Tareq Abdulhay Syrian sculptor imprisoned

[Hank Kaminsky]

Help Imprisoned Syrian Sculptor at Risk Under Brutal Regime

“GIVE MY HUMANITY BACK TO ME BY CHALLENGING VILLAINY, VIOLENCE, TANKS, AND HALF-MEN.” – Tareq Abdulhay

Suweida, Syria: Released by Close Friends of Tareq Abdulhay Who Have Walked Step-by-Step With Him In His Political Activism

TAREQ ABDULHAY IS A SCULPTOR, potter, light photographer, and editor of Sculpting, an arts magazine published by the Sculptors’ Union, Suweida Province. This former chief archeological restorations expert for Syria’s Directorate of Antiquities and Museums, born in 1967, earned a degree in photography from Damascus University’s Fine Arts College (1991). Tareq belongs to the International Federation for Photographic Art and the Light Photography Arts Association of Syria, exhibiting at numerous shows in Syria and abroad. He has experimented in making pottery with innovative materials, particularly basalt. (Most of his works have sold; the photographs below are of experiments and minor works left in his studio after his recent detention.)

WITH THE PASSION OF AN ARTIST TO WHOM FREEDOM MEANS EVERYTHING, and a strong concern for the well-being of his country, the forty-three year old Tareq Abdulhay has been involved from the beginning in the people’s protests demanding freedom from the dictatorial regime in Syria.

TAREQ OUTSPOKENLY SUPPORTED THE LEGITIMACY OF THE SYRIAN PEOPLE’S DEMAND FOR FREEDOM AND DIGNITY on BBC-Arabic’s Have Your Say, as well as on his Facebook page. He wrote exposing acts of regime repression, its criminal tactics and plots, and its desperate attempts to spread conflict among its citizens by playing the sectarian and minority card. Throughout this period, Tareq has suffered assaults and attacks by security agents.

TAREQ DEMONSTRATED FOR FREEDOM on Syria’s Independence Day (April 17), in Shu’la Square, in his hometown of Suweida, and was imprisoned for a day, his camera and cell phone confiscated. Tareq was subsequently subjected to numerous threats over the phone and in person by persons associated with the security apparatus, warning him to cease his struggles against the regime. These escalated, after his repeated refusals to stop supporting and participating in the protests, to death threats.

BECAUSE TAREQ COMES FROM A DRUZE BACKGROUND, the security apparatus tried to persuade him to participate in “dialogue” as part of its policy directed toward swaying minorities. He refused each time. What’s more, he wrote and communicated to the media exposing this policy of exploiting minorities, using his real name, causing him again to be detained briefly.

TAREQ IS NO STRANGER TO DISSENT. In 1995, Abdulhay, with a group of photographer friends, documented archeological sites in Suweida, in an attempt to save them from ruin and burial during the building of an axial road through the center of the city. They organized an exhibit about these sites sponsored by the Union of Engineeers, despite government opposition from then Culture Minister Najah Attar, who ordered a boycott of the exhibit. Security officials harassed Abdulhay.

UNKNOWN PARTIES KIDNAPPED TAREQ On Tuesday, August 23, 2011, as he was returning to his home at approximately five p.m. An hour later, security agents raided his home, ransacking its contents, and confiscating his computer and a collection of his papers. Security did not acknowledge that Abdulhay was in their custody for another week, and this only after frantic efforts by his family. Tareq spent his forty-third birthday, September 12, in prison.

TAREQ ABDULHAY IS IMPRISONED TODAY. He is in poor health. His family has learned via leaks from security that he has declared a hunger strike in prison, which increases their concern for his health. He has a gastric ulcer. His family has tried in vain to bring him medicines. No one is allowed to see him or to ascertain his status of health or, indeed, life. Tareq’s plight is the plight of many prisoners in Syria: news of him is reduced to what leaks can be obtained through security personnel, which are few and far between.

TAREQ WROTE ON HIS FACEBOOK STATUS, “History will record the Omari Mosque [where the first protests began, in Dara Province] as one of the milestones in human endeavors, more important than the pyramids or the invention of writing. There will come a day when I will visit it and kiss its stones, which have freed me of all that barred me from being human. Blessed are you, and blessed is every drop of blood that flowed on the ground of Horan [traditional name of Dara Province] to GIVE MY HUMANITY BACK TO ME, BY CHALLENGING VILLAINY, VIOLENCE, TANKS, AND HALF-MEN.”

People experienced with human rights work in Syria say that publicity often helps the imprisoned and does seem in some cases to mitigate their ill-treatment and to expedite their release.

· WRITE OR FAX THE CURRENT PRESIDENT OF SYRIA to express your concern for Tareq Abdulhay.: Bashar al-Assad, Presidential Palace, Rashid Street

Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic

Fax: +963 11 332 3410



· PLEASE VISIT AND “LIKE” the Facebook support page for Tareq Abdulhay to stay informed: http://on.fb.me/njy2Ia



· ALERT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL of your concern for Tareq Abdulhay using their contact form: http://www.amnesty.org/en/contact

[yserbey]

it's a bad bad regime, let's cross our fingers and hope he still alive.

[fused]

Hank are you still around and have there been any updates on this situation? A lot has happened in the months since you made this post and recent events in Syria are both horrifying and sad.

[GlennT]

This is a good informative thread and because I admire the courage and actions of Tareq I almost don't want to point this out, but am doing so for the hope of better communication that does not weaken credibility. It is only this part that I would question:

"TAREQ WROTE ON HIS FACEBOOK STATUS, “History will record the Omari Mosque [where the first protests began, in Dara Province] as one of the milestones in human endeavors, more important than the pyramids or the invention of writing."

This type of hyperbole may be a cultural thing, I don't know. But please...a protest, of any sort, even against a tyrannical government, compared as of greater significance than the pyramids or the invention of writing? This shows an embarassing lack of perspective and co-measurement. This amplification of self-importance is as damaging to humanity in a different way as is the oppression of a tyrannical government.

I'm not saying this about Tareq in particular but people justify all sorts of terrible behavior when they become so ego-centric as to think of their own actions as pivotal to the world around them to such a high degree. The current example that comes to mind is the radical Islamist belief that their cause of the moment is so crucial and correct that it warrants strapping explosive vests on and detonating them in a crowd of innocent civilians. It is an extreme cheapening of life. To get there, one has to first believe that their cause is more important than anything else, including the most fundamental and basic understandings of God and life, and then remove the humanity from oneself so as to look at other people not as precious lives full of opportunity, hope, and the potential to do good or great things with that life. but as objects to be manipulated towards and end. On top of that, to also fail to see a bigger picture of cause and effect in the real world. As a tactic, blowing up bombs in peaceful crowds of people has not brought anyone closer to a positive outcome. It has only de-legitimized the causes that propelled the behavior.

Again, this is not in any way meant to compare to the actions of Tareq, which are positive, justified, and necessary, but merely to point out the dangers of messianic thinking and use of hyperbole in evalutating one's actions.

[yserbey]

Originally Posted by GlennT

This is a good informative thread and because I admire the courage and actions of Tareq I almost don't want to point this out, but am doing so for the hope of better communication that does not weaken credibility. It is only this part that I would question:

"TAREQ WROTE ON HIS FACEBOOK STATUS, “History will record the Omari Mosque [where the first protests began, in Dara Province] as one of the milestones in human endeavors, more important than the pyramids or the invention of writing."

This type of hyperbole may be a cultural thing, I don't know. But please...a protest, of any sort, even against a tyrannical government, compared as of greater significance than the pyramids or the invention of writing? This shows an embarassing lack of perspective and co-measurement. This amplification of self-importance is as damaging to humanity in a different way as is the oppression of a tyrannical government.

I'm not saying this about Tareq in particular but people justify all sorts of terrible behavior when they become so ego-centric as to think of their own actions as pivotal to the world around them to such a high degree. The current example that comes to mind is the radical Islamist belief that their cause of the moment is so crucial and correct that it warrants strapping explosive vests on and detonating them in a crowd of innocent civilians. It is an extreme cheapening of life. To get there, one has to first believe that their cause is more important than anything else, including the most fundamental and basic understandings of God and life, and then remove the humanity from oneself so as to look at other people not as precious lives full of opportunity, hope, and the potential to do good or great things with that life. but as objects to be manipulated towards and end. On top of that, to also fail to see a bigger picture of cause and effect in the real world. As a tactic, blowing up bombs in peaceful crowds of people has not brought anyone closer to a positive outcome. It has only de-legitimized the causes that propelled the behavior.

Again, this is not in any way meant to compare to the actions of Tareq, which are positive, justified, and necessary, but merely to point out the dangers of messianic thinking and use of hyperbole in evalutating one's actions.

dear, with all respect, and somehow, you are right, but tareq abdulhay is not a muslim guy, in fact he's durzi, far away from muslim believes and act, so i guess what's is written in his profile, do not belong to him, or u miss understand what he really mean.

[Nelson]

[quote=GlennT;102230] ...to also fail to see a bigger picture of cause and effect in the real world. QUOTE]

so glad Glenn to see you understand the dynamics behind. The causa-effect universal principle never fails,whether we talk about physical/energy forms which includes the tangible and the spiritual... I can sense a ray of wisdom striking somewhere in the vecinity. Best to ya.

[GlennT]

Originally Posted by yserbey

dear, with all respect, and somehow, you are right, but tareq abdulhay is not a muslim guy, in fact he's durzi, far away from muslim believes and act, so i guess what's is written in his profile, do not belong to him, or u miss understand what he really mean.

Thanks for the clarification. I had not assumed anything regarding Tareq's religious beliefs. I was responding to what was stated as a quote from him written on his facebook page. If someone else is writing quotes on his behalf and operating his facebook page, and these are not his words, then it is the thinking of that person who's use of hyperbole I was addressing.

The example of militant Islamist behavior that results from egocentric delusions of grandeur was an example chosen not because it has anything to do with Tareq and his beliefs, but because it is an example that is fresh in our minds which can make a clear point about how dangerous it is to exagurate the importance of one's political causes. And make no mistake, the actions of militant Islamists are not religious but political, in as much as God does not ask people to blow up his sons and daughters. But He does ask us to resist evil, and that is what Tareq is doing, and for which I applaud him.

And thanks for the thumbs up, Nelson.