{"id":3144,"date":"2012-05-21T11:53:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T03:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muzlimbuzz.sg\/?p=3144"},"modified":"2012-05-22T13:57:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T05:57:20","slug":"silence-is-betrayal-sydney-flash-mob-for-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/silence-is-betrayal-sydney-flash-mob-for-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Silence is betrayal: Sydney Flash Mob for Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
On Saturday May 19 young Australian Muslim activists staged a flash mob protest against the Syrian regime at Sydney\u2019s Darling Harbour.\u00a0The group of 90 people staged the confronting flash-mob protest to raise awareness of the Syria conflict.<\/div>\n

Activists dressed in army fatigues aimed fake guns at women and children participants huddled in defenceless positions, re-enacting what organisers say is real life brutality that takes place under Syrian president Bashar Assad\u2019s\u00a0regime.<\/p>\n

The flash mob, held at 1pm, ended with the release of a banner from the Western Distributor Highway overlooking the crowd stating \u201cSilence is\u00a0Betrayal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Organiser Mohsen Saleh, 22, said the inspiration for this unorthodox form of protest came from a YouTube video of a similar flash mob in\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is much more powerful in my opinion. Silence. Everyone stops and stares,\u201d said Saleh.<\/p>\n

Onlooker Fiona Fonti, 30,\u00a0agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is quite striking. With protests, you don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on, it\u2019s just people cheering and chanting but this is really\u00a0different.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fonti said she was only vaguely aware of the situation in Syria before the flash mob. Other onlookers like Marinke Kat, 26, said they were not aware of the situation at\u00a0all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw \u2018Bashar\u2019 and was like which country is he from, then I saw \u2018Syria\u2019 [on the signs],\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt draws attention really quickly, because you think \u2018Oh what\u2019s going on there?\u2019 and then you stop to take a\u00a0look.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a United Nations estimate of over 9000 dead in Syria since the nationwide uprising began early last year, attention to the cause is exactly what the organisers want.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who may have not known what\u2019s happening in Syria will find out, and anyone who is against the murder of children or the murder of innocent people will be shocked to find this information,\u201d said Asme Fahmi, 31, a\u00a0participant.<\/p>\n

Fahmi said her travels to Syria pushed her to join\u00a0in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw how people have been mistreated by this dictatorship. You\u2019re not allowed to speak about the government, you\u2019re not allowed to dissent in any way,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leadership is built upon abuse and torture and fear. It\u2019s just no way for anyone to\u00a0live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organisers hope that by raising awareness, more people will add their voices in the call against President\u00a0Assad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to say is if you stay silent, you\u2019re taking the side of the oppressor,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cYou are not\u00a0neutral.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Video of the #FreeSyria flashmob held at Darling Harbour, Sydney, on the 19th May 2012.<\/p>\n

A movement of young people with a vision of raising awareness for justice in the world. If we remain silent, then we betray our moral obligations by not speaking out for justice and against injustice. Join the movement!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/silenceisbetrayal<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/silencebetrayal<\/p>\n

[divider]<\/p>\n

Source: NewMatilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday May 19 young Australian Muslim activists staged a flash mob protest against the Syrian regime at Sydney\u2019s Darling Harbour.\u00a0The group of 90 people staged the confronting flash-mob protest to raise awareness of the Syria conflict. Activists dressed in army fatigues aimed fake guns at women and children participants huddled in defenceless positions, re-enacting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1568,1571,10,1567,173,363,1570,1556,562,1569],"class_list":["post-3144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-assad","tag-darling-harbour","tag-featured","tag-flash-mob","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-silence-is-betrayal","tag-sydney","tag-syria","tag-youth-activism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3148,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions\/3148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}