HOMS, Syria — Abu Bilal tore down a wall in his home to recover a library of Islamist texts he had hidden more than a decade earlier, when possessing such materials could mean arrest or worse under Bashar al-Assad's rule.
Bilal had fled Syria during the civil war and spent roughly 15 years in exile, including time in Kuwait. He returned after Assad's regime collapsed in December, following a rapid military offensive by opposition forces that ended the president's 24-year rule.
The concealed books would have subjected him to imprisonment or harsher penalties had authorities discovered them. Assad's government suppressed political and religious materials deemed ideologically threatening, and Homs was a flashpoint of the conflict, enduring years of siege and bombardment that displaced hundreds of thousands.
Bilal's recovery of the untouched collection represents a rare moment of reclamation after the civil war's devastation. His decision to hide the texts behind a wall underscored the pervasive danger that shaped daily life under Assad's grip on expression and thought.
