Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat who fingers were broken by Asad has an exhibition in London.
He says the “exhibition is about the essence of the revolution – it’s human and creative side, which the media ignores. Wherever I go I try and show this hidden part of my people’s culture.”
He adds: “I am not worried about the future of my country. No revolution is pure. There will be victims and violence and it will take a long time. But after 50 years of injustice, a tsunami of public discontent has been unleashed and it won’t stop until the sun shines on Syria again.”
(Via Mostafa Saber)
To the commenters here: don’t forget the secular rebels and that the effort that started these protests was originally peaceful and democratic.
Didn’t people exactly like you – maybe you specifically – talk about the “human essence of the Iranian revolution”?
Maybe we shouldn’t listen anymore?
Sorry, I fail to say why we infidels should give a damn about the Syrian rebels who say in advance that they plan on enforcing dhimmitude on the local infidels. Among other things.
We don’t have a dog in this fight. If anything an Alawite minority is less likely to turn its guns on the West, given that it has so many more dangerous targets closer to home.
I agree with the point of the post then, I was commenting as an aside to it. Also, I’m not sure what ‘framing’ you’re referring to as reality after a revolution tends to be a pretty bad affair for everyone else if theocrats are put into power. I’m not sure that’s ‘framing’ anything because stating the obvious isn’t framing, it’s just stating the obvious. I do admire the resistance this person has, but it’s very limited given my own trauma in life.
I’m sure the Shah broke many a cartoonist’s fingers, but his regime was far better than the Shia theocracy that came after. Likewise concerning the Al-Qaeda Sunni Theocracy that will take hold should the Syrian government be toppled. I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the Syrian people for their government to be toppled given the makeup of those doing the toppling…I know people like to claim that somehow the FSA Secular Military types are in ‘charge’ of the revolution, but I’m heavily skeptical of that…
You miss the point of this post. The point is to see the spirit of human resistance and support it and not frame all resistance within the context of repressive and reactionary forces – whether Islamist or otherwise.
I definitely do support the spirit of human resistance, I just might feel a little easier in supporting it, as a practical military matter, if al-qaeda wasn’t pragmatically controlling the resistance through terror. Call me cynical, but I suspect the bottom line of invading Syria has more to do with people who have stock in munitions companies that fund the air force, and stock in companies like Haliburton, who would make the jails and other buildings once the country was bombed to shreds, after, during the reconstruction. Maybe it’s because that’s exactly what’s happened many other times?
I definitely support resistance to this regime, I just, you know, don’t want far worse people getting put into power. Kudos to this guy for speaking out though, I just doubt that his apparently sophisticated and humanistic culture will be the one put into power should Assad be toppled. Maybe the FSA Secular Military types will get put into power after all? Who knows.
I definitely think Assad should be overthrown, just like I definitely think the Shah should have been overthrown, I just worry, on a pragmatic level, what kind of culture will be replacing the current one. I don’t think things are as simple as merely ‘supporting human resistance’: there is always a pragmatic to these things. I do support this person and people like him if they can assure Syria’s future as a Secular State. If they cannot, I still support them in theory, but in practice I would be more hesitant while knowing people just like this man would be hung from the gallows or beheaded by the Al-Qaeda, once they took power.
If a revolution becomes prisoner of a theocracy (that is what is happening) is no longer a revolution but just a slaughter. In Syria the majority of the military opposition are jihadists and their agenda is neither secular nor democratic.
To Mr. Ali Ferzat the essence of this revolution is whatever is heart wants to see and he shows a good heart.
On the other hand I am tired of “revolutions”
“Revolution is war with pretensions of ideas, … no more!
The bullets, they do their job…
The why, they do not care.
How, straight into the meat …that’s all…”
I only see people being murdered and it makes me feel sad.
A revolution should start in the heart and finish in the consciousness or vice verso!
The “spirit of human resistance” and “the human side” is always the respect of life, isn’t it?
That a revolution is suppressed or hijacked should not deny the importance of people’s movements and legitimate demands via one of the most democratic ways in which people speak their minds. It is usually those who suppress revolutions, those with the power and guns and tanks that use violence to crush revolutions.