Prominent Syrian artists detained

Chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks words (link)
Al Jazeera (Middle East) article and video:

"We pray that Arwa gets off lightly. The regime has been brutal toward Syria's intellectuals," the friend said.

Al Jazeera: "Syrian authorities have arrested Orwa Nyrabia, a prominent documentary filmmaker, and Mohammad Omar Oso, a well-known actor, the latest in a string of celebrities reportedly targeted for dissent during the country's 17-month uprising.




Nyrabia, who founded the "Damascus Dox Box" documentary film festival, was detained on Thursday at Damascus airport before boarding a plane to Cairo, Egypt's capital, friends and relatives said on Saturday.

Syrian police also raided the home of Oso, an actor who starred in popular TV series, and took him to an unknown place, the Damascus Media Centre activists' group said in a statement.

Oso's friends say he was shunned by the state after refusing to join the state-controlled actors' guild and sign statements declaring support for Assad at the start of the country's protest movement.

Activists say the two are victims of a wider government crackdown on prominent figures who have voiced criticism of the campaign of President Bashar al-Assad to crush dissent across the country. 

Film monopoly

Thirty-five year-old Nairabiya was part of a new generation of Syrian filmmakers who had defied a state ban on independent film production even before the revolt against the Syrian government, which has a monopoly on cinema and television production.

"It seems it is a crime to establish an independent cinema movement in Syria," said fellow Syrian director Ahmad Malas, in a video statement recorded at an undisclosed location outside Syria.

"We call for freedom for Arwa Nairabiya, an actor, producer and graduate of the Syrian Higher Cinema Institute who is always smiling," she said.

One of Nairabiya's friends, speaking from Damascus on condition of anonymity, said he feared for the filmmaker's safety.

"We pray that Arwa gets off lightly. The regime has been brutal toward Syria's intellectuals," the friend said." 

Al Jazeera (article and video):
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/08/20128258285339471.html



Al Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/08/20128252237209782.html
"The number of refugees fleeing the violent uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria has risen beyond 200,000, the United Nations has said.

Even as thousands continue to flee the country, mainly to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, government forces on Friday continued their assault on armed rebel positions across the country."


Open doors: "The situation in embattled Syria is getting worse for Christians."
http://www.opendoorsusa.org/press/press-release/2012/August/Situation-for-Christians-In-Syria-Deteriorates-but-Ministry-Continues

“The Christians who have a way out of the country are leaving, but unlike the time after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, when hundreds of thousands Christians fled Iraq, the surrounding countries have closed their doors to Syrians,” the contact says." ---

"Open Doors USA President/CEO Dr. Carl Moeller notes that “churches are reaching out to others and serving faithfully in Syria. The message of the gospel is being spread and people are more receptive to it. Praise the Lord that He is working in the midst of violence and chaos. Continue to pray for the brave believers in Syria.” 








Proverbs 2:21-22

"For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 
 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. "

quoted by Зьміцер Дашкевіч (Dimitri Dashkevich; imprisoned Belarusian Young Front leader)

 


Chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2C-k4q_wLI








Photo: Kerstin L.