Syrians express solidarity with Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayyad

Damascus, SANA (7 December) – To express solidarity with Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayyad and to condemn the death penalty issued against him by Saudi authorities, a crowd of Syrian intellectuals, artists and local figures participated in a protest that the Culture Ministry called for on Monday outside the UN office in Damascus. 

Culture Minister Issam Khalil said in an oral message addressed on behalf of Syrian intellectuals to UN Secretary-General that “the reasons for which Fayyad was tried make us refuse to succumb to a court that is hostile to the mind and creativity.”

In turn, Dr. Nidal al-Saleh, Chairman of the Arab Writers Union expressed the Union’s condemnation of the disgraceful attitude of the Saudi authorities which “are immersed in interpretations that need centuries to understand one line written by a creative Arab.”

The participants in the protest said that what Fayyad had suffered is not an individual incident because the crimes perpetrated by the Wahhabi regime in the Arabian Peninsula are countless, noting that this regime is an enemy of the mind.

The Saudi judicial authorities have sentenced to death the Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayyad based on what they saw as blasphemy in his poetry book titled “Instructions Within,” which was published in 2008.

Meanwhile, the Information Ministry denounced in the strongest terms the decision made by the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) to stop the transmission of telecasts by Al Manar TV.

In a statement on Friday December 4, the Ministry said the decision is a continuation of the Saudi aggression against media outlets, the free liberate thinking and the media outlets that are against Israeli occupation forces.

The statement said that the new action in addition to the decisions that had been taken against the Syrian media and al-Mayadeen TV and are part of the war against culture and freedom.

Manar al-Frieh/Manal