Emphasis Preaching Journal

Ali Ferzat spent years drawing political cartoons that denounced the autocratic reign of Syria's leader President Bashar Assad. In the Fall of 2011, when the democratic movement began in earnest by the people, thousands of whom were killed by the military as they protested in the streets, Ferzat became even more ardent in his drawings.

One day masked men from the regime broke into Ferzat's home, beat him unmercifully, and broke all his fingers so he could not draw again.