Berlin through new eyes: Syrian refugees offer guided tours

[...] Zakri doesn't even meet the groups he guides in Berlin's touristy Mitte district.

Here, standing between gritty pawn shops and greasy kebab stores, the 34-year-old Syrian refugee introduces you to his own, very personal version of Berlin.

Zakri arrived in Germany in June 2015 as one of the 890,000 asylum seekers last year who came looking for safety from war and hardship in countries like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

The new restaurants and bakeries that have popped up across the immigrant neighborhood of Neukoelln are a top destination for the thousands of homesick Syrian asylum seekers currently living on a diet of bland, mass-produced meals in Berlin's refugee shelters.

[...] Zakri takes the tourists to Shaam Restaurant, where young men are sitting around tables wolfing down plates of hummus topped with chickpeas, tahini and plenty of olive oil, or eating rolled-up pita sandwiches stuffed with chicken kebab, tomatoes and parsley.

There's no time for the tourists to sit down for a meal because Zakri has already moved on to the next stop: a former department store that was turned into a makeshift shelter for hundreds of asylum seekers.

Anti-migrant sentiment has been on the rise across Europe and in Germany, especially after two attacks in July that were carried out by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group.