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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria’s uneasy truce with radical Islam |
| 2004-05-12 |
| More Syrians are going to the mosque, more women are wearing the hijab and underground women’s religious discussion groups are mushrooming even though they are banned. The austere Wahhabi brand of Islam practised by Osama bin Laden is also growing more popular and clerics are calling for jihad in Iraq and Palestine. So when the Ba’athists eventually do fall, the Wahabis will be in a good position to take advantage of the power vaccum. And I bet they don’t think to highly of Assad’s Alwati Islamic sect. In April last year, Asif Muhammad Hanif, a British Muslim who had studied Islam and Arabic in Damascus, blew himself up in an Israeli pub in Tel Aviv. After the bombings in Turkey last year against British and Jewish targets, Syria expelled 22 Turks, three of whom had been studying at the Abu Nour foundation. Sheikh Kuftaro said the foundation and other Islamic institutes could not be held responsible for the actions of every person that once attended the school. Although this has also been the official line, in March Syria announced it would no longer allow new foreign students to register at the Islamic schools, a sign that that the authorities are worried. For now, the regime is still tolerating the growing Islamist trend in Syria as it diverts people’s frustrations towards the outside world - specifically the Israelis and the Americans. At a time when Damascus is facing intense pressure to reform and Washington has just slapped sanctions on Syria, the regime can also hold up its Islamists as a more unruly alternative to the Baath regime and hope it will be able to keep them under its control. Well, it’s worked so well for other Muslim countries... |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #2 I think this analysis is from someone who's gone to Syria at the wrong time: - A lot of Saudis pour into Damascus as the weather warms up - thus more hijabs. Truth is that there has been a slow uptick in hijab wearing over the years but it's no epidemic and it's mostly among older women probably going through the emotional changes that older women go through. - Bashar relies on the radicals as his ultimate check against the Ba'thists. Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has publicly declared his willingness to fight for Bashar on the streets of Damascus. Remember also that Bashar served a brief apprenticeship in Lebanon during the Israeli withdrawal and believes that Hezbollah can get real results in any policy area. Bashar's mentor is the old Syrian 'wali' of Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, the Syrian paymaster for Hezbollah. Make no mistake - Hafez crushed the Syrian MB in Hama and then turned the leftovers to his will. Bashar is giving them free reign abroad, or perhaps his opponents in country are happy to direct them into Iraq, but Syria is no hotbed for the Ikhwan the same way Egypt is. |
| Posted by: Sawt al-Shebaab 2004-05-12 1:04:15 PM |
| #1 About those sanctions against Syria. What may that portend? Is Syria allied with the cut throats? Cut Throats, is there nothing they can't take issue with. Local paper's headline reports that Berg was killed as payback for Abu Garbage prison porn. No he was killed to help jump start the total war on Islam. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-12 12:15:54 PM |