DAMASCUS, March 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – With Arab and Muslim peoples feeling the pinch of weakness and persecution, visiting monuments representing the glorious history of a once prosperous Islamic nation become a relief for some. In the Syrian capital, the shrine of heroic Muslim leader Saladin is one of these destinations, no doubt.

Saladin is the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and one of the most famous Muslim heroic leaders. He was the sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Palestine. In his wars against the Christian crusaders, Saladin achieved great successes with the capture of Al-Quds (Jerusalem), ending its 88-year occupation by the Franks.

Saladin shrine is currently located in the eastern part of the Umayyad mosque in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

You can not step into the shrine without taking off your shoes.

“We are trying to preserve this significant place because it is among the few places left for us to be proud,” the shrine keeper told IOL correspondent.

Hundreds of visitors from different nationalities visit the shrine daily, recalling Saladin’s great achievements and victories over foreign invading forces.

“I come to the shrine whenever I pass by to perform prayers in the nearby Umayyad mosque,” Ibrahim Assel, 34, who is living in the Palestinian Yermouk refugee camp, told IslamOnline.net.

“I come here to pray for the great Saladin and all our dead people in the occupied Palestinian lands as well as other persecuted Muslims,” he added.

Ahmed Belayev, 24, from Dagestan, studying religious science in Syria, agreed.

“Just before I left home for Damascus two years ago, I was urgently advised to visit the Saladin shrine as well as other landmarks in the Syrian capital such as Al-Hamediah market, the Umayyad mosque and the Damascus citadel,” Belayev told IOL.

“During a visit with other fellow Muslims to the Saladin shrine, we burst into tears as we prayed for Allah to help our persecuted Muslim people.”

Similar feelings of pride and hope were expressed by other visitors at the shrine.

“He (Saladin) is the father of the Kurds,” said Ahmed Okeed, a Kurdish citizen, referring to Saladin’s Kurdish origin.

“Saladin is not only an example of pride for the persecuted Kurdish people, but also for the Muslim people who are yearning for a savior.”

Many schools, faculties, streets, clubs and mosques in the different Syrian cities are named after heroic Saladin.

Since it assumed power in the Arab country in the early 1960s, the Arab communist Baath party has been using the name of Saladin to mobilize the Syrian people for war against Israel to regain its occupied Golan Heights.

Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the area in 1981.

The area is a grassy plateau overlooking north-eastern Israel and south-east Syria and have important water resources - providing Israel with a third of its water needs.

Syria has been under mounting international pressures for pulling out military forces from neighboring Lebanon.

The United States accuses Syria of harboring what it calls terrorists, developing weapons of mass destruction, and allowing foreign fighters into Iraq through its borders.