In early May 2012, there were particularly deadly explosions in Damascus, the capital of Syria, an escalation of a conflict which began over a year ago with nonviolent protests but which spilled over into violence, refugee displacements, and ever deeper division among the people of\u00a0Syria.<\/p>\n
For the moment, the efforts of the League of Arab States and the United Nations have not been able to establish good-faith negotiations or even a permanent ceasefire. Therefore a group of young nonviolent Syrians have created a movement, \u201cStop the Killing,\u201d not related to a political party or a confessional religious group, but which wishes to unite those of good will to stop the violence and to develop a society in which all can\u00a0contribute.<\/p>\n
Therefore, we who are outside Syria, send our support and willingness to\u00a0cooperate.<\/p>\n
I believe in you, and I believe in your\u00a0destiny.<\/em><\/p>\n I believe that you have inherited from your forefathers an ancient dream, a song, a prophecy which you can proudly lay as a gift of gratitude to\u00a0 those working for a just resolution of the current\u00a0conflicts.<\/em><\/p>\n I believe that it is in you to be good\u00a0citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n And what is it to be a good\u00a0citizen?<\/em><\/p>\n It is to acknowledge the other person\u2019s rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your\u00a0own.<\/em><\/p>\n It is to be free in word and deed but it is to know that your freedom is subject to the other person\u2019s\u00a0freedom.<\/em><\/p>\n It is to know that killing will never bring a society of justice and harmony. A just and nonviolent society is the fruit of wisdom and love. Therefore let love, human and frail, command the coming\u00a0day.<\/em><\/p>\n _________________<\/em><\/p>\n Rene Wadlow, a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and of its Task Force on the Middle East, is president and U.N. representative (Geneva) of the Association of\u00a0World\u00a0Citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of young nonviolent Syrians have created a movement, \u201cStop the Killing,\u201d not related to a political party or a confessional religious group, but which wishes to unite those of good will to stop the violence and to develop a society in which all can contribute. Therefore, we who are outside Syria, send our support and willingness to cooperate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}