This Filmmaker Was Assassinated In Broad Daylight After Receiving Death Threats

  'A foe of both ISIS and the Syrian regime, the independent filmmaker and native of Salamia, a town near the city of Hama, was among the peaceful democracy activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad. They are now being subsumed by the ensuing violence and sidelined by a war that has become a regional conflagration with no end in sight.

 “It is terrifying that there are Syrians who have dedicated so much for principle and stood against tyranny and extremism yet (with) no real recognition,” Rami Jarrah, a Syrian journalist and friend of Naji al-Jerf’s based in Aleppo, wrote on his Facebook page. “It is lost in this mess of misinformation that says that there are two sides fighting (Assad and ISIS) with little mention of those that oppose both wrongs. Those like Naji.”

 The killing came as Jerf prepared to depart for Europe to escape mounting death threats that followed the airing of a film he made about ISIS and its campaign of terror against citizen activists in Aleppo. ISIS in Aleppo, chronicling the months when the group ran parts of Syria’s commercial capital and came to be despised by all other groups fighting the Assad regime, was broadcast two weeks ago on the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya satellite news channel.'

 Nader Atassi: 

 "Those who have tried to expose the crimes of ISIS and the other counter-revolutionaries in Syria are all, without exception, anti-Assad activists who are part and parcel of the Syrian uprising. Anti-ISIS activism by Syrians was simply seen as a natural extension of anti-Assad activism, that is, activism against those who wish to dominate Syrians by force. This is where Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently's roots are, this is the background of all the activists in Syria and the surrounding countries that are organizing against and exposing ISIS. As a result, ISIS is trying to silence anti-Assad activists in Syria and in Turkey. Just this fact should be sufficient to destroy the oft-repeated talking point the 'experts' propel that Syrians have to side with Assad and be 'realistic' because he is the strongest force against ISIS. ISIS is not killing pro-Assad anti-ISIS activists—because there are none. There's only one way forward, and that is by siding with those who work tirelessly against all these forces. They have a world to overcome, but they are the only way forward."