Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 12, 2011

Tamer Mohammed al-Sharei was one of hundreds of Syrians swept up by authorities during street protests against the regime last March. Like many others, Tamer was imprisoned in a dungeon and tortured at length by the secret police.

On July 7, a former prisoner named Ibrahim Jamal al-Jahmani, who had fled to the Jordanian border, told the Associated Press that he had witnessed the torture inflicted on Tamer. Ibrahim, who was able to document his imprisonment, recounted how the victim?s body was covered in blood and contusions, as his interrogators beat him pitilessly with fists and heavy electrical cable. The assailants weren?t seeking information or even a confession; they were simply trying to force the indomitable prisoner to submit.

As they struck his head, back, feet, and genitals, the thugs in the employ of the Syrian government demanded that Tamer acknowledge Bashar Assad as his ?beloved? leader. Instead, he defiantly chanted a slogan extolling ?freedom and the love of God and our country.? Although he cried out to God and for his parents, Tamer never surrendered.

Tamer was fifteen years old. He was a man, in full.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.