Chris Banyas
Staff Writer
Idaho State University is home to a diverse community of students and faculty with deep insight and views on the current conflict in Syria.
The number of international students attending Idaho State University has been steadily rising. Between Spring 2012 and Spring 2013, the number of international students jumped from 711 to 856.
While there are currently no students from Syria attending ISU, the vast majority of international students come from countries very close to Syria including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Nezar Alnejidi, a marketing major and president of the Saudi Club, has been attending ISU since 2012. Alnejidi traveled to the United States from Saudi Arabia, which is located just over 1,200 miles away from Syria.
“The government wasn’t functioning to help the people. When you talk against the government, you will be attacked, you will be taken,” said Alnejidi. “That’s before the war started. Then after the Arab Spring, they tried to talk, tried to ask for their rights, like others. Then they faced the government fighting them. Not giving them their rights and telling them, ‘we will kill you if you ask for that.’”
He continued, discussing his feelings for the people of Syria.
“For us, the only thing we do is pray for them. We don’t feel good about it. It’s a very bad situation. Imagine you are a student in school, going to university, then your country starts killing you, killing your family and you did not do anything,” explained Alnejidi.
The possibility of American intervention in Syria has been hotly debated.
President Barack Obama addressed this issue on Sept. 10. Obama said that while he believes in a military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, such action is on hold pending debate in Congress.
With accusations of war crimes and atrocities on both sides of the conflict, the subject of American intervention is very complex.
“The fact that they have to be the enemies of your enemies now doesn’t mean they are your friends down the road. We have to be very, very careful about whom it is that we try to support in these battles,” said Sean Anderson, ISU’s political science department chair.
Created in the aftermath of World War I by French and British diplomats, Syria became fully independent on April 17, 1946.
The years following independence were characterized largely by instability and regime change.
March 2011 saw the onset of civil war, a war that is still being fought today and which fuels much of the current conflict and debate in the United States.
The rebellion was made up of forces opposed to the Ba’ath government, who sought the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.
“With the collapse of the Mubarak government in Egypt, this gave great encouragement to the Muslim Brotherhood factions within Syria,” saidAnderson.
“They thought they would have the backing of the new Egyptian government which would be led by the Muslim Brotherhood. This, among other things, encouraged rebellion against Bashar,” he explained.
The anti-Assad forces were made up of soldiers who had defected from the Syrian Army and civilian volunteers.
“The regime, seeing what happened to Gadafi and seeing what happened to Mubarak, they dug in their heels. They realized they had no place to go to, that Iran is probably not going to welcome them. They’re not going to be welcome in Saudi Arabia. Turkey probably won’t open its doors to them. It means that either they have to fight there, take their stand, or they die,” said Anderson.
