WHO STANDS WITH THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION?
As I write this it seems from reports coming out of Syria that a massacre is occurring in the Syrian city of Deraa carried out by the Syrian security services.
On the BBC World Service I heard the reporter declare that many of the, [incredibly courageous], protesters in Syria are now locked into protest, since the moment they stop and ‘normality’ resumes the secret police will then come for them. There is a truly terrible poetry to this process, by his own brutality the dictator signs his own death certificate.
Where can the magnificently courageous Syrian protesters turn to for support, not I fear from western governments in Europe and the US, who fear an unstable Syria more than they despise Assad, certainly not from the so called ‘left’, not in this country anyhow, the likes of the Stop The War Coalition ‘Respect’ or any number of campaigning organisations focused solely on the Israeli Palestine Situation, they are simply not interested, indeed are more concerned to provide apologias for the Clerical Fascism of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hammas. Perhaps support then from their co-religionists in the west, from groups like The Muslim Association of Britain, or the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, but no you will search in vein for support there, indeed you are more likely to find vilification, like the claim made on the MPAC website that the protesters are ‘using children as human shields’ see ‘The Reality of Syria Sun 27 March 2011.’ It seems that such Muslim activist groups in the UK are unwilling to afford you the freedom that they are able to exercise here.
So no rallies in Trafalgar square, no protests organised outside the Syrian embassy, no petitions from the Left. It would seem that you are on your own. The day when anyone imagines that they hold some sort of left progressive position by abandoning those fighting for their freedom against authoritarian regimes or neo-fascist clericalism is the day when notions of left and right become meaningless.
On the BBC World Service I heard the reporter declare that many of the, [incredibly courageous], protesters in Syria are now locked into protest, since the moment they stop and ‘normality’ resumes the secret police will then come for them. There is a truly terrible poetry to this process, by his own brutality the dictator signs his own death certificate.
Where can the magnificently courageous Syrian protesters turn to for support, not I fear from western governments in Europe and the US, who fear an unstable Syria more than they despise Assad, certainly not from the so called ‘left’, not in this country anyhow, the likes of the Stop The War Coalition ‘Respect’ or any number of campaigning organisations focused solely on the Israeli Palestine Situation, they are simply not interested, indeed are more concerned to provide apologias for the Clerical Fascism of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hammas. Perhaps support then from their co-religionists in the west, from groups like The Muslim Association of Britain, or the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, but no you will search in vein for support there, indeed you are more likely to find vilification, like the claim made on the MPAC website that the protesters are ‘using children as human shields’ see ‘The Reality of Syria Sun 27 March 2011.’ It seems that such Muslim activist groups in the UK are unwilling to afford you the freedom that they are able to exercise here.
So no rallies in Trafalgar square, no protests organised outside the Syrian embassy, no petitions from the Left. It would seem that you are on your own. The day when anyone imagines that they hold some sort of left progressive position by abandoning those fighting for their freedom against authoritarian regimes or neo-fascist clericalism is the day when notions of left and right become meaningless.
