Events are moving fast across Northern Africa and the Middle East, and Syria is no exception. To protest the massacre of peaceful freedom fighters in the streets of their homeland, Syrian Americans throughout Southern California are gathering at the Consulate General of Syria in Newport Beach from 4 to 6 p.m. today.
The local demonstration coincides with protests planned by Syrian youth throughout the country today.
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According to a notice emailed to the Weekly by Ammar Kahf:
On March 15, Syrians protested 48 years of one-party rule, state of emergency and continued repression. Security forces repressed all protests with live ammunition, water hoses and massive arrests from day one. March 23 at 2 a.m.: Syrian Special Forces stormed al-Omari Mosque in Dar'a (southern Syria) and killed more than 15. Officers also shot at 10,000 walking in the funeral procession of those killed on their way to the cemetery. France 24 reports more than 100 killed and hundreds critically injured.
The Consulate General of Syria is located at 3 San Joaquin Hills Rd. (the corner of San Joaquin Hills and Jamboree roads) in Newport Beach.
“Say no more fear; Syria will be free!” is the protesters' rallying cry.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.