Complicated Politics in Syria

Joshua Landis has a long letter on his blog from “an American in Syria” with many interesting things to say about the brutal government crackdown there. The majority of the people in Syria are Sunni Muslims. However, the government is dominated by members of the Allawite sect, which is related to Shi’ite Islam, and there are substantial minorities of Shi’ites and Christians. The government has tried to portray the protests as a movement of radical Sunnis -- “Salafists” -- who are out to end religious toleration and impose a Taliban-style regime. This propaganda has had some success. The letter writer witnessed the government-imposed siege of Dera’a, where a whole city is being placed under house arrest because of protests, and was shocked to find that some of his friends in Damascus supported the crackdown:

I witnessed unreserved approval for the government crack down on a Thursday a week after the siege on Dera’a began. I visited some close Christian friends in Damascus who we can call Samer and Najwah. It was impossible not to broach the subject of the situation in Dera’a, knowing that the next day, Friday, would likely produce significant casualties. This household however, grimly viewed the army’s cordoning off and occupation of the city as necessity. I couldn’t help but begin to argue with them that even if there was a poisonous “Salafi” threat in the town, the siege and suppression would mean the suffering, trauma, and even killing of many innocent people as well. If some people from that area had indeed called for the establishment of an Islamic emirate (and it’s no surprise that some there would be oriented this way), I was just not convinced that the entire city, the many thousands protesting there, were all seeking such a goal.

For Najwah, however, the city of Dera’a has become a single entity containing one kind of people: bad. For her, the terrorist persuasion of the people in that community now justifies virtually any action against them. From her attitude, I felt that if the city was to be wiped off the map, she wouldn’t mind. I began to mention reports of the more grisly examples of violent killings there. “Good!” was her angry response.

In Syria, at least, “Salafists” are terrorist bogeymen invoked by the regime to justify its oppression, not a party with any real political support. Any support radical Muslims do have comes from 1) hatred of the existing, basically secular regime, and 2) hatred of Israel, which leads Syrians to support Hizbullah and Hamas.