More than 1,200 green and white flags dotted Hornbake Plaza this week – each representing a dozen lives lost in the Syrian revolution – in an effort to call students’ attention to the ongoing violence.
Members of Muslims Without Borders held a series of events on the campus as part of Stand for Syria Week to inspire more people to support Syrian citizens as the government continues to fire against rebel forces.
Mohammed Kemal, the chapter’s Student Government Association liaison, said many students are concerned about human rights violations in Syria – but only once they are aware of the problem.
A few weeks ago, members of the organization asked students to sign a white board if they supported the Syrian citizens; of the 400 people who signed, about 75 percent said they initially were unaware of the issue before the members explained it, Kemal said.
“People want to do this. People want to help,” he said. “People do want to make a change – you have to reach out to them and let them know.”
The violence began last year after Syrian citizens protested the reported torture of 14 students. As protests spread across the country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched an assault on the country’s people with military force.
In December, leaders of the United Nations said the country was in a state of civil war.
Sophomore psychology and public health major Aisha Hussain, a member of Muslims Without Borders, said events such as Stand for Syria Week will hopefully show the U.S. government students are concerned about these issues.
“I do think it’s important to get out of our University of Maryland bubble,” she said. “We are the adults of tomorrow.”
Journalism professor Ron Yaros – who teaches a class integrating multimedia tools such as blogging, Twitter and photography – said the Syrian government’s strict control of the Internet and citizens’ fears of retribution for speaking out have prevented information from spreading within the country. In 2011, there were 186,000 tweets per hour within Egypt about the country’s revolution, whereas there have only been about 3,000 to 6,000 tweets per hour from Syria, he said.
“Unfortunately from a social media standpoint, Syria has had far less revolutionary traffic than Egypt or Iran,” Yaros said.
Because of such restricted access, Yaros said it’s important for activist groups outside of the country to raise awareness about the issue and report the scarce information that is released from Syria.
“It speaks to how much control there is within the border and how much needs to be done outside the border,” he said.
Freshman journalism and government and politics major Troy Price said students can help to share such information.
“Since the Middle East is in such a tentative position right now, it certainly demands our attention,” Price said. “I think there’s certainly something to be said for young energy.”
Kemal said as more people are informed about the issue, they will then tell their friends and awareness will spread.
“A tree starts from the seed, and we are the seed,” he said.
kelley@umdbk.com
