ابو ابراهيم الرقاوي When I came out in the first demonstration with my friends in the revolution against Assad’s brutal regime … I did not expect that one day I would be standing here talking about hell instead of a beautiful dream … We had a great cause …. We came out in peaceful demonstrations holding roses and demanding for our rights and our dignity …. But the dream turned into hell when ISIS came to Raqqa … We found ourselves caught between two fires: Assads criminal regime and the extreme laws … regulations and practices …forcefully introduced and imposed by ISIS. The hell known as ISIS is what you read about in newspapers … while we live every day … was the result of the loss of the Raqqa revolutionary brigade against ISIS … caused by a lack of international support to liberate the city from oppression. Arbitrary arrests began in the streets of my city… Overnight … they turned our revolutionary experience … which had proven to be successful … into a very different experience … trying to abolish the revolution in our souls and on the streets of our city which we decorated with the revolutionary flags. ISIS started by arresting activists: Ibrahim Al Ghazi, Mohammed Nour Mattar, Dr. Ismail Al-Ahmad, Abdul Ilah al-Hussein, Abdullah Khalil, Muhannad Haj Obaid and many others … Any civilian with ties to any military faction other than ISIS. Freedom squares where we once stood and chanted against injustice and crimes committed by the Assad regime … turned into squares of execution … where bodies of my countrymen hang of its walls. So it was inevitable for us to mobilise as activists in Raqqa … to relay this darkness to the world … with my friends Abdul Aziz - Hossam - Hani - Sarmad - Hassan - Ahmed - Ibrahim - Furat … and the rest … we launched our campaign and website Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently Our goal was to expose the crimes and the practices of ISIS … and re-ignite a new revolution in the face of another oppressor … chasing and arresting activists while displacing and killing many innocent people … We took this name for our campaign because we were truly being captured and slaughtered in silence … The deafening silence of the world around us to the crimes committed by ISIS led to the loss of our dear friend … Moataz billah Ibrahim … in the early days of our campaign … when ISIS arrested and executed Moataz in Freedom Square … where he paid with his life for this freedom … but we did not stop … give up or surrender …. we continued with our work … documenting ISIS aggressions … which angered them … so they issued death sentences in our names at the Mosques … accused us of blasphemy … said we are apostates from our religion and that we must therefore be killed … calling for our blood to be spilled by any ISIS follower …. just because we highlight their injustice and criminality. the death of our friends and the death threats issued in our names …. were a motivation for us to continue in our just and legitimate cause calling for dignity and freedom … to my friends in this campaign Abdul Aziz - Hossam - Hani - Sarmad - Hassan - Ahmed-Hammoud - Ibrahim - Fourat … and the rest …. I did not know any of you before this revolution … and now you have become my beautiful family …. love of freedom filled our hearts … and like the covenant that we made together …. we will continue our revolution and fulfil our dream … or we will die trying … this is what our pledge at Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently is about. ’ … and we hope to see our dream realised in al Raqqa and other places in Syria long live Syria … a free country … prosperous and strong.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 19:15:22 +0000