Al Arabiya News Channel is reporting that Syrians are getting organized to launch protests against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, in Egypt the army ruled out use of force against civilians as a million people march and general strike are called for tomorrow by opposition groups, according to the BBC.
DUBAI (Al Arabiya) — Thousands of Syrians have joined a Facebook group to call for a protest against their president on Friday, February 4, echoing Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and Egypt’s Day of Rage on January 25.
The group named “the Syria Revolution 2011,” is planning rallying young people in a march to protest against the Ba’thist regime led by Bashar al-Assad after Friday’s prayer.
The group described al-Assad’s rule as dictatorship and showed torture YouTube videos of political dissident in the country.
The group also called for civil disobedience, and encouraged “all of the brave Syrian youth, from all factions and social classes and from all provinces” to “not be silent about oppression.”
Against ‘revolution’
To counter the group and its plans, a another group was recently formed to support Assad and his regime.
“We love you” said a caption in bold red on the group’s profile which includes a picture of al-Assad.
The pro-Syrian president group called “The Syria Revolution 2011” group as “backward”.
The number of people joining both groups is constantly increasing and includes 6,586 people for “The Syria Revolution 2011” and 6,466 with pro-the Syrian president and his regime.
“One nation, one blood, one leader, one god,” said the pro al-Assad group.
Syria’s late President Hafiz al-Assad initially groomed his elder son Basil al-Assad to be the country’s future president, but Basil died in a car accident
Bashar al-Assad who had few political aspirations and was an ophthalmology graduate, inherited Syria’s presidency after his father’s death in 2000.
In 2007 Bashar was approved president for another seven-year term after he won a vote, in which had no challenger, by 97.6 of the votes, according to official figures.
A far cry from his father’s socialist rule, Bashar opened the country’s market but quashing political dissidents is still taking place.
6 thoughts on “Protest to be launched in Syria”
It is a very good sign provided things dont get out of hand the uprising brings the required result in the Arab world. One danger though in the case of Syria more than Egypt is the religious fundamentalists and nuts might pose a threat to bring about Iran’s style of Mullahs to the political scene. If this happened the political dynamic and the balance of power in the region can be unpredictable. Hopefully the military can control the situation so that election can be held.
I don’t want the entire middle east to be engulfed in fire which could have a negative effect on the folw of oil, that have a huge impact on all of us.
Wow! George how greed can you get. People are living on $2.00 a day and you are worried about the flow of oil. Man people are going hungry they are eating in shifts and all you can think of is your gas bill. Really shameful.
GEORGE,
You worrie about Oil when millions show frustration for being oppressed for years. Oil will abundantly available when each dictators of middle east and African countries crumble down one bye one.
It looks déjà vu 1952. Gamal toppled Farouk and shouted to his Arab kin and kits to rise up. And that was followed by similar coup d’état’s and uprisings from Morocco to Aden. I am not sure how many of you had the opportunity of growing up in the 50’s and 60’s listening to Al-Qahira. It used to tell stories of the genie of progress had escaped out of the bottle of imperialism. Egypt was advancing at a blinding speed that USA, France and Britain became alarmed and jealous. When Gamal and his cohorts found out that they were no smarter than a 3rd grade student they started flipping the coin of blaming everything on USA and above all Israel. They even waged numerous futile wars and battles that cost the lives of millions of their young citizens leading to more hardships and degradations. That led to excruciating predicament that end up suffocating even Gamal himself to death.
This time it may lead to a very different ending. It seems that consecutive despotic regimes have created a power vacuum in almost every such country in the Arab League. This has created a dangerous predicament be it Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Algeria and the worst of all Yemen. In each of these countries the only two well organized groups are the military and extreme religious elements. In all these countries the military has a history of violent clashes with extreme religious groups including The Muslim Brotherhood and other violently religious extremists. I hope and pray that there will be peaceful ‘transitions’ that will lead to societies wherein democratic institutions will sprout and flourish. I hope well-read intellectuals have learned lessons from what happened to Iran. There, the Imam was given unhindered leeway to do whatever he wanted and he did just that. I remember how cities like Abadan and Tehran looked like when I was there in very early 70’s and what happened to them after Sharia became the rule of the land. Infrastructures neglected to rubbles and you can smell the stench 3 days before you arrive. The caliphs were busy crying and moaning about America and kept themselves preoccupied with making their 16 and 18 year-olds brides happy. The unemployment there is more than 15% until Fridays. That is when they give every young person a job of coming out to their speakeasies to blame all of their ills on the USA. I hope today’s developments in Egypt will not lead to a similar outcome.
One arab commentator wondered why such uprising is happening in countries which do not export oil and not in oil producing but even more tyrannical nations like the gulf states and saudi arabia? It´s worth pondering about!