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View Full Version : Speak up in Syria - get 5 yrs. in jail


NewsGuy
03-20-2002, 09:13 AM
News from the Arab world

A Syrian member of Parliament was convicted yesterday of "trying to change the laws of Syria," after seeking more freedom for Syrian citizens. He was sentenced to 5 years in jail without parol.

The Syrian court determined that MP Mamoun Homsi was guilty of "accusing the Syrian government of corruption and limiting the freedom of its citizens."

Previoulsly, he was arrested in August of last year for starting a hunger strike to call local and international attention to his cause.

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It goes like this: You don't like the Arab government policies -- you're headed for 5 years in jail.

Seeing this as the law of the land not only in Syria, but in virtually every Arab country, you really have to laugh at all these Arabs who devote so much of their time to blame Israel for their problems.

But actually, it is exactly this Arab misery that causes their governments to try to shift the blame away from their brutal oppression of their own people, and pin it all on Israel.

ibrodsky
03-20-2002, 09:58 AM
The USSR is gone, but not totalitarianism.

Really, Islamic states are the new Evil Empire. Only they are much more evil than the old USSR, because they not only desire world conquest, they are determined to kill as many innocent civilians as possible along the way.

cerulean
03-20-2002, 10:26 AM
Originally posted by ibrodsky
The USSR is gone, but not totalitarianism.

Really, Islamic states are the new Evil Empire. Only they are much more evil than the old USSR, because they not only desire world conquest, they are determined to kill as many innocent civilians as possible along the way.

This is a good point. It took decades for the West to realize that Stalin was not so good as he said (to put it mildly), and in the meantime many Westerners made trips over to the Soviet Union and pontificated on the success of the socialistic state after being shown around. It's depressing to read accounts from the 1930s and 1940s by well-meaning people who were taken in. Perhaps there's a similar lack of realization process here?

Flame
03-20-2002, 12:02 PM
What makes this different and eminently more dangerous is all other conflicts have been declared by the "leaders" of governments.... islam is a problem because the populations are on a world wide rampage... no other nation has worked up its civilians and urge them to use terrorist actions.

It's a new monster and is almost impossible to control... do something and they cry racist, human rights violations, and those not actively involved in terrorism, allows them to hide in the communites.

So far the arab world has banded together in great numbers... I pray all the time that foolish countries like China and Russia decide to band together with us and India and ascend on the arab world.

ibrodsky
03-20-2002, 02:30 PM
Originally posted by Flame
I pray all the time that foolish countries like China and Russia decide to band together with us and India and ascend on the arab world.

Surely you meant "descend"!

Well, all three have their own Islamist problem, so it would make sense. But China is not known for acting sensibly.

The problem is that no gov't leaders are willing to come right out and say that militant Islam is rooted in Islamic states. If those states won't take harsh measures to discourage the growth of militant Islam, then all we can do is hunt down the perpetrators of specific crimes.

Really, at some point the US is going to have to demand that countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt either fight terrorism or become targets. And we are going to have to focus more on Iran, whether or not Saddam is still around.

This is a huge problem. Unfortunately, it may take a tactical nuke strike to convince these countries that we will no longer tolerate their pretended moderation while their schools, media, and mosques churn out suicide mass murderers.