Will There Be A "Jihad" In Syria? A War
By The Sunnis Against the Alawites - A Holy War
19 June 2012By Mshari al-Zaydi
The British Foreign Secretary was right to compare
the current situation in Syria to that of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, where a catastrophic war raged from 1992
to 1995. The two scenarios share elements of civil and
sectarian fighting, as well as the demarcation of new
borders between communities and even villages, amidst
the horrific bloodshed.
The Balkans crisis is still worthy of
interpretation and contemplation: why did the Serbs
suddenly crack down on their Bosnian Muslim neighbors,
despite the fact that they had been neighbors for
hundreds of years? At the time of the war, Bosnia - a
country that is far from the Levant, at least in terms
of distance - was an alluring stage for all Jihadists
in the Muslim world.
What happened in Bosnia is similar to what is
happening now in Syria. I recently read an article in
the New York Times reporting on the Alawite sect's
current concerns now that a war has erupted between
the Sunnis and the Alawites. The al-Assad regime seems
to be adopting this war as a final solution or as a
Samson Option to drag the Alawite sect – whether it
likes it or not – into an existential battle.
Even though there are moderate Alawites, and those who
resist or criticize the regime, a positive outcome is
not guaranteed for the pro-revolution majority,
especially the Sunnis, following the rivers of blood
that are being shed and the massacres that are being
committed by the Alawite pro-regime Shabiha militia,
who we now see chanting "Shabiha forever".
Weapons have finally entered the Syrian revolution,
albeit late, after the uprising remained peaceful for
18 months despite the al-Assad forces brutal
suppression, and despite the helplessness of the
international community and the Arab League. For the
Syrian people, carrying weapons is a matter of
necessity for self-defense. In reality, the
opposition's small arms are still completely
overwhelmed by missiles, tanks and jets used by al-Assad,
his security apparatus, and the Shabiha barbarians.
However, for more than a year rational people warned
that if the international and regional community
failed to embrace the Syrian opposition and deal with
it in the same welcoming manner that it dealt with the
revolutions in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, then the
revolutionaries would be forced to carry weapons and
resort to guerrilla warfare. This was said clearly on
more than one occasion, but such rationalism seems to
have fallen on deaf ears.
It is therefore ironic that everyone is expressing
false amazement at the possibility of a civil war
erupting in Syria, and this war transforming into a
complex civil struggle extending across the entire
Middle East region, in the words of joint UN-Arab
League peace envoy Kofi Annan, as well as other
politicians from across the world.
Al-Assad's army, his security apparatus and the
Shabiha, overtly backed by his Russian and Iranian
allies, alongside Iran's followers in Lebanon led by
Hassan Nasrallah, are preying on the meat of local
residents in the north and south without any form of
deterrence. We have only seen initiatives and observer
missions that have added further fuel to the fire;
such as Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi's
"catastrophic" team, and Norwegian General Robert
Mood's subsequent mission.
Are the Syrian people simply expected to accept these
killings, rapes and bombardment until Obama and Putin
become convinced of a solution?
Apart from being a humanitarian disgrace, this is also
political stupidity.
If the international community opened its eyes and saw
the real situation on the ground, it would seize the
initiative and lead the Syrian opposition, unifying
and protecting it from the infiltration of religious
extremists by blocking out any sectarian
interpretation of the Syrian crisis, something that it
has so far failed to do. Aside from this failure, the
international community seems astonished that the
Syrian victims are now protecting themselves and
carrying weapons.
The latest example of this immoral political approach
came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who
said that he wants to prevent the eruption of a civil
and sectarian war in Syria, and also explicitly
criticized Saudi Arabia for backing the Syrian
opposition for sectarian reasons. Yet here Lavrov
seems to have forgotten that he, alongside President
Putin and Iran, are providing al-Assad with all kinds
of arms as well as other forms of intelligence and
political support.
Can you believe his audacity?
To summarize, this incompetent international handling
of the Syrian file has been compounded by the fact
that everybody – from Washington to London, as well as
Moscow – say they want to prevent Syria sliding
towards chaos and a civil war; meaning a war between
the Sunnis and the Shiites. Yet, their actions are
actually leading to this outcome!
Perhaps what I will say now will upset the Free Syrian
Army [FSA], the Syrian opposition and whoever
champions them, but nevertheless…
Last week, FSA leader Riad al-Asaad dismissed an
incorrect news item reporting that Kuwaiti nationals
are now fighting alongside the FSA on Syrian soil. The
Kuwaiti "al-Qabas" newspaper reported – in its Sunday
issue – the news that Kuwaitis had entered Syrian
territory to join the FSA in its fight against
government troops. Yet according to the Kuwaiti al-Watan
newspaper, Colonel al-Asaad stressed that reports of
other Arab nationalities fighting with the FSA were
incorrect. He said "the Syrian regime is seeking to
spread this news in order to mislead the world."
Personally, I understand the logic of Riad al-Asaad,
whose aim is to react to Bashar al-Assad media
propaganda and its trumpets, which is highly adept at
telling lies and providing camouflage. This is all
well and good; however this is one thing whereas I
mean to comment on something else.
I think now that the massacres which the al-Assad
regime is committing against Sunni civilians and
non-Sunni revolutionaries have escalated - as was
evident in the town of Salmiya - the Syrian arena has
become an alluring one for anybody seeking to carry
out "jihad" against the "tyrannical" ruler in
Damascus.
Bashar al-Assad has made himself an ideal target for
the Jihadists, for he meets all the conditions and
criteria of pure evil in their eyes: he is
bloodthirsty to the extreme, hostile to the Sunnis,
and serves as an agent of Iran. These all are ideal
characteristics that could prompt impressionable
youths, or those who see the world only as a war
between Muslims and non-Muslims and who are eager to
fight.
Everyone knows that Bashar al-Assad and his apparatus
has previously tried to benefit from such wild
Jihadist energy in Iraq and Lebanon. He exploited the
Fatah al-Islam group in Lebanon, and then used some
Jihadist sheikhs to recruit Arab youths and send them
to Iraq, where they engaged with the US troops there.
Five years after Saddam Hussein was toppled, Syria was
transformed into a rear operating base for [Abu Musab]
al-Zarqawi and others in Iraq.
Now, al-Assad may have a taste of his own medicine.
In February 2011, Ayman al-Zawahri, the current leader
of Al Qaeda, was reported to have issued his second
call for Jihad in Syria against the al-Assad regime,
urging Jihadists to fight "in the Levant to create
state that can protect Islam". He also encouraged
resilience and perseverance "against the sectarian
secular regime [in Syria]."
The crux of the matter, as I mentioned previously on
several occasions, is that the revolution in Syria
started out as a free and patriotic movement, away
from any sectarian tendencies. Indeed, one of the
revolution's most popular early slogan's was "the
Syrian people are one." The FSA's battalions were
named after patriotic Syrian symbols such as Sultan
al-Atrash and Saleh al-Ali – the former belonging to
the Druze sect and the latter being an Alawite.
However, as al-Assad's excessive killings and
international weakness - or rather conspiracies -
continued, the people found their backs against the
wall and had no choice but to defend themselves using
all means available, including waging war in the name
of religion.
This is the result of the international and Arab
community's catastrophic administration of a
revolution that was once seen as one of the most
sublime and noble Arab revolutions, in terms of its
courage and civil discourse.
We still hope that it is not too late.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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