Friday, November 16th, 2012
Washington (AP) — Obama says US not ready to recognize new Syrian opposition group as ‘government in exile’. France, Turkey, and Gulf States recognize the National Coalition.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is urging the Syrian opposition to unite as France pushes for arming the opposition. Lavrov met with Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia stressing the unification of Syrian opposition groups and calling for the establishment of a team to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Syrian opposition groups formed an umbrella coalition on Sunday in what Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad criticized as a “declaration of war.” France said it will discuss arms supplies to the Syrian opposition with its European partners. While French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he was wary of injecting more weapons into the war torn country, the government is looking for a relaxation of a European Union arms embargo which has made it difficult for “defensive arms” to reach opposition fighters.
- Turkey recognized the Syrian opposition’s new coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”
- Protests against King Abdullah II and rising gas prices continued in Jordan for a third night.
- The Pentagon estimated that it would need 75,000 troops to seize Syria’s chemical weapons.
The group posts numerous videos of demonstrations “in support of the National Coalition” (the new anti-regime coalition) it says have taken place today in various parts of the country. The name of today’s protests is “Support of the National Coalition Friday”, according to the LCCS.
Islamist-In-Chief
The new leader of Syria’s opposition has a history of statements that are anti-Semitic, outrageous, and sometimes downright bizarre.
BY MOHANAD HAGE ALI | NOVEMBER 14, 2012 – Foreign Policy
Summary by Joshua Landis: Mohanad Hage Ali goes through Khatib’s speeches and website to show that he calls Shiites “rawafid” or rejectors because they reject the first three caliphs of the “Rashidun,” or rightly guided Caliiphs, which Sunnis hold up as marking the “Golden Age”of Islam. This is a common accusation against Shiites, which is used by Wahhabis in Arabia to call Shiites unbelievers and conspirators who have entered Islam to destroy it from within. We have no evidence to believe that Syria’s new leader in exile would go so far as to call Shiites unbelievers because they are rawafid, but he does criticizing Shiites’ for their ability to “establish lies and follow them.” By using the word “rawafid” to describe Shiites, he will not make friends among Shiites. He will also encourage Syria’s Alawites to believe Assad’s propaganda that the opposition is intolerant and sectarian, wishing harm on Alawites because of their religious beliefs and not merely because of their political misdeeds and willingness of many to support the Assad regime even as it carries out brutal crimes against fellow Syrians. It will give liberal Westerners cause to worry about religious tolerance in the Syria they are helping to build. Khatib also has made anti-Jewish statements. He writes that one of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s positive legacies was “terrifying the Jews.” Washington’s liberal establishment will find no comfort in this as they make the case for providing Khatib and his group with legitimacy and weapons. All the same, Sheikh Khatib has made many expressions of religious tolerance.
One of these is this statement to a crowd near Damascus soon after the Syrian uprising began last year: “My brothers, we lived all our lives, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, and Druze, as a one-hearted community. And with us lived our dear brothers [Christians] who follow Jesus, peace be upon him. We should adhere to this bond between us and protect it at all times.”
To Alawites he said: “I say to you that Alawites are closer to me than many other people I know,” he said Sunday after being elected president of the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition. “When we talk about freedom, we mean freedom for every single person in this country.”]
The battle over ecumenical statements of tolerance comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with religious dialogue in Damascus. Many of Syria’s religious leaders who are most associated with ecumenical dialogue are those who were also closest to the regime. They are accused of being creatures of the Assad regime, for Assad did a lot of arm twisting to get “friendly shiekhs” to make ecumenical pronouncements that would make Alawites and other religious minorities feel accepted and equal. They were also meant to help legitimize the regime, which claimed to be a defender of secularism and religious tolerance. Two of these shaikhs recruited by the state were the Grand Mufti Ahmed Kuftaro and his successor Shaykh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun.
Sheikh Kuftaro announced during the sixties that Abu Nur was commemorating the birth of Christ and he invited leaders from the Syrian and Lebanese Christian communities. An uproar naturally ensued, but left no doubt who ecumenical dialogue’s strongest supporter was. A later comment on the nature of Jesus perhaps summarized Sheikh Ahmed’s views most succinctly: “If a Muslim does not acknowledge Sayyidna Isa (Jesus), then his Islam is for naught”
Sheikh Hassoun sparked controversy on 19 January 2010 when he commented, “If the Prophet Muhammad had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Muhammad himself a heretic,” and, “[i]f Muhammad had ordered me to kill people, I would have told him, ‘You are not a Prophet.’” In a later clarification, Hassoun stated that his initial statement had actually been, “If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Moses and Jesus…”
Provoking an outcry amongst many orthodox Muslims, news of the incident reached the English-speaking world primarily after the prominent Muslim scholar Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi‘s public condemnation of the mufti. During his Friday sermon of 22 January at Masjid al-Hasan in Damascus, Ya’qoubi decried Hassoun’s indiscretion, imputing disbelief to his words, and demanded that the mufti resign. Ya’qoubi’s comments led to his own immediate dismissal from the pulpit.
Hassoun is vocal in his opinion that states should be ruled on a civil rather than religious basis, believing that secularism is not synonymous with atheism, a sentiment that holds great sway in Syria’s religiously diverse society.
The tolerance controversy is very important to the future of Syria because it goes to the heart of the unresolved question of religion and its rightful role in politics. So long as the major opposition parties and militias are not clear about the role of religion in Syria’s future state, many Syrians will remain concerned.
The new leader of Syria’s opposition has a history of statements that are anti-Semitic, outrageous, and sometimes downright bizarre.
BY MOHANAD HAGE ALI | NOVEMBER 14, 2012 – Foreign Policy
Summary by Joshua Landis: Mohanad Hage Ali goes through Khatib’s speeches and website to show that he calls Shiites “rawafid” or rejectors because they reject the first three caliphs of the “Rashidun,” or rightly guided Caliiphs, which Sunnis hold up as marking the “Golden Age”of Islam. This is a common accusation against Shiites, which is used by Wahhabis in Arabia to call Shiites unbelievers and conspirators who have entered Islam to destroy it from within. We have no evidence to believe that Syria’s new leader in exile would go so far as to call Shiites unbelievers because they are rawafid, but he does criticizing Shiites’ for their ability to “establish lies and follow them.” By using the word “rawafid” to describe Shiites, he will not make friends among Shiites. He will also encourage Syria’s Alawites to believe Assad’s propaganda that the opposition is intolerant and sectarian, wishing harm on Alawites because of their religious beliefs and not merely because of their political misdeeds and willingness of many to support the Assad regime even as it carries out brutal crimes against fellow Syrians. It will give liberal Westerners cause to worry about religious tolerance in the Syria they are helping to build. Khatib also has made anti-Jewish statements. He writes that one of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s positive legacies was “terrifying the Jews.” Washington’s liberal establishment will find no comfort in this as they make the case for providing Khatib and his group with legitimacy and weapons. All the same, Sheikh Khatib has made many expressions of religious tolerance.
One of these is this statement to a crowd near Damascus soon after the Syrian uprising began last year: “My brothers, we lived all our lives, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, and Druze, as a one-hearted community. And with us lived our dear brothers [Christians] who follow Jesus, peace be upon him. We should adhere to this bond between us and protect it at all times.”
To Alawites he said: “I say to you that Alawites are closer to me than many other people I know,” he said Sunday after being elected president of the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition. “When we talk about freedom, we mean freedom for every single person in this country.”]
The battle over ecumenical statements of tolerance comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with religious dialogue in Damascus. Many of Syria’s religious leaders who are most associated with ecumenical dialogue are those who were also closest to the regime. They are accused of being creatures of the Assad regime, for Assad did a lot of arm twisting to get “friendly shiekhs” to make ecumenical pronouncements that would make Alawites and other religious minorities feel accepted and equal. They were also meant to help legitimize the regime, which claimed to be a defender of secularism and religious tolerance. Two of these shaikhs recruited by the state were the Grand Mufti Ahmed Kuftaro and his successor Shaykh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun.
Sheikh Kuftaro announced during the sixties that Abu Nur was commemorating the birth of Christ and he invited leaders from the Syrian and Lebanese Christian communities. An uproar naturally ensued, but left no doubt who ecumenical dialogue’s strongest supporter was. A later comment on the nature of Jesus perhaps summarized Sheikh Ahmed’s views most succinctly: “If a Muslim does not acknowledge Sayyidna Isa (Jesus), then his Islam is for naught”
Sheikh Hassoun sparked controversy on 19 January 2010 when he commented, “If the Prophet Muhammad had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Muhammad himself a heretic,” and, “[i]f Muhammad had ordered me to kill people, I would have told him, ‘You are not a Prophet.’” In a later clarification, Hassoun stated that his initial statement had actually been, “If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Moses and Jesus…”
Provoking an outcry amongst many orthodox Muslims, news of the incident reached the English-speaking world primarily after the prominent Muslim scholar Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi‘s public condemnation of the mufti. During his Friday sermon of 22 January at Masjid al-Hasan in Damascus, Ya’qoubi decried Hassoun’s indiscretion, imputing disbelief to his words, and demanded that the mufti resign. Ya’qoubi’s comments led to his own immediate dismissal from the pulpit.
Hassoun is vocal in his opinion that states should be ruled on a civil rather than religious basis, believing that secularism is not synonymous with atheism, a sentiment that holds great sway in Syria’s religiously diverse society.
“I don’t believe in religious wars nor in holy wars. The killing of another human is not a holy deed. I never saw religion bid me to kill anyone. My religion has commanded me to try to reach out to people to bring them to a state of peace,” he declares, adding that it is important to teach people, especially the young, to have respect for all sacred teachings. “The Crusades as well the Islamic conquests were to serve political interests and had nothing to do with religion.”
But when the US debated whether to invade Syria after the beginning of the uprising, Hassoun extolled martyrdom operations. In a public address which aired on Syria News TV and was posted on the Internet on October 9, 2011 (as translated by MEMRI), Hassoun threatened to activate suicide bombers in Europe and the United States if Syria is attacked, stating that “The moment the first missile hits Syria, all the sons and daughters of Lebanon and Syria will set out to become martyrdom-seekers in Europe and on Palestinian soil. I say to all of Europe and to the US: We will prepare martyrdom-seekers who are already among you, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon.” He further added that “Do not think that the people who will commit martyrdom in France, Britain, or the US, will be Arabs and Muslims. They will be a new Jules Jammal or a new Muhammad Al-Durrah. They will all be like the righteous [of the past].”
Having studied the different faiths in the world, Dr Ahmad Badr says, religions do not conflict as they all invite to one essential value, which is the sacredness of the divine and the inherent dignity of the individual.
But the problem, he says, is that followers do not really comprehend the religion they adhere to and that some political leaders exploit religious sentiment and “light the fire to promote discord and enmity” between the followers of different faiths to advance their own special interest. “Don’t ask me about the Arab lands. I am so saddened by what they are doing in those places. I don’t complain about the enemies,” he says.
He often repeated that he belonged to all strands of Islam, including Shiite: “I am Sunni in practice, Shiite in allegiance. My roots are Salafi, and my purity is Sufi.” This, he said, is the type of international Muslim he is trying to mold: “There is no contradiction in being both Sunni and Shiite. That’s how one’s Islam becomes complete.” “Praying in a church or a synagogue is like praying in a mosque. They’re all houses of God.”The tolerance controversy is very important to the future of Syria because it goes to the heart of the unresolved question of religion and its rightful role in politics. So long as the major opposition parties and militias are not clear about the role of religion in Syria’s future state, many Syrians will remain concerned.
Tony Karon writes: Syria’s new opposition leadership structure announced in Qatar on Sunday could mark a turning point in the stalemated 20-month old rebellion against the Assad regime. But it could just as easily prove to be another chimerical Western attempt to stand up a friendly regime for an Arab country in transition. That’s because [...]
No comments:
Post a Comment