Syria Braces for Protesters' 'Day of Rage' Against Regime

Mirroring Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, opposition in Syria plans to organize for a “day of rage” Friday and Saturday, protesting the forty plus year leader Bashar Assad. Though Facebook is technically banned in Syria, more than 30,000 have accessed it via proxies. Opposition groups are using Facebook to organize the event and almost 15,000 have “liked” the “Syria Revolution 2011” page. Syrians have tweeted about the event as well. Syrians plan to begin demonstration after Friday prayers in from of parliament in Damascus. The Assad family has been in power for over forty years. It is speculated that Bashar only took over presidency because his older brother died in a car accident. Assad is relatively calm in regards to the mobilization occurring around him. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he claims that Syria has some difficult circumstances but is relatively stable. Assad believes there is no divergence between the beliefs of the people and his policy. Assad claimed to be making a transition into democracy and blames wars in neighboring countries such as Iraq for the slow process, but the sense of desperation in Syria was less than other Arab countries. Organization will be difficult for Syrian opposition groups because of lack of access to internet but it is confirmed that there is still yet, massive communication and authorities have been warned.

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