As Sunni Muslims residing in an Alawite neighborhood in Homs, Samer and his family were living on the edge of an intense sectarian fault line in western Syria.
The administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawite religious sect, is locked in a deadly civil war with a mostly Sunni insurgency. A rebellion against al-Assad’s government began in 2011 and sectarian violence soon followed.
“The minute the demonstrations started, everybody started figuring out, ‘Are you Shiite? Are you Sunni?’” said Samer, who asked that his full name not be published to protect a sister still living in Syria. “It’s like they forgot all the good things they had together and they started fighting against each other.”
Samer and his family mostly remained in their home during the war, surviving on a supply of bulgur, lentils and other legumes. They had water and electricity for just a few hours a day. Eventually, their food pantry began to run low. Growing increasingly fearful about their safety, Samer and his family decided it was time to make a break for it. They fled to Jordan and then resettled in the Atlanta area this year.
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