CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In east Charlotte on Tuesday, Eyewitness News found Mo Idlibby scanning the Internet looking for the newest information about escalating tensions in Syria.
“You’re speechless. It is unthinkable,” said Idlibby of the Charlotte Syrian American Council.
Idlibby is talking about accusations that Syria’s leadership used chemical weapons to kill hundreds of its own men, women and children last week.
“You wish you could do something more. You cry virtually every night from the heartbreak,” said Idlibby.
Idlibby is not alone in his worry. Roughly a 1,000 Syrians call Charlotte home, including the families that run a Syrian restaurant, meat market and the Golden Bakery on Sharon Amity Road.
In the middle of the lunch hour rush, Michael Azazi told Eyewitness News that he rarely stops thinking about the turmoil in Syria or the pain the civil war there has already caused for relatives still there.
“It is just really rough for everyone. I don’t think anyone really knows what is truly going on,” said Azazi.
For that reason Azazi said he is not sure the United States should get involved in a military strike some now expect, but with 100,000 dead in a civil war that shows no end, Idlibby believes some military intervention by the U.S. is necessary.
“That does not necessarily mean we need American boots on the ground, but we do need to send a strong message that what Assad is doing is absolutely unacceptable,” said Idlibby, repeating a message many Syrians in Charlotte are already sending on their own.
WSOC
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