A Layer Of Scum - Dr Waiel Awwad on Syria and The Arab World

  Studying journalism can be exciting and at the same time a serious task. Recently, I attended my educational institution, Apeejay Stya University's Annual Media Festival organized by its School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which offered me a plethora of wonderful learning opportunities and allowed me to make new friends and memories to last forever.

  What says journalism also says news, facts, current affairs, thinking out of the box and being attentive; and the one person who truly gripped my attention during the  media festival was the smart and good-looking, India-based Syrian Journalist, Dr Waiel Awwad.

                          

Dr Waiel Awwad during his lecture at Apeejay Stya University, February 2016

The journalist talked about Syria and the Arab world, a topic very relevant today, which, ominously enough most, of us either misunderstand or do not dare to talk about. In very simple and straight forward language, Dr Awwad shed light on why Syria's struggle has become so aggressive and the forces that he sees as responsible for the destruction of the nation.What really impressed me was the way he put forward his points, backed his statement with facts, gave each one of us an idea of the broader picture and dared to call a spade a spade.

Mr Waiel Awwad referred to the invasion of Iraq by the American government, the reason of which was weapons of mass destruction posing a threat to security and humanity- weapons which were never found. And what did America say after spilling the blood of millions of Iraqi civilians? Pretty simple- a mere SORRY.

  " America has lost its value. Americans commit a crime and call it a mistake, a Muslim individual retaliates and they call it terrorism"

  Stressing on the need for peace, journalist Waiel Awwad claimed it a shame to humankind that a country can be bombed and destroyed in the name of democracy, and he made it a point to mention that America made sure, though it destroyed the Arab countries, oil remained sustainable so American citizens would not suffer.

  He equally emphasized on the fact that one cannot carry out injustice in the name of religion.

"Killing innocent people is not religion. If you don't have the power to create, you don't have the right to kill".

 Those words reminded me that humanity is the basic principle of every religion. They also showed me a perfect example of what Islam is definitely not- the ISIS. Additionally, he became a sense of inspiration and motivation for me, igniting the strong feeling of fighting for the cause of justice and humanity in my heart.  Dr Waiel Awwad is certainly someone I look up to and aspire to be like in the future.

  Society is like a stew. If not stirred once in a while, a layer of scum is formed. What captured my heart was Dr Awwad's attempt to boldly tell the truth.