the 50s before western corporate meddling it’s doubtful because of their opposition to the massive external pressure from the US and Israel for them to be a compliant vasel state like Saudi Arabia or such other western sponsored dictatorship..

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    Mute Liam Boyne
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:23 AM

    They will regret that, celebrating the start of a severe crackdown

    24
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    Mute AnthonyK
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    Jan 1st 2025, 12:55 PM

    The problem with countries like Syria is the colonial powers left.

    8
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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Jan 1st 2025, 1:06 PM

    @AnthonyK: The Brits said the same about Ireland.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:04 PM

    They were right! lol

    5
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    Mute Paul
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    Jan 1st 2025, 5:38 PM

    So, the New Orleans mass murderer is a migrant!

    There is so much blood of the hands of far left politicians…

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    Mute Thomas Sheridan
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    Jan 1st 2025, 6:08 PM

    @Paul: One suggestion is that he was born in Texas – to migrants parents?
    Either way, he was carrying ISIS flags. Obviously, it’s only another mental case.

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    Mute Paul
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    Jan 1st 2025, 6:39 PM

    @Thomas Sheridan: more blood on Genocide Joe’s hands.

    Need to build that wall

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 3:00 AM

    @Thomas Sheridan: Born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, not from an immigrant background. Reports indicate he was a recent convert to Islam. Served 10 years in the Army as an HR specialist and IT specialist, stationed in Afghanistan. Honorably discharged. Divorced in 2020. Father of 3 children. Paying $650 per month in child support. Property manager for Midas Group and Blue Meadow Properties, but Blue Meadow Properties went bust recently.

    Here’s video of Shamsud-Din Jabbar Describing Himself In 2020 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mz-ifeWYRM

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 10:34 AM

    @Paul: Build that wall with the middle east? dude was born in Texas :)

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    Mute thomas molloy
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    Jan 1st 2025, 11:35 AM

    Quotation. “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’”

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jan 1st 2025, 2:39 PM

    @thomas molloy: “this world of sin and woe”… yeesh

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    Mute thomas molloy
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    Jan 1st 2025, 3:36 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: it means bad behaviour and bad outcomes.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jan 2nd 2025, 10:37 AM

    @thomas molloy: “Sin: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.” Better watch out for that ‘Unjustified anger’ Tom, it’s on a long list of subjective circumstances that can only be judged by a lunatic.

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