With Friends Like These – Who Needs Enemies!
Bashar Assad’s days as President are Numbered,
Sooner or Later One of His Foes will take Him Out!
His replacement will eventually make Michael Stand
When Seven Vials of Wrath Are Poured on the Planet
While Jesus Judges The Saved In Heaven For Rewards
After a Sounding of the Last Trump in a Series of Seven
When those who morally Destroyed Earth are Destroyed
By a Pouring Out of the Seven Vials of His Wrath on Them!
April 13, 2011
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Daniel 12:1 – And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall
be found written in the book.
Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Revelation 11:14-18 – The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [16] And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, [17] Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. [18] And the nations were angry, AND THY WRATH IS COME, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
I Thessalonians 5:9 – For God hath not appointed us TO WRATH, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Begin Excerpt from THE JERUSALEM POST via REUTERS
Syrian President Assad’s emboldened opponents
By REUTERS
04/12/2011 19:04
Assad faces the most serious challenge of his 11-year rule from several opposition parties calling for public freedoms and an end to corruption.
Talkbacks (1)
AMMAN – Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad faces the most serious challenge of his 11-year rule from a wave of protests calling for public freedoms and an end to corruption.
Opposition parties are banned in Syrian under emergency law introduced when the Baath Party seized power in 1963.
RELATED:
Syrian opposition says 200 killed in protests
Assad cedes ground to Islamists as calls to oust him grow
Although dozens of parties exist, including leftist, secularist, Islamist and Arab nationalist parties, decades
of repression have forced them underground or into exile, leaving formal opposition weakened and fragmented.
The most influential opposition groups are the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Kurdish nationalists, and an alliance of liberal, leftist, Islamist and Kurdish figures who produced the 2005 Damascus Declaration calling for peaceful reform in Syria.
Here is a summary of Syrian opposition groups and figures, in Syria and in exile:
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Membership of the Muslim Brotherhood was made a capital offense in Syria in 1980. Two years later, the late President Hafez al-Assad put down an armed uprising by the Brotherhood in the city of Hama.
Human rights groups said at least 20,000 people were killed.
The group’s leader, Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, operating from exile, says the Brotherhood seeks non-violent democratic change to replace autocratic rule with a plural system where it can present an Islam-based manifesto to a free vote. It says it does not want an Islamic state in Syria.
KURDISH PARTIES
Kurdish groups have sought civic rights for Kurds in Syria, and won a pledge from Assad last week that tens of thousands of stateless Kurds would be granted citizenship.
But authorities have countered efforts to organize Syria’s minority Kurds into an effective political force by jailing Kurdish leaders and trying to appease Kurdish tribes. Charismatic Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo was jailed for three and half years in 2009 for “weakening national morale”. Habib Ibrahim, a former political prisoner, is taking a more active role as protests against Assad’s rule intensify.
OPPOSITION FIGURES (in Syria)
RIAD TURK is the leading opponent of the Baath Party’s monopoly on Syria’ s political
system.
Turk has spent 25 years in jail, including 17 in solitary confinement. During the Damascus Spring, a period dominated by calls for democratic reform that lasted almost a year after Bashar succeeded his father in 2000, Turk warned that Assad would not hesitate to use repression to crush Syria’s democrats.
AREF DALILA is a former dean of economics at Damascus University who has campaigned for decades for a democratic alternative to the Baath Party. He was jailed from 2001 to 2008 after he criticized a cellphone concession granted to Assad’s cousin, tycoon Rami Makhlouf, who in the eyes of protesters is a symbol of corruption in Syria.
ANWAR BUNNI is scion of a political family known for unflinching opposition to the Baath Party’s monopoly of power. Bunni, a human rights lawyer from the city of Hama, championed the cause of Syria’s political prisoners before being sentenced to five years in jail 2005 for “weakening national morale”.
HAITHAM MALEH is a former judge who challenged the Baath Party takeover of the judiciary and professional unions.
Jailed for six years in the 1980s, Maleh was sentenced again last year but released last month under an amnesty for prisoners over 70.
AHMAD TUMEH is a physician and respected civic figure from the province of Raqqa, one of the areas hardest hit by a water crisis over the last six years that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Tumeh was one of a group of 12 who were arrested in 2007 and jailed for two and a half years after they tried to revive the Damascus Declaration.
FAWAZ TELLO was jailed five years for his role in the Damascus Spring. An engineer by training, Tello has been working quietly since his release in 2006 to further the cause of human rights in Syria and strengthen the democratic movement.
OPPOSITION FIGURES (in exile)
ABDELHALIM KHADDAM, a former vice president who resigned and defected from the Baath Party in 2005, has said Assad’s promises of reform do not go far enough and called for the creation of a new constitution based on a parliamentary democracy.
But opposition figures distrust Khaddam because of his decades of service in the Baath Party, and massive wealth he accumulated while he was in office.
RIFAAT AL-ASSAD turned against his brother, President Hafez al-Assad and lives in exile in Spain.
Rifaat, now a wealthy businessman, has loyalists among Syria’ s Alawite minority but hi
s role in crushing the 1982 Hama uprising, where forces under his command killed thousands, means he has limited influence among majority Sunnis.
MAAMOUN AL-HOMSI, a former member of parliament and businessman now based in Canada, was jailed for five years in 2001 for taking part in the Damascus Spring. He has said he expects Assad to replace Syria’s emergency law with equally draconian anti-terrorism legislation.
EMERGING FIGURES IN CURRENT PROTESTS
MOUAZ AL-KHATIB is head of the independent Islamic Civilization society. Seen as an enlightened religious figure, Khatib has moved to assure Syria’s minorities that the diversity of the country would be respected if Assad falls.
“We call for freedom for every person.
For every Sunni, Alawite, Ismaili and Christian, whether Arab or a member of the great Kurdish nation,” Khatib told protesters this month.
MONTAHA AL-ATRASH is a leading member of the human rights organization Sawasiah.
Her stature as daughter of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who led a revolt against French colonial rule, helped elevate her as a spokesperson for non-violent democratic change. She has publicly questioned official assertions that Assad was the only person qualified to rule Syria.
SUHAIR AL-ATASSI played a key role in a March 16 protest in Damascus seeking the release of political prisoners and 15 children arrested in the city of Deraa for writing slogans on walls inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions.
She was arrested by secret police at the protest, two days before the eruption of the Deraa uprising, which later spread across the country. She was released earlier this month.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site
contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more detailed information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
You may use material originated by this site.
However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.