144 Voice for Rebellion and Relief neglect of the crisis. Organizers aimed to broadcast these events into Syria in order to lend moral support to their allies. As Firas recalled, “We chanted in Arabic. We feel we have to do the same as Syria. We know everything is getting recorded, so it will reach over there.” A. A. in Michigan also recalled, The most important thing that really moved us to do some demonstrations here is for us to take videos of us demonstrating and to send it to our people in Syria to encourage them that you have people supporting you from outside of Syria – to say that we are all in this together, [to provide] emotional support. When I echoed the same chants that I used to hear from videos on YouTube of people back home in Syria, it gave me the feeling that I’m there, I’m actually part of this whole thing. This was, we would say, the happiest days of the revolution. figure 5.1. Syrians and their allies gather in Costa Mesa, California, during a “Global Walk for Syria” on November 17, 2012. This event, co-sponsored by the Syrian American Council and the Karam Foundation, raised proceeds for internally displaced children in Atmeh, Syria. (Photo credit: Dana M. Moss) Syrians in the United States also counter-demonstrated against pro-regime events hosted by home-country elites, loyalists, and pro-regime spokespersons. Firas, who was then a member of the Southern California Coordinating Committee for protests and fundraising, recalled that events held by pro-regime groups, often referred to as al-Shabiha, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press