Marie Catherine Colvin, a British journalist with over three decades of experience of covering major events in different parts of the world, left Beirut on Feb. 14 on a mission to illegally enter Syria from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley en route to Homs, Syria. Her clear intention, writes Franklin Lamb, was to document the conditions of the civilian population in Homs who had been under heavy attack for the preceding two weeks. Marie had planned to arrive back in Beirut on Feb. 22. As it turned out, that was the day she was killed as 11 artillery shells slammed into her cramped quarters. She died a heroic death, for the cause of telling the world what was exactly happening in the disturbed land of Syria. We all salute her for her courage.
Marie had promised apprehensive friends in Beirut that she would return “no later than one week maximum, Certainly, I’ll be back by your birthday Franklin! (Feb. 26)” she told me, adds Franklin Lamb. Had she been a Muslimah, she would have said: inshaAllah I’ll be back…. in place of “certainly, I’ll be back…” Here lies the difference.
Abu Yusuf
Gaya, Bihar