Middle East Uprisings: Is Syria Next?

Last Tuesday was supposed to be a “day of rage” in Syria, but protests in the northern city of Aleppo and the capital of Damascus failed to generate the large number of protesters seen recently in other Middle East countries.

Several hundred Syrians gathered to call for democratic reforms, including the release of political prisoners (at least 1,000 are currently held in Syrian jails). Police responded by arresting at least 35 people, including a 10-year old boy and a 69-year-old college professor. The government claimed infiltrators were trying to stir chaos in the country.

View an amateur video clip from Tuesday’s protest:

Ten years before Hosni Mubarak came to power in Egypt, Hafez al-Assad and his Baath party gained control of Syrian politics and government. He ruled for 30 years until his death in 2000.

His son, Bashar succeeded him as president and has continued the iron-fisted policies of his father. It’s a government ruled by the Alawite minority, a sect of Islam considered heretical by many Muslims—especially the Sunni majority in Syria.

President Bashar Assad says a Tunisia or Egypt-like uprising is unlikely in Syria because his nation is more stable.

No wonder. He has allowed little opposition or dissent during his 11 years as president. His father ordered the Syrian Army to put down an uprising inspired by the Muslim Broherhood in the city of Hama in 1982. As many as 40,000 Sunni Muslims were killed.

Unlike his father, Bashar has promised to implement reforms. We’ll have to wait to see if his promised actions will be enough to satisfy pro-democracy forces.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Syria. Pressure from reformists in that country and elsewhere may grow in the days ahead—especially if the world begins to hear the shouts and screams of more little boys and elderly college activists echoing from the walls of Damascus prison cells