NOVANEWS
“respect for, and protection of, Syrian sovereignty and territory”
The Syria Solidarity Movement™ was registered on July 29, 2013, at the office of the Alameda County Clerk in Oakland, California, USA. It was the creation of subscribers to the nosyriaintervention Riseup list, established in September, 2012, for the purpose of countering propaganda, distortion and false information about Syria, and to provide an otherwise marginalized and suppressed voice in support of the Syrian people in the US, Canada, the UK, France and other Western countries. Shortly afterward, we published the name, opened a bank account in the name, obtained the syriasolidaritymovement.org domain name for our website, and later applied for a trademark, now pending.
Sometime later, a group in the UK began using the same name as ours, and opened a Facebook page with that name, taking advantage of the fact that we had not done so. This group had exactly the opposite mission from ours, i.e. to distort the facts about Syria, to promote illegal outside military intervention in Syrian affairs, to cause the disintegration and destruction of the Syrian state, to expel half the Syrian population from their homes and to invite terrorists to take control of large tracts of Syrian territory.
We believe in the right of all persons and groups to express their views, but not to misrepresent themselves or to practice identity theft. The use of the same name by two different groups benefits neither of them, and only promotes confusion. Although we are studying the option of legal action, we urge the other group to stop using our name. We doubt that they want our statements and actions to be confused for theirs, nor do we want anyone to mistake them for us. We are not affiliated with any political organization in any country and our work is strictly for educational purposes and to advocate for human rights. We are also a project of a charitable organization in the US and are authorized under the US tax code to receive tax exempt donations for educational and human rights purposes. The other group has no such status in the UK, the US or anywhere else.
We therefore call upon the other group to cease using our name and to find another way to identify themselves. A major purpose of this announcement, however, is to bring the attention of the public to this issue and to help avoid further confusion.
The Syria Solidarity Movement
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