MLK Would Have Supported Assad, and Other Tidbits From Dueling Syria Protests in DC

Tim Murphy

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The first thing members of Congress saw when they returned to work on Monday was dueling protests on Capitol Hill between supporters and opponents of a proposed military intervention in Syria. Both sides consisted largely of first- and second-generation Syrian-Americans. But only one faction went so far as to hold up Bashar al-Assad—who stands accused of using chemical weapons to kill 1,400 civilians on top of myriad other atrocities—as an emblem of peace and justice.

I spotted Hassan Mohammed, decked out in a biker glove made from a Syrian flag, a Syrian-flag sweatband, and red Abercrombie & Fitch sweatpants, and waving a six-foot-by-four-foot banner of the Assad. “He’s my president, No. 1!” said Mohammed, who has dual citizenship and drove down from New York to express his support. “I voted for him in 2007. I’m going to vote for him again.”

But what about his conduct during the civil war? “It’s not a civil war yet,” Mohammed insisted. And while civilian casualties are unavoidable in this non-civil-war, he’s confident that no chemical weapons have been used by the regime—it’s simply not practical. “He doesn’t have to use it; he can kill the same amount of people with different weapons.”

Milad Tabshi, who drove down from Pennsylvania, had a stern expression on his mustachioed face. “The Syrian regime did not commit any atrocities against the Syrian people,” he said. “It’s Western propaganda. It’s nonsense. It’s a war provoked, orchestrated by the West aimed to destroy every nation in the Middle East and take its natural resources.”

Here are three additional nuggets of wisdom from Assad’s defenders…

President Obama should borrow from Assad’s example and think of the children:

“American tax $$$ should fund US education not Al Qaeda.” Tim Murphy

Despite whatever else you may have heard, Assad is much loved:

Tim Murphy

Martin Luther King Jr. would have supported Assad. (At least he has company.):

Tim Murphy

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate