Pro-regime demonstrators hold mass rallies
throughout Syria.
21st June 2011
Syrians Demonstrate to Support Peace
Mark Hanson
Syria has enjoyed a peace and security that was far superior to the restive peace that most Middle Eastern countries have had to endure. The sectarian violence that has marred Egypt and Algeria; the threat of al-Qaida militants that engulfs Yemen and Iraq; the brutal religious despotism of Iran and Saudi Arabia: these were largely alien in the peaceful idyll of Syria for the past 30 years.
The last round of violence in Syria took place in 1982, when an armed Islamist uprising was brutally crushed by the Syrian army.
Since then, the secular Ba’ath Party has maintained its constitutional status as the party of power, and the family of al-Assad has remained in the most powerful position. The current President, Bashar al-Assad, succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad, who was the President at the time of the 1982 Hama unrest.
Reports from the mainstream media are portraying the current situation in Syria as part of the “Arab Spring” – a peaceful rebellion sweeping the Middle East that is ushering in a new dawn of democracy and rule of law. The Syrian government’s official line of an armed uprising killing security forces is often portrayed with derision by the Western media and al-Jazeera, who are maintaining that the Syrian clampdown is a seriously violent and brutal oppression.
Rabel is a civil liberties organisation, and we cannot praise the undoubtedly heavy-handed response from the Syrian state apparatus, neither the tight rule of the current President that has seen many freedoms of expression, assembly and other civil liberties in a poor state of health.
Yet the reports in the media seem decidedly out of step with what is happening on the ground. Quoting human rights groups and single witness accounts, the Western media and also al-Jazeera seem to be following a particular line that bears little resemblance to what most Syrians are seeing.
Today is seeing mass demonstrations by Syrians supporting the President and voicing their support for their country. This has received little attention, and what there is tends to follow the line that the demonstrators aren’t genuine. Yet one report has estimated the numbers as being 9 million supporters expressing their support for a President who, though ruling a country with a mass of diverse religious and tribal groups, has enabled peace and security for the majority of Syrians for many years.
Open Doors, who support persecuted Christians worldwide, reports:
“As Christians in Syria, we have been living in peace for a long period of time. The evangelical church including other Christian denominations have been practicing their faith under the current government without any threats or danger. The Christian community has been blessed and protected in the majority Muslim nation of Syria under the current secular regime. It has been our prayer and thanksgiving for the past years where we were able to flourish and live in prosperity and peace with our neighbours and other religious sects.
Since the situation in the Middle East erupted, many small and other self interest groups have been exploiting the situation to achieve their agenda in the region. For example, many extremist foreign fighters have travelled to Iraq and killed innocent Iraqis, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians. These same extremist groups have turned their Jihad to neighbour Syria, exploiting the situation to establish their Islamic Emirate. These groups have been living and operating in Syria during the past three months. They have been entering houses and threatening many Christians and minority groups. They even entered government buildings and murdered men and women for no reason other than working in a government building.
Many of the "peaceful" demonstrations have been shouting, "Christians, your men belong to our sword and your women belong to our pleasure." Other extremist Muslim clerks, who belong to the opposition overseas, are calling the Muslim in Syria to shed the blood of more than one million Christians and Allawits in Syria to make up for the past years where the Christians and other minorities were living in peace.”
Another Christian lady in Homs (a place of many protests) reported today:
“supportive demonstration all over syria, in Damas, Aleppo and in Homs it looks wonderful, ppl seem to happy to celebrate and show their love to our great president and the syrian army. they r all shouting: the ppl want Bashar Al Assad thats clear msg isnt!”
Previously this brave Christian lady said to me:
“[The] media is playing a nasty game, for us here in Syria, the events happen in our streets, we watch it with our own eyes, we don’t need any kind of media to inform us...that’s why we can see the plot media is doing very well. While western media is making up videos and playing with pictures to fool people, trust me most of the videos they show happened in Lebanon and Iraq and not in Syria. The whole world is refusing to admit the fact that there are terrorists in Syria and they do kill security people and cause a lot of damage in streets and government buildings.”
The question is: why is the Western and al-Jazeera media, in conspiracy with Western governments and the Sunni-led Middle Eastern governments, so ignorant of the true picture? The answer lies in a hatred of a secular government that has been a thorn in the side of Israel, the West, and the Sunni Islamic ambitions of Sunni rule throughout the Middle East.
The European Union moved quickly to take advantage of the Arab Spring. The EU was swift to suggest a new partnership with North Africa, based on aid, development and trade in return for political influence. The US, too, has recently pledged more money for Egypt as it transitions to majority rule (a situation that has already seen an upsurge in sectarian violence).
Syria, under al-Assad, is not open to the West’s overtures. The EU expansionist programme cannot be furthered by a strong, stable, anti-West, pro-Iran government in Syria as a major regional player. Neither can the aim of al-Jazeera of furthering the Sunni-majority rule throughout the Middle East be realised unless the secular yet Shia-leaning government of Syria be dealt with.
The Syrian government, the security services, the regional authorities and individual leaders may be far from perfect: corruption is rife in some places. Yet the majority of Syrians support Assad. The Western media does not.
