"I must also confess that I have always been fascinated by the history of your great nation. Often referred to, as the Cradle of Civilisation and the Gateway to History, Syria is not an alien country to Malaysians. For the Muslims, the history of Syria is written into our text books as we studied about the history of Islam and its great civilisation during the time of the Prophet (pbuh), his Sahabah like Sayyidina Abu Bakar, Omar, Othman and Ali as well as many other great Muslim leaders and warriors including Khalid ibn Walid, Nur al Deen and Salahuddin Al Ayubbi who struggled to spread the message of Islam or defended the religion against the Crusaders."