{"id":48926,"date":"2015-12-04T14:55:29","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T19:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=48926"},"modified":"2015-12-04T14:55:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T19:55:29","slug":"they-terrorized-my-daughters-and-killed-my-baby-thats-why-were-syrian-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2015\/12\/they-terrorized-my-daughters-and-killed-my-baby-thats-why-were-syrian-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"They terrorized my daughters and killed my baby. That\u2019s why we\u2019re Syrian refugees."},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2015\/12\/04\/the-diary-of-a-syrian-refugee\/?postshare=3021449256016442&amp;tid=ss_fb-bottom\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/linda-h-no-face1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"327\" height=\"219\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Editor\u2019s note: Linda J. and her family are Syrian refugees who made their way from Damascus to Baltimore. She worked with a caseworker and a translator from the International Rescue Committee, the nonprofit agency that helped them resettle here, to tell her family\u2019s story of asylum. The Washington Post agreed that she could abbreviate her last name and omit other identifying details to protect family members in Damascus\u00a0from persecution.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The best days of my life were in Syria. I was born and raised there. I married and reared my family in my country. My kids went to school, and my husband worked as a carpenter. I was a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom, and we owned furniture stores in Damascus. We shared everything with our neighbors and felt the love around our home. But in 2011, everything for my family and every family in Syria changed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Peaceful protesters began asking for improvements from the government \u2014 basic things, fundamental rights. Among other things, they were calling for the release of political prisoners and for an end to the government\u2019s corruption. My husband and I were not revolutionaries. We respected the role of the government in our lives, but we agreed that changes were needed and believed those changes could happen peacefully. Our family did not participate in the protests. We watched from our house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The demonstrators were not terrorists. They didn\u2019t carry weapons; they carried signs calling for a better life. I remember seeing people with <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/syria-protests-us-ambassadors-support-for-demonstrators\/2011\/07\/08\/gIQA8MRR4H_story.html\">olive branches and flowers<\/a>, symbols of peace. So the government\u2019s reaction came as a terrible surprise. Soldiers began using violence to silence the voice of the people, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/protesters-shot-as-demonstrations-expand-across-syria\/2011\/03\/25\/AFTnewWB_story.html\">shooting them in the streets<\/a>. A war between the people and the government had begun.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read The Full Article =&gt;\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2015\/12\/04\/the-diary-of-a-syrian-refugee\/\" target=\"_blank\">They terrorized my daughters and killed my baby. That\u2019s why we\u2019re Syrian refugees. &#8211; The Washington Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note: Linda J. and her family are Syrian refugees who made their way from Damascus to Baltimore. She worked with a caseworker and a translator from the International Rescue Committee, the nonprofit agency that helped them resettle here, to tell her family\u2019s story of asylum. The Washington Post agreed that she could abbreviate her&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,68,18],"tags":[11,1820,10,335,1705],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48926"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48931,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48926\/revisions\/48931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}