February 1, 2012

On Jan. 27, in addition to its annual dinner and board elections, MPAC-WNY held a symposium at the Islamic Society of Niagara Frontier in Amherst to discuss "The Arab Spring and Its Implications for the U.S.," in an effort to shed light on the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Haris Tarin, MPAC’s Director of the DC Office, spoke on the symposium's panel along with Manar Sabry, an adjunct professor at D’Youville College who foresees continued strife in Egypt as the country heads toward a presidential election in June; and Mazen Tinawi, a board member of Syria First Coalition who said Syria still is suffering badly despite the Arab Spring having already reached it.

“The corruption in Syria is even much worse than in Egypt,” Tinawi said. “President Bashar Assad is still in power and inherited his father’s legacy of killing and raping people. The amount of killing in Syria is unreal. Over 7,000 have been killed since March 2011.”

Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of MPAC-WNY, said Muslim-Americans should morally and financially support all Democratic movements in the Middle East in order to be at the forefront of their Democratic crusade for human rights.

"One is the oil, because most of the oil of the world flows through the Middle East,” Dr. Qazi said. “The second is that, one of the closest allies of the United States -- Israel is in that region, so whenever these two issues are involved, the United States will always be involved."

Community members gathered at the Islamic Society of Niagara Frontier.