Syrian-Americans in Chicago Area Hail Arab League Move Against Syria

posted on: Nov 14, 2011

A day after the Arab League moved to expel Syria if it doesn’t halt a violent campaign against protesters, Syrian-Americans in the Chicago area welcomed the move, though some feared it may spark more violence.

The 22-nation league set a Wednesday deadline for Syrian President Bashar Assad to implement a peace plan he had previously agreed to, then repudiated by continuing a violent crackdown that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since the uprisings began in March.

Syrian-Americans in Chicago said the Arab League, which also threatened economic and political sanctions, has “grown a spine” by threatening to expel a founding member.

“This is long overdue,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the Syrian American Medical Society and a physician at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. “The Syrian regime has not done anything toward that (peace) goal and instead started to kill more civilians.”

Sahloul said his group has been sending physicians to refugee camps that now hold more than 8,000 along the border with Turkey. The group has so far raised about $40,000 for medical relief efforts there, but it welcomes donations, he said.

There is still frustration among Syrian-Americans in the Chicago area at the lack of response from the UN.

“If this happened to any other country, you would not have waited for eight months for the Security Council making any decision about what to do,” Sahloul said.

Mohammad Al-Khudari, an ophthalmologist from Burr Ridge, said he spoke with relatives in the city of Homs, which has been a center of the crackdown, by phone.

“It’s getting worse and worse. It’s like living in a war zone,” he said of the checkpoints installed and the tanks surrounding neighborhoods.

Al-Khudari, who grew up in Joliet, said he thought the Arab League vote would have an impact on Syria.

“That’s a big slap to the face,” he said. “That’s like telling somebody you’re not Arab.”

Darien resident Asma Akhras, said her father was imprisoned for a time in Syria during the 1980s before permanently moving his family to the U.S.

“This is a bit of hope that’s coming once in a while,” she said of the Arab League move. “I’m hopeful — hopeful that the international community will respond.”

Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune