A group of Ball State students and professors marched and sang their way from North Quad to LaFollette Complex with signs and a Libyan flag in support of revolutions taking place across North Africa and the Middle East.
The group included students native to a number of countries in the region now in mid-revolution.
Sophomore building and construction major and Libya native Rashid Kadura said his cousin was one of the first people killed in anti-government protests. He was shot by military security forces during a demonstration in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.
"I've had family members and friends injured or killed almost every day for the past two weeks," he said. "I'm from the east so right now it's pretty calm there, but my countrymen are still being slaughtered in the west in Tripoli."
Majdi Faleh, a Ball State student and native of Tunisia, where protests in the region began with the overthrow of Tunisian leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, led Kadura and others in an Arabic chant, "Khoba w ma w Ben Ali La." Faleh said the chant translated to "bread and water and no Ben Ali."
Faleh said the chant was yelled in the Tunisian protests and symbolized the protesters' willingness to live in poverty rather than be ruled by an oppressive leader.
Ball State finance professor Omar Benkato, who came from Libya to the United States when he was 23, said the focus of the demonstration was to help give moral support to the protesters and students whose families are caught in the revolutions.
Benkato said he has been in touch with his family back home and is hoping for the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Benkato said his nephew was injured after being shot in a Benghazi protest.
"I wish I could be there to join and do whatever I can and share in the happiness that took place when they liberated the east," he said. "I hope the future for Libya is to get rid of this gang. It's not just him and his children; it's the whole regime and all the corrupt people. All the people just want is to live and to live freely."
One of the biggest issues being considered by rebel leaders in Libya is whether or not to ask for foreign air strikes to help take out some of Ghadafi's military ability, something Kadura and Benkato said they disagree about.
"The people inside Libya have already agreed that we don't want any outside intervention. Do what you can but the fight is ours." Kadura said. "If you can give us planes, give us planes and we'll do the air strike. Train us and we'll do the fighting."
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