Almost a year later, there was a similar incident today in Tunisia.

This time it was an unemployed man who immolated himself.

It’s a reminder of the challenges still facing Tunisia’s new, democratically-elected government.

The government is headed by the formerly-banned Islamist party called Ennahda.

It bills itself as a moderate Islamist party. Soumaya Ghannouchi is the daughter of the party’s leader. She was 12-years-old when her family fled Tunisia. Rachid Ghannouchi, her father, has been in charge of Ennahda, which means “renaissance,” for two decades. The Ghannouchi family lived in exile until last January, when the Tunisian uprising drove former dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali into exile.

“We were able to come back, which was great, to see our relatives, and see our country after such a long time, an incredible time,” Ghannouchi said. “We are really grateful. And since then really incredible things have been happening.”

The first incredible thing was the way people greeted her father’s return to Tunisia after more than 20 years in exile.

Thousands gathered at the Tunis airport on January 30, 2011, when Ghannouchi arrived. Ten months later, Tunisians held their first free and fair elections since the country gained independence from France in 1957. Ennahda won 40 percent of the seats in parliament.

Ghannouchi said Ennahda’s success in the election is partly due to its history over the past few decades.

“It’s been at the forefront of the struggle against the dictatorship, it’s given many sacrifices so people appreciate that,” she said. “And even though there was no organized structure on ground before the revolution because of the crackdown on the party, the people still kept their allegiance to the party. And once they were able to express that they did so and very quickly organized themselves.”

Dressed conservatively in a bulky coat and a hijab wrapped tightly around her head, Ghannouchi is a practicing, observant Muslim and a professional woman. She says Ennahda is one of the most progressive political parties in the Arab world – Islamist or otherwise.

“We said clearly that it’s not the duty or right of the state to interfere in people’s personal choices, “ she said. “What they eat, drink, or how they live. We don’t believe in a theocracy that imposes a lifestyle or thoughts or ways of life on people, we believe in right of every Tunisian woman and man to make that choice.”

Tunisia is by far the most secular country in the region. After independence, women were given the right to vote and be elected to parliament, to earn equal wages to men and to divorce, among other things. Ghannouchi said Ennahda looks to protect, and advance, these aspects of Tunisian society.

“We want to strengthen the gains made by Tunisian women, we are proud of those gains, and we want to developed them further,” she said.

Since the party’s founding, Ennahda’s leadership has also disavowed violence and endorsed tolerance and pluralism. Ghannouchi and other party officials say they look to countries like Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia as models for the role Islam can play in the state. But there are plenty of skeptics. Even among religious Tunisians, there is uneasiness with an Islamist party – no matter how moderate – in power.

Saleh Basharre said he didn’t like the idea of mixing religion and the state, and he didn’t vote for them.

“I was afraid that Ennahda, if they win, they will be narrow minded and extremist,” Basharre said. “And you should know I’m Muslim, and I love Islam, but I don’t want people to push me to do things, and to order me to do things. Religion is between me and God.”

Ennahda dismisses these fears, saying it’s the same old propaganda about Islamists that regional dictators have always thrown around. But some would welcome a truly Islamist government.

A picture of Islam’s holiest site, the Ka’ba, in Mecca, adorns the walls of a grocery store in a middle class neighborhood outside Tunis. 29-year-old Bareech Hathnawy said he voted for Ennahda because he wants the party to impose moral order on society.

“We want them to stop bad language on the streets,” he said. “You go on street with your sister or mother and hear bad words on the streets. The government should stop this. They need to stop other bad things like people drinking alcohol on the street and girls wearing short skirts. “

Hathnaway is from the south, where Tunisians are more conservative. He said people there voted for Ennahda for many of the same reasons he did.

“People in the cities are more open-minded, but in the south they are more conservative,” Hathnaway said. “For example, if I saw my sister with a cigarette I would kill her. This is why people voted for Ennahda in the south — to stop girls from wearing short skirts, these kinds of things.”

Still, even Hathnawy doesn’t think women should be obligated to wear the veil.

Ziad Mahearsee, the head of the Tunisian news website “Tunisia Live,” said he doesn’t think Ennahda has a plan to drastically change society. He says most people probably voted for Ennahda because they seem honest, not because of how they practice Islam. Besides, he said, Ennahda realizes that the country faces huge issues.

“What we need now more than anything is 750,000 jobs,” Mahearsee sais. “And these people are aware of the challenges of the working poor in Tunisia. So I think most Tunisians will judge Ennahda on capacity to create jobs and allow Tunisian economy to flourish rather than the religious aspect of things.”

Ennahda is also part of a diverse governing coalition. Its partners are two determinedly secular parties. And party leader Rachid Ghannouchi seems eager to continue the western friendly traditions that have been hallmarks of Tunisia’s foreign policy, and to put western governments at ease about his party’s newfound position.

Under the previous authoritarian regime, religious expressions in public were illegal. Women faced arrest if they wore a veil on the street. Men with beards faced harassment.

Now, Tunisia’s practicing Muslims have begun asserting themselves on the streets, in politics and in the media. After Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime fell earlier this year, the new government took over a religious radio station previously owned by a relative of Ben Ali’s. The government selected Iqbal Gharbi to manage the station – called Zeitouna Radio. She hoped to inject a bit more professionalism into the place.

“Zeitouna Radio is in a transitional moment,” she said. “It was a private radio and now it became governmental. And the govt has the right to watch over it and to see what’s going on in there.”

The appointment did not go over well at the station.

Now, Gharbi is no stranger to controversy. As a professor of anthropology with a Phd from the Sorbonne, she’s penned provocative essaid on the role of women in Muslim societies, and on feminism and Islam. But even by those standards, what happened at Zeitouna was unique for her.

The staff went on strike. And for days, a recording of the Koran played in place of the usual programming. There are three on-air preachers who usually have programs during the day, talking morality, ethics, and other religious matters. Ahmed Seelie is one of them.

“We are having a protest because this manager was appointed,” he said. “She’s a woman, and she’s a professor of psychology, but not of religion. So she cannot be the manager of this radio station. Zeitouna radio is focused only on the Koran and religion.”

Sheikh Mohammad (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

“It was humiliating,” Meshfer said. “This is not normal for someone who graduated from the Sorbonne. I’ve been here these past ten months working to try to fix the radio station, trying to get people to work together as a team. And she comes in here and humiliates me.”

Gharbi admits she could have handled some things better, but she maintains the real reason the staff rejects her is her gender. Zeitouna staffers dispute this, and have said the real disagreement is religious versus secular ideology. Gharbi said, “it’s the same thing.”

“Now we’re in a fight between two kinds of people,” Gharbi said, “those who are reading and looking to Koran in a modern way, analyzing it with modern eyes, and those who are more conservative. And they’re against women in general.”

The staff at Zeitouna have never been raging extremists. The fact that they were allowed on the air at all under Ben Ali is testimony to their moderation. But Manouba University Professor Amel Grami said the dispute at Zeitouna radio is an indication of how Tunisia’s Islamists are using the current weakness of the central government to assert their power in the streets, and at the universities.

“In some universities nowadays we have this type of aspect of conflict, because many students from Salafist groups or Islamist groups they refuse to have unveiled woman teaching Islam, or methodology of works, or comparative religion,” Grami said. “They refuse to know even some religious texts from Judaism or Christianity. So they are trying to impose a new subject. So this is the big challenge for our educational institution.”

“Challenge” is putting it mildly. On exam day, Islamist students shut Manouba University down. They demanded the right for women to wear the “Niqab,” a type of dress that covers the entire body, including the face, and also to have a prayer room in the university.

A YouTube video allegedly from the protest shows Islamist students chanting FROM behind the locked gates of the university, as other students look on from outside. Gharbi said her situation at the radio station is indicative of the Islamists asserting power after years of being stifled. She said the Islamist’s aggression, and sensitivity, is a result of Ben Ali’s repressive policies.

“This is the result of the oppression in the period under Ben Ali,” she said. “Because we used to marginalize these Islamists. Now, we need to accept them, and we need to know how to deal with everyone in society. Otherwise this will be a dictatorship again, and we don’t want that.”

Gharbi said she won’t back down. She’s still locked in the battle with the Zeitouna radio station staff over her management position. Zeitouna staffers would still like the newly elected government to appoint another boss.

Port Said, Egypt (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Mohsen Abdul Ghaid works as a crane operator at the port. He, like many workers in Egypt, has a lot to complain about these days: wages are low, inflation is high, and unemployment stands at more than 20 percent. So, Ghaid knows exactly why he’s going to the polls.

“I’m voting for better living standards, democracy, and freedom of opinion. I’d also like better pay and better health care.”

But few parliamentary candidates have made these issues front and center. Egypt’s workers were a powerful force in bringing down the government of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt’s revolution. But now those workers are feeling the pinch of economic stagnation, as the country’s instability, and the global recession, have put a halt on Egypt’s once growing economy.

And with the Islamic parties winning a majority of votes in the first round of parliamentary elections, the working class doesn’t appear to have anyone who represents their interests.

It’s surprising, since 20 percent of Egyptians live below the poverty level, and Egypt’s 4 million industrial workers have struggled for years to create a national minimum wage. The Egyptian electoral law even allocates 50 percent of the parliamentary seats to workers and farmers.

“We didn’t have time to make our own party, or to organize behind any one candidate and none of the parties represent workers,” said Bakr Hassan Bakr, a labor activist and lawyer in Port Said. “The parties didn’t consider the labor constituency when making their platforms. The workers haven’t even been part of the political debate.”

The apathy toward workers’ issues isn’t a fluke. While there have been unions here for decades, the country’s dictatorial rulers outlawed organizing in the western sense. The state run labor unions were the only ones allowed until just a few years ago. Hossam el-Hamalawy, a leftist activist and member of the newly created Democratic Workers Party, said from the very beginning, state-run unions offered few benefits.

Port Said Apartment Blocks (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

In 1957 Nasser established the general federation of trade unions that has been acting as the state’s arm when it comes to mobilizing the working class, and states arm in controlling the working class. Membership was obligatory, they deduct the fees from your salary every month.

After Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted earlier this year, the new government allowed independent unions; there are now nearly 150. But human rights activist Hossam Bahgat said they’re still in an embryonic stage and were unable to effect the elections.

“They are fighting for better work conditions, for the right to organize independently, and they have been truly consumed in this fight,” Bahgat said. “And I don’t think they have really contributed in the way we expected to on the wider political scene.”

Organization has been key so far in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, and – as expected – religious parties are dominating. The Muslim Brotherhood has won around 40 percent of the vote, and the ultra-conservative Salafi parties has won 25 percent.

Both groups have long-established social and charitable networks.

The parties did pay lip service to workers issues and ran on platforms of social justice that appealed to many poor and blue-collar voters. Bakr Hassan Bakr, the port Said labor activist and lawyer, said the Islamists’ messaging, networking and years of charity work have distorted voters’ ideas about what’s good for them, and for Egypt.

“These are the slogans that every single party uses and everybody’s saying,” Bakr said. “What do they mean by social justice? The Muslim brotherhood uses that vague slogan like they do their charity. The party gives people cooking oil, rice, bread and social justice. But from the leftist perspective, what I view as the honest way, our vision is to give people work, equal chances of getting good jobs, and equality before the law.”

But the Muslim Brotherhood says they do have plenty of plans to improve Egypt’s economy.

“The first thing we would do is to have schools to teach people industry,” said Mohamad Khodari, a Muslim Brotherhood official. “We tried this with a school called Mubarak school. It used to train the students to work in a factory. And then after that they would go work in factories. It worked well. The students learn something and the factories benefit. It creates a partnership between schools and factories so they can serve each other.”

Khadari said the Muslim Brotherhood also wants to modernize the fishing industry, which is a big part of the local economy. The Brotherhood’s can-do business attitude is not surprising. The group is traditionally pro-business but not necessarily pro-worker. They have historically been critical of strikes.

Labor advocates worry a brotherhood dominated parliament wouldn’t support legislation workers have been pushing for since Egypt’s revolution. Among them are new a labor law, which would dismantle the old state run union and enshrine Egypt’s newly independent unions in the country’s legal codes.

Voting in rural Egypt (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Election officials have announced some results of the initial stage of the country’s recent elections – the first democratic poll in 60 years.

They said 62 percent of those eligible had voted in the parliamentary poll – lower than the authorities’ estimates of 70 percent – but the outcome is not yet clear.

Islamists are expected to dominate – chiefly the Muslim Brotherhood, but a more radical group may also do well. The World’s Ben Gilbert traveled south of Cairo earlier this week to find out why.

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He’s not exactly happy that the moderate Islamic political party, Ennahda, is heading the new government. But he doesn’t see it as the end of the world, either.

“We have to give time, to see what happens on next 8 months, and see where the conductor takes the train,” he said.

Jacob Lellouche is one of 1,200 or so Jews in Tunisia’s population of 10 million people. (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Lellouche is actually more concerned about issues like preserving women’s rights in one of the Arab world’s most secular countries, than about the status of Jews here.

Lellouche spoke at an old, high ceilinged house that he’s turned into the only kosher restaurant in Tunisia. It’s called Mamie Lily, after his 83 year old mother, who’s the chef.

The kitchen staff clean up the silverware and plates after lunch. Two Muslims work in the kitchen, and people from all religions dine here, Lellouche said. In the dining room, the walls are decorated with black and white family pictures and Jewish “Yad,” or Torah pointers. But Lellouche said most Tunisians don’t even know there’s an indigenous Jewish community in Tunisia, which long precedes Christianity or Islam. His desire to change the idea of what is a “Tunisian” spurred him to run for public office.

“A lot of Tunisians think that when you are not Muslim, you cannot run for anything and not contribute to political life in country. You have to live here and be quiet, and it’s enough,” Lellouche said. “But I want to prove to al the Tunisians,, and in this way, I think that I won my election, because I break something in the Tunisians minds. Even if you are Christian or Jewish or Bahia, or without any faith, you can involve yourself in the Tunisian life.”

Lellouche’s restaurant is located in the seaside town of La Goulette, a suburb of Tunis. He said this area used to be home to thousands of Jews.

“In a city like Goulette, all the restaurants were kosher restaurants. Because before the 60’s, there was one mosque, one church, and 14 synagogues,” Lellouche said.

Eighty percent of the town was Jewish. Now, most have now left. Lellouche called the history of Tunisian Jews “big and sad.” Archeological evidence shows Jews have been in Tunisia since at least the third century B-C. The population peaked just after World War II at more than 100,000. It’s been reduced to just over 1000. Most left in the 1950’s and 60’s when violence flared during the Arab-Israeli wars. Other Jews left for better economic opportunities in Europe or the US. But Lellouche said much still remains.

“We have Jewish schools, synagogues, kosher butcher, and kosher restaurant, even if the last one in the country. And for us it is ok,” he said.

Most of the community, and the synagogues and schools, are located on the island of Jerba, in southeastern Tunisia. But Tunis is home to the country’s “Grand Synagogue.” It’s a few blocks from a massive mosque. There have been no instances of violence against Jews since the revolution that overthrew strongman Zine El Abedine Ben Ali in January. But during one of the anti-government marches, there was a demonstration that briefly turned anti-Jewish in front of the synagogue.

The demonstrators chanted “Go Jews, the Army of Mohammad has returned!” for about a minute, then moved on. Roger Bismuth, the head of the Jewish community, said the chants were started by Ben Ali’s undercover police posing as Islamic extremists to make people afraid OF Ennahda and other Islamic political parties. The Ennahda party, which won most seats in the current constitutional assembly, condemned the incident. Since then, Bismuth said, the party’s leaders have gone out of their way to reassure Tunisia’s Jews.

“I was promised by the people from Ennahda,” Bismuth said. “They said ‘no, don’t worry, there will be no change.’”

Bismuth said the Jewish community has not expressed serious fear to him about their future in Tunisia, at least no more so than what he hears from his Muslim friends.

“I’m not worried, as a Jew, but I’m worried as a Tunisian,” Bismuth said, “because our country is in a difficult position. We need to rebuild. If we don’t start having calm, and having tourism comeback here, it’s a big job to make a country start all over again, it’s not that easy. We all share the same worries.”

The 85-year-old Bismuth is no foreigner to anti-Jewish sentiment. He was 16 in 1943when the Germans occupied Tunisia, the only Arab country to be directly ruled by the Nazis during World War 2. He was forced to work in a Nazi labor camp.

In the decades since the war, the strongly secular and tolerant tendencies in Tunisian society have helped to keep the Jewish population here. Though small, it is the largest Jewish community, by percentage, in the Arab World. Gilles Jacob Lellouche hopes things will stay that way. With the fall of Ben Ali’s government came the lifting of restrictions on starting non-governmental and cultural organizations. So, Lelouche has founded a cultural center called “house of memory” to preserve the history of Jews in Tunisia.

And he hopes to open a Jewish museum in Tunis next year.

Four of his bodyguards were killed and Bakkour was slightly wounded, but managed to escape, adds the voice.

Anchor Marco Werman gets the latest from reporter Ben Gilbert.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: Even as they squabble, both Israel and Turkey are keeping a nervous eye on their common neighbor, Syria.  The Syrian government continues to crackdown hard on descent.  Today, there were reports of raids by security forces in towns and cities near the border with Turkey. One target of those raids may have been Adnan Bakkour.  He was the attorney general in the protest hotbed of Hama.  Last week he announced his defection from the Syrian government and then went into hiding. Now, there are reports that he may have been wounded in an attack by security forces in northwestern Syria.  Reporter Ben Gilbert has been following the story of Adnan Bakkour from Beirut.  Ben, what is the latest on Mr. Bakkour?

Ben Gilbert: Mr. Bakkour made an audio tape in the last 24 hours that says basically that he was attacked by Shabiha.  These are, this is another name, an Arabic name Syrians use for regime thugs basically.  That they tried to get in his hideout and that four of his bodyguards were killed.  He was injured.  And let’s hear a little bit of that tape.

Adnan Bakkour: [speaking Arabic]

Werman: Now, Ben, this tape could not be independently verified, correct?

Gilbert: Correct, the Syrian authorities will not let many journalists, if any journalists at all, into Syria and we cannot independently verify this tape.

Werman: So what do the Syrian authorities say in public about Adnan Bakkour and his story?

Gilbert: Well, last week when he first announced his resignation he said that he had evidence, that there were 72 prisoners killed at central prison in Hama in the past month.  He says there was a mass grave in Hama province with 420 bodies.  He said the government asked him to prepare a report to show that those victims were actually killed by the protestors.  And he says that he has evidence for this. Now, when he announced this on YouTube the Syrian government said that he had actually not defected, that he was being forced by the demonstrators…he had been kidnapped and was being forced by demonstrators to say all of these things at gunpoint.  And that was last Tuesday and Wednesday. And later on Wednesday he came out with another video and said no, I’m not actually being forced to say this, I’m saying this and I’ll make a live statement rather than being taped on YouTube when I get out of the country.  So there’s been this back and forth, and the Syrian government has really used their state news agency to go after him, or to go after demonstrators and deny all of these allegations and deny that he has actually defected and to say that he’s kidnapped.

Werman: I mean the guy sounds so heroic, it’s almost too much to be true.  What about the Syrian claims that he was kidnapped and forced into making those statements?  I mean what are your Syria watcher friends say about that?

Gilbert: Maybe there is someone off camera holding a gun to his head.  I don’t think anyone knows 100% for sure.  It seems likely that he is telling the truth given the fact that he went on the video and said today is Wednesday, last week, when he said it’s Wednesday and I am denying broadcast reports that say that I’ve been kidnapped.  That was pretty powerful to begin with.  At the same time, we can’t be 100% sure until perhaps he makes it to Turkey and can actually speak with people live and in person, and reporters and other people can verify that there’s no one around him intimidating him or forcing him to make statements he doesn’t want to make.

Werman: Reporter, Ben Gilbert, in Beirut bringing us up to date on the hunt for Syrian defector, Adnan Bakkour.  Ben, thanks very much.

Gilbert: Thank you, Marco.

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But not this year.

“There’s no tourism,” Salha said. “Because for a tourist to reach the resort he needs to drive down a high way with loads of police and army stationed on it. It’s not safe.”

The police and army are there to clamp down on anti-government protests that have sprung up around Syria.

It’s been more than five months since demonstrators began calling for the resignation of President Bashar Al Assad and his authoritarian regime. Assad has responded to those calls with a security crackdown that the United Nations estimates has killed 2200 civilians. The United States and European countries have slapped sanctions on Syria. And they’re looking to impose more. It’s putting the hurt on an economy already reeling from instability and uncertainty.

Nabil Salha said there haven’t been any protests, or security forces looking to crush them, in his town, which is mainly Christian. But in nearby villages and towns, there have been clashes. But it’s the economic situation, not the clashes, that caused him to leave three months ago to stay with his mother in neighboring Lebanon.

“We are living without work in Syria,” Salha said. “My Father is getting his pension, but it’s not much. I’m losing around $1,000 a month, and it’s been three months since I’ve worked. Now I’m borrowing money from people and going into debt.”

Other Syrians in the tourism industry are suffering as well. Reports suggest hotels in the tourist hubs of Damascus and Aleppo are empty. Tourism makes up about 12 percent of Syria’s $52 billion economy, and the uprising — and the government’s refusal to make any meaningful reform — is taking a toll, according to Hilal Khashan, an analyst at the American University of Beirut.

“There’s no tourism, no transit. There’s a flight of capital from Syria. The economy is not in full gear,” Khashan said.

Gulf Arab and foreign companies have delayed or cancelled huge projects in Syria. The stock market there has dropped 41 percent. The gross domestic product, projected earlier this year to grow at three percent, may shrink five percent. Khashan said the greatest threat now facing the Assad regime is not the protests; it’s Syria’s collapsing economy.

“Those middle-class people who have secure jobs and send their kids to school and can afford to go to supermarkets and live fairly decent by Syrian standards will begin to realize the Assad regime has become a liability,” he said.

Many of those middle-class people live in Aleppo and Damascus, cities that have yet to see significant protests. Khashan notes that people in those cities have benefited from Assad’s economic liberalization, and found stability with the regime, but “if the elements of good life they are enjoying seem to be endangered, then may change their minds.”

One example came this week — Syrians found that their VISA credit cards stopped working, due to US and European sanctions on Syrian banks.

But it’s the rural poor who’ve suffered most under Assad’s decade of economic reforms. The government cut subsidies on fuel and food, lowered government investment in agriculture and cut government jobs. Now in the face of growing unrest, Assad has increased subsidies, and raised wages in the large government bureaucracy.

Syria used to bankroll the subsidies through its oil exports. But those exports are dwindling. The European Union has been the number one buyer of Syrian oil. Now sanctions have barred EU countries from importing Syrian oil. Economist Lahcen Achy said sanctions in general could wind up hurting Syria’s poor and working classes – the very people who are protesting.

“The issue is the effectiveness – it still might take a long time. A regime can survive for a long time,” Achy said, noting the examples of Iran and Iraq.

Achy said economic sanctions can only do so much. He thinks political and diplomatic pressure is the best way to push the Assad regime into enacting real reforms, or stepping down.

Nabil Salha, the unemployed tour guide, doubts the tourists will come back to Syria any time soon and he doesn’t see any end in sight.

“I’m afraid from both sides” he said. “If the regime falls, there will be chaos.” But the opposition has no leadership, so no one can take over if Assad goes,” he said. He’s not optimistic about Assad making any any meaningful reforms.

For now, Salha is staying in Lebanon, looking for work as a tour guide.

Like their counterparts in Libya, anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets across Syria as part of this year’s “Arab Spring.” In both countries, demonstrators have called for the decades-old authoritarian regimes to step down. Now, with the Libyan rebel’s success, the North African nation is an inspiring example to the protesters in Syria.

“It gave us a huge morale push,” said Hozan Ibrahim, an activist with the Syrian Local Coordinating Committees, who have helped to organize the Syrian uprising.

“It gave us something that made us continue,” he said.

Ibrahim, who’s now based in Germany for his own safety, said his contacts back home tell him that Syrian demonstrators have been invoking Libya in their chants all day. He said Libya rebel flags also popped up at demonstrations around Syria, and on Facebook pages.

“People now are very delighted,” Ibrahim said, adding that after Egypt and Tunisia, it’s more proof that people can “get freedom by their own hands.”

It appears to have been unfortunate timing for President Bashar Al-Assad. Just hours before Libyan rebels entered Tripoli, the Syrian president gave the first presidential interview to Syrian state TV since his father took control of the country in 1973.

During the interview, Assad said his government is fighting armed groups who are part of a foreign conspiracy trying to destroy Syria. But he said he wasn’t worried.

He also laid out what he said was a road map for reform: A new law he would issue allowing more political parties. Parliamentary elections are set to be held by next February. And a committee to draft a new constitution – because the current constitution says Assad’s Baath party is the “leading party in the society and the state government.”

Syrians apparently remain skeptical. A video posted on YouTube is said to show Syrian men, watching the interview, throwing shoes at an outdoor projection screen with Assad’s face on it. It’s reminiscent of scenes from the early days of the Libyan revolution, when Libyan protesters did the same thing during Gaddafi speeches.

The president’s statements also struck observers as being too little too late; not unlike other speeches dictators have made as their people have demanded for them to step down.

“Among the opposition and a big majority of those who are neutral in their views of what’s happening in the country, nothing was new regarding the speech,” said Damascus-based Syrian journalist Thabet Salem. “It was the same repetition of the same ideas.”

Salem says Syrians are becoming increasingly dismayed by the government’s violent response to the demonstrations.

“We’ve reached the no return point,” Salem said. Unless the government forges an agreement with the opposition, “the street will not calm down.”

But Salem noted that Syria is different from Libya. For one thing, few Syrians want foreign intervention. Salem said it’s unclear how you change a government that’s willing to use force against unarmed, peaceful protesters. Activist Hozan Ibrahim said no compromise is possible.

“People now have one aim – to have freedom,” Ibrahim said. “[Assad] still believes in the security solution, and killing.”

The London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government security forces killed three people on Monday during a demonstration in Homs. The group says protesters were there to greet a United Nations fact-finding team that arrived to Syria on Sunday. Activists say the government is trying to “clean up” areas where troops have cracked down on protesters – going so far as to bus in supporters to act as local people and speak positively about the government to the UN team.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World.  For five months now Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad has overseen the violent oppression of street protests against his leadership.  All the while, the United States and Europe have been ratcheting up the pressure on Assad with denunciations and sanctions. Well, today they went a step further.  The US, Britain, France and Germany demanded that Assad leave office.  Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, put it this way:

Hillary Clinton: The people of Syria deserve a government that respects their dignity, protects their rights and lives up to their aspirations.  Assad is standing in their way.  For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for him to step aside and leave this transition to the Syrians themselves.

Mullins: That’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, today.  Reporter Ben Gilbert is monitoring events in Syria from Beirut in neighboring Lebanon.  Ben, this is a forthright call for Assad to go.  It’s not just being made by the US either, it’s being made by some of its European allies.  How much of a punch can this demand pack?

Ben Gilbert: It’s largely symbolic act on Obama’s part.  I just spoke with one Syrian activist today in Latakia by email and he said that he appreciates Obama’s support, he appreciates the sympathy of the United States in supporting their cause in calling for democracy in Syria.  At the same time I mean the Syrian in general are very skeptical of the west, especially the United States.  This is also an Arab country and he said, this activist in Latakia, said you know, after the Iraq war I don’t trust the United States.  I’m sure they have their own agenda behind this, but at the same time we appreciate this call.

Mullins: Well, how about Damascus itself, what’s the official response to today’s announcements from President Assad?

Gilbert: Well, it’s predictable.  One of his spokespeople at the Ministry of Information, the Syrian Ministry of Information, told AFP that “It is strange that instead of offering Damascus a helping hand to implement its program of reforms, the west and Obama are seeking to stoke more violence in Syria.”

Mullins: What about the fact that President Assad says he’s calling off military assaults on civilian areas.  Any evidence that that’s what’s happened?

Gilbert: Well, this activist that I was emailing today in Latakia and another person that I was with contact in Syria by Skype, both of them said that actually it had been quite quiet in Latakia, that’s been the scene of a siege by the Syrian military and security forces.  Both of them said that there was some shooting earlier in the day, but there was no large scale attacks like there had been in the past 4-5 days.  There had also been several explosions, and last night as President Assad was saying that he had stopped the violence, almost at the same time or shortly thereafter activists say that 9 people were killed in the city of Homs. And the United Nations also said that they’re trying to get an assessment team into Syria in order to actually see if the violence has been stopped, but that assessment team has been waiting since May to get into the country, so that adds another element of skepticism to the international community’s view on what Syria is saying.

Mullins: Ben, briefly give us an update on what you’re hearing from Latakia specifically about the Palestinians who had been attacked at least, that their neighborhoods had been attacked.  They scattered.  I wonder if there’s any sign of them now.  And also, the women and children who had been rounded up and basically deposited in a stadium in Latakia.  Give us an update on both of those.

Gilbert: Activists there tell me that the majority of those Palestinians ended up with family members and friends outside of the camp in other neighborhoods in Latakia and in that region.  They also said that there are some remaining and that actually the ones remaining in the camp are facing pretty tough circumstances.  The activists said that what the Syrians call a [speaking Arabic] or kind of big Syrian government paid thugs had shot out the water tanks on top of the buildings and so people didn’t have any water to drink.  The electricity in that area had been shut off, and it’s still cut off by Syrian security forces.  That’s what we’re hearing. With regards to the families and women and children who were in the stadium, one activist tells me is that actually they’ve been held there and that the Syrian military has allowed access to people there; apparently residents from outside have been able to bring meals to the people there.  They hadn’t eaten.  On the other hand, the activists were telling me that the people who did not end up at that stadium are the ones that they’re worried about.  They said that the busloads of protestors or people in these neighborhoods that had been surrounded and targeted by the Syrian military had disappeared, that they’d been taken away, put on busses, had their IDs taken, and had disappeared and they haven’t heard of them.  And this would follow other reports that we’ve heard of hundreds or even thousands being arrested that human rights groups have pointed to.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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Syrian state TV broadcast what it says are images from inside the besieged city of Hama, showing rubble-strewn streets and wrecked buildings. (August, Al Jazeera YouTube channel)

Syrian State TV News in English for Friday 29th of April 2011 (Posted by Abu Silmya on YouTube)

Anti-government footage from April (Warning: Video contains some graphic images)

(Posted on YouTube by hahussain)

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Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: Latakia is unlike most Syrian cities in one respect — most cities in the country are predominantly Sunni.  Latakia has a large Alawite population.  Alawite is the minority sect that President Bashar al-Assad belongs to.  And so the Syrian assault on Latakia has been targeted.  That’s according to Abdul Omar of the London-based Syrian British Solidarity Campaign.

Abdul Omar: It has been concentrated on parts of the city that are predominantly Sunni populations and where demonstrations have taken place.  It’s pretty unfortunate how they’re trying to show that certain parts of the city are causing trouble while others are not.  And the way to do that is by distinguishing on the makeup of the population where you have a majority of Alawites, then that neighborhood fits to be relatively safe; where you have the opposite then you’ve got trouble.

Mullins: Did any Alawites demonstrate against the government?

Omar: Of course, I mean members of the Alawite community did also partake, but not in the same percentage of population as the Sunnis did.

Mullins: So is it clear that they’re not being targeted?

Omar: That’s exactly the message.  It is not that the Alawite community has not felt the same strife against the regime or even indeed demonstrating; we do know that a number of known Alawite members of the community have joined the protests.  However, it seems that the regime is trying to showcase the opposite.

Mullins: Abdul, how are you getting the majority of your information for what’s happening in Syria?

Omar: There are a number of ways.  I mean we have got direct with people on the ground through satellite phones.  We are reliant on the amateur video footage that comes out from Syria by both normal satellite links as well as satellite links.

Mullins: As you know there’s been a lot of external pressure and just last week Turkish diplomats say that they got a promise from President Assad to back off on the assaults.  Any sign that the Syrian government is either worried about what the international community might do or abiding by the calls such as that from Turkey’s government?

Omar: It’s quite impressive in terms, and excuse me for using that term, but to see the Syrian regime completely ignoring what is coming out of both the European Union, the United States, as well as its closest neighbors such as Turkey.  There was obviously, the official visit that took place a few days ago, and the regime said that within two weeks the situation would be over. And now, it’s a little bit scary to see what they can accomplish in these two weeks, what we have seen in the first few days of these two weeks, the crackdown taking place on the major points of unrest pretty much within Syria. Now, if the external community carried on observing this they would realize what the regime is trying to do is trying to change the overall picture, they’ve almost got a number in their heads they think the media or western governments can stomach.  And we no longer see a death toll of 150 heads per day, which is what we have witnessed in the past.  I think they realize that the head count of 30-40 people is something that the west can stomach and they’re keeping it to that number.  And that number is now becoming daily as opposed to weekly.

Mullins: Thank you very much.  Abdul Omar is a spokesperson for the Syrian British Solidarity Campaign speaking to us from London.  Thank you, Abdul.

Omar: Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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Ahmed said everything was peaceful until pro-government protesters showed up. They were largely from Syria’s minority Druze community, he said, trucked in from nearby villages. Ahmed said that’s when the problems began, and the rocks started to fly.

Ahmed said plain-clothed Syrian police attacked the Druze to stir up sectarian strife. But pro-government Syrians said it was the demonstrators, whom they call “Muslim Extremists,” who attacked the Druze.

Walid Jumblatt, the major leader of Lebanon’s Druze community, was alarmed when he heard about the violence. Jumblatt is no stranger to sectarian conflict – he led the Druze militia during Lebanon’s 15 year civil war. He admitted the Syrian Druze are in danger of being manipulated.

“The Druze cannot, as a small minority, (do anything) but to live with their brothers in Syria,” he said, “and be Syrian citizens, and be with the majority, which are Sunnis.”

Druze only make up 2 percent of Syria’s population. So, Jumblatt was even more concerned when rumors spread that the Syrian Druze had asked their co-religionists in Lebanon to send them weapons. He said the rumor is false, but it does suggest that Druze fear is real. Jumblatt said he encouraged President Assad to speed up his reforms and to keep the Druze out of the conflict.

“I don’t want the Druze of Syria to be used as scapegoats,” he said. “And after all we are just a very small minority, less than 500,000 scattered between Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Living in this sea of Muslims, be it Sunnis or Shiites, we cannot afford to have any challenge. We should accept that we are a minority, but part of a whole ensemble.”

The Assad regime has long emphasized its ability to keep the peace between the Sunni majority and the Christian, Druze and Alawite minorities in Syria, while Iraq and Lebanon burned with sectarian bloodletting. Ahmed, the activist, said minorities like the Druze in Syria are torn, between joining the anti-government demonstrations and keeping their heads down. And he can’t blame them.

“They were living for the last five decades under an oppressive regime,” Ahmed said. “But at the same time it was also secure; they felt safe.”

Christians are another minority who felt safe in Assad’s Syria. They make up around ten percent of the population. A Christian activist, who asked his name not be used, said the regime is using rumors and disinformation to scare minorities away from participating in protests.

“The government spread news that this is a Sunni revolution. And when they will take the rule in Syria they will kill and depart all the minorities. And they will suffer from that,” said the activist. “So it’s the main tool the government uses. For the minorities to be afraid from the Sunnis.”

The activist said the government has ordered Christian priests to deliver sermons against the revolution. But he said some Christians, like himself, have been participating in protests, with more and more joining in the past two months. He said he’s been welcomed by the largely Sunni protesters.

“When protesters discovered that I’m Christian, and from Christian area,” he said, “They cried. Some hugged me. They were saying, like, you are from good origin. They didn’t believe that some Christians are involved in this.”

He said Muslims have welcomed Christians into Mosques so they wouldn’t be exposed to the brutality of the security forces on the street. At the same time, he said there isn’t an organized Christian presence at the protests, just individuals. That’s because the Assad regime has been sowing the fear of sectarian strife for years, and it’s hard to shake, especially for the older generation. Rima is a Syrian Christian who only wanted to use her first name.

“What really surprise[s] me among some Christians is they are so eager to believe the official narrative and story,” Rima said. “I had a big argument with one of my uncles, because he is very pro -regime. And I told him I understand, but on the humanitarian level, you cannot justify what’s been happening.”

Rima said the older generation seems to be growing more sympathetic to the uprising as the government-orchestrated violence increases. At the same time, another Christian who asked to be called George said the government’s fear-mongering may be working. What George sees is a situation where Christians are afraid of chaos. And Sunni Muslims, in turn, distrust Christians and Druze because those groups on the whole aren’t joining the protests.

“The situation is not easy as some think,” the activist George said. “The Americans have been trying to spread the freedom, but we’ve seen the model of freedom in Iraq. So as minorities we don’t feel safe. That’s why we fear the regime being toppled.”

“Where do we go if Syria falls apart? Go to Turkey? They don’t even speak Arabic there!” George asked.

Rami Nakle said he isn’t worried. He’s a Syrian activist based in Beirut. He was born into the Druze religious sect, although he’s secular. He said regardless of the consequences, bringing down Bashar al-Assad would be worth it.

“No matter what comes after him at least we will put our first foot in the step of development. If we manage to change it, we can change and reform any system that will come after him,” Nakle said.

But analysts point out that unless the heavily populated urban areas of Damascus and Aleppo join the uprising, the dreams activists have of a time after Assad, or the fears some have of that time, will never be known.

Hamra Street in Beirut, Lebanon is the answer. This is where The World’s Ben Gilbert came across a store selling unlocked iPhones for cheap.

Since Apple first began selling iPhones in the US, they have been “locked,” and usable only on a single network. That will now change in the US.

Apple announced this week that the company will begin selling unlocked iPhones in the US. The prices for a new, factory unlocked iPhone 4 starts at $649.

Americans are pretty excited by the news. But the news has in general been greeted with a collective yawn outside the US. Vatchae Guluzian is the owner of a small, but busy cell phone shop on Hamra Street, Beirut’s most-famous shopping street.

“In Lebanon we don’t care about this. In Lebanon we have this from three years or four years,” he said.

As have other countries around the world. In France, Apple was forced by law to sell unlocked iPhones in 2007. Perhaps that’s where Guluzian got the two unlocked iPhones that sit on a shelf behind him. He sells up to a half dozen a week; so he said Apple’s big announcement won’t put a dent in his business.

“Maybe the phone [that] will now cost will be less than $700. This is the only problem. All the people know the phone is expensive. So factory unlocked from the US, maybe everyone in Lebanon can now use it. “

He said that may mean that he may sell more – and make more profit. But other shops were pretty happy with the locked iPhones. They made money unlocking them. Lebanese living and working all over the world often bring home locked iPhones from Europe or the US that need to be unlocked so they could work on the local network – at 20 bucks a pop.

Shop owner Rayyan Khoury said he does this about 100 times a month.

“It’s a very nice business,” he said.

Khoury has a lot of return business from iPhone owners who mistakenly update their phone’s software through Apple– which automatically relocks the phone. So the new sale of US unlocked phones may put a crimp in his business. But, he said unlocking the phones only makes up about three percent of his business. So, the new phones don’t pose an existential threat.