Another Friday of massive public protests looms in Syria, and once again it looks to rival the massive rallies of the previous week. Five weeks of the protests have taken a heavy toll on the protesters, but have not dampened their spirits.
Activists for the pro-democracy movement say that 617 protesters have been killed since the beginning of the protests in Mid-March. The estimate is somehwat larger than that of one human rights group, which put the toll at 416 earlier this week.
The protest movement in Syria started extremely modestly, with a few hundred demonstrators in the southern border city of Daraa. A violent crackdown swelled their numbers the following week, and the process repeated until Syria is now facing one of the largest such movements in the region, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets last Friday.
And though the crackdowns have escalated to the point that Syrian tanks are now in Daraa, this Friday is likely to be no less important for protesters. Indeed, the nation’s Muslim Brotherhood faction is now endorsing the protests openly and urging demonstrators to take to the streets. This will be one more reason for Friday’s protests to be something to watch.
Syria kills hundreds, and nobody objects. Israel bulldozes an olive tree, and the pitchfork-wielding mob drools all over themselves. What hypocrisy!
Where have all the self-righteous bloviators gone? Are you not upset that Syria is killing its own people? Why aren't you calling it a "genocide"? This is what happens when Israel isn't the one doing the shooting: TOTAL SILENCE!
Where's Giraldi to condemn the brutality? Where's John Muhammad? Where's Raashid? Where are all the great voices of unimpeachable integrity who detest violence in all its forms, directed against all people? Where are all these heroic champions of human rights? Why are they all curiously silent when stories appear about Arab despots killing Arab civilians in the street, yanking them out of their homes, shooting them as they lie wounded in hospital beds, kidnapping innocents and torturing them in unspeakable ways?