Karfan's View Of A Sectarian Syria

As a supplemental footnote to my previous post, here is a sharp entry from the classic blog Syria Exposed, easily the funniest blog of all-time, it discusses the self-imposed conversion of Alawites from a cryptic sect into a personality cult for al-Assad that depends solely on him for survival, some of the passages match word-for-word the testimony of the Alawite woman in the report I linked to in the previous post, several comparisons with the Sunnis status in Iraq warrants mention, but they have grown too long to be added as a comment and I'll give them a post of their own after this one.

A significant theme in Karfan's classic 13-posts blog is sectarainism,Other highly recommended Karfan posts that discuss sectarainism frankly and openly include the posts "Myth No. 5: We Will Slaughter Each Other" and "Myth No. 2 : We Have An Identity"

Myth No. 6 : Alawie Is Still A Religious Sect

It might be very surprising for many people to know that the Alawie (the sect that the ruling thugs belong to) is the most oppressed religion in Syria!! Of course in terms of ideology not in terms of the status of the people belonging to it.

"King Lion the 1st" long ago realized how much he relies on the support of his sect to stay in power, and realized who much dangerous would be to rely on something that can be easily manipulated such as religion. He then diverted this lurking danger to his rule by imposing an overwhelming Sunnification policy on the very Alawie sect that supported him. This extreme policy took the shape of so many aspects that everybody here knows very well:
Introducing only pure Sunni Islam education to all schools;
Banning any public manifestation or even mentioning of any Alawie religious activities;
Banning and oppressing any Alawie religious organizations or any formation of a unified religious council or a higher religious authority; Many were killed by the great gangster Duba for starting to utter such ideas among people in Tartous and Jableh;
Building Sunni-style mosques in every little Alawie village and encouraging people to perform the pilgrimage through public and private (his late brother's Hadjee Jameel) organizations;
Encouraging the Late Grand Mufti of Syria to brake down any attempt to present the Alawie religion as anything but a bad old mistake which people should renounce and forget.
Releasing the hands of the Sunni clerks to do whatever they whish regarding establishing a clear religious identity to all Sunni youth, and facilitating Sunni Islam educational and media sources (as long as it does not tackles politics and the King’s eternal right to his crown) while banning any sort of similar activities for Alawies and other minor sects. There are in Syria hundreds of Sunni religious schools while there is not a single school that is specialized in teaching not even the history of the Alawie sect.
etcetera etcetera...
"King Lion the 1st" managed even to convince many Alawies, especially young generations, that they are actually just Bad Muslims, someway or another.

"King Lion the 1st" and the rest of the gang around him knew well that this is not going to lead to any real results in term of unifying the Alawie sect with the main stream Sunni Islam. Everybody knows, especially those Alawies who tried very hard to integrate with their Sunni surroundings after moving to the main cities, that they will never be accepted by the Sunnis. There isn't a single Alawie house in Damascus without a story or two on failed experiences in... what you may name: go out of own skin attempts. Alawies are still bad Muslims, the mosques the government built are still deserted, and the number of Alawie-Sunni "mixed marriages" is even much lower than the number of the mixed marriages between Syrians and foreigners. Of course excluding the upper class mixed marriages, where the thugs marry into each other's families for the sole reason of solidifying their rule.

The Sunni-fication attempt did not work simply because it was not meant to work in the first place. While "King Lion the 1st" and his thugs were trumpeting this integration policy, they were at the same time systematically building a culture of separation and segregation between Alawies and Sunnis, and between all sects and ethnic and religious groups in Syria for that matter.
The real reason behind this policy was never integration with Sunnis or establishing an acceptance for the Alawies by the Sunnis. The real reason was to deprive the Alawies from any solid unified religious ideology that might one day pause a fatal danger on the rule of the King. To turn them into meaningless tribes ranked by how much they support the King.

Let Karfan explain this in his simple words: Imagine what the King's position would be if all the Alawies in the Republican Guard, Special Forces, and Security Services (all composed of 95%Up Alawies) told him to go fuck-him-self because an Alawie higher religious authority decided it is not in the sect's best interest to support him anymore? What exactly do you think this regime is hold together by? Baathis? That is the biggest joke that every five year old Syrians knows. Everybody here knows that these forces are the regime real power which prevents any opposition from even pondering on the idea of opposing publicly. The army in general has been long ago marginalized and made weak to have any real effect on the power balance. That was when many army units refused to carry out "King Lion the 1st" 's destruction plans against the Sunnis at the time when the regime and the Muslim Brothers were waging holly wars against each other. Many army officers who refused orders were fired and are still sitting in their houses doing nothing since. But that experience taught the King that he had better rely on very well organized, brain-washed, and loyal smaller units such as the infamous "Sarya Eldefaa" of his brother who eventually carried out the attacks on Hama. Since then, he learned how to balance these power tools by multiplying them into several separate entities: Republican Guard, Special Forces, and many strong Security Services Units. Those units are where the real military power of the regime exists.

Such essential power centers should be kept under the sole control of the King. That is why, unlike the Sunnis or Druuz or Smaeilis, the Alawies were doomed not have a religion in fear that this religion or whoever controls it might be in control of these essential power centers one day.
By erasing all sort of religious identity while making sure that Alawies will not find another one elsewhere, Alawies were simply transformed into a sort of tribes that are unified around one purpose: Keeping the King in Power. A couple of tribes that does not have any real religious conviction or ideology but are hold together by the fear of the others and the fear of revenge by the others for the regimes deeds. A sort of army units which sole purpose is to protect the leader, nothing else.

Meanwhile every one around them keep labeling the regime an "Alawie Regime" and keep throwing all the faults that this regime did on the Alawies shoulders. We will be doomed to carry the burden of the faults of the same people who destroyed our religion and destroyed any religious identity we might have had. The same people who instead of seizing the chance of being on top to establish a real secular society were all would be respected regardless of what they believe in, they encouraged Sunni extreme religious teachings and built a society were you have only two books to read: Ibn Taymeiya, or Michael Aflak.

After this systematic destruction of any unified religious authority, it seems unlikely that Alawies would bring themselves together to get rid of the gang ruling in their name and destroying the future of this country in their name. What makes it even more difficult is the accusations that the other sects keep building: An Alawie Regime, An Alawie Baath etc.. to the end of the list of everything bad+Alawie. Not a single opposition group had come forward to present a vision or an idea of what would be their stance on the thousands of Alawies serving in the Security Services and army. What should Alawies expect if they actually manage to realize that the ruling thugs are going to destroy what is left of the other's trust in them? No one is saying anything about that: Sunnis are vague or just silent at best, and that is what the King exactly whishes for. With no bright future, Alawies are just maintaining the present, no matter how bad it is.

The Alawie sect had suffered hundreds of years of oppression and negligence before, but the biggest harm to it came when one of it's own followers controlled the country! He succeeded in doing what long Sunni oppression and mighty Osman Emperors couldn't do over hundred of years: erasing the Alawie religion and turning its followers into an identity-less supporters of his rule.

One day the King and his gang will go and he will join his uncle "White Knight of Tadmur" in France in his luxurious life style and white suits, like all ousted kings and rulers. And only the Alawie King Lion and his dynasty and thugs will remain in people's memory. People will forget all other great Alawies like Saad Allah Wannous and Nadeem Muhammad, and we will be responsible for all the backwardness of Syria and its society. Alawie will never have the right to build religious schools or demand a secular education, the majority would say: You didn't do that when you were in power, why should we do it for you now? And they will be damn right in saying that.

Alawie, as a religion or sect, no longer exists like all other sects in Syria. But Alawies have one thing in common: they are the ones who keep this regime alive. And according to Karfan there is another thing that is common between us, Alawies: We have no future, at least not one that is worth looking forward to.

The Baathist Model in Iraq and Syria

This time I stayed in Syria for half a month, unlike the previous 3-day stint two months earlier, which was basically a poor attempt at a booze-and-booty adventure in the vein of hypocritical Middle Eastern men, this trip was like Will Smith, very G-rated, family-oriented and fun. I found it extremely refreshing and got to spend half as much money as the first.

"Syria is a beautiful country." This is the first line Riverbend wrote in her last blogpost, of course, she quickly followed it by: "at least, I think it is." The addition is necessary because Syria is not beautiful in the modernized sense of Western civilization, its streets are dirty, the electricity cuts off an hour everyday, and autocracy assures you of its dominance in every inch of the streets. Riverbend attempts to explain her impression by saying that as an Iraqi she persumes she'd take safety and security as beautiful no matter what, but I feel this analysis to be in error*. 'Amman is significanly more pretty, chic and advanced in services and architecture than Damascus, but, in the words of an Algerian reporter I met last year "it has no soul", Damascus has loads of cultural (old city) historical(Umyyads) and natural soul(Qasiyoon), but most importantly, it resembles pre-war Iraq almost unbelievably.

Which brings us to the main point: the extra time allowed me to ponder a comparison I've tried to make ever since my first trip to Syria, to count the similarities between Baathist Syria and Baathist Iraq.

###########	Iraq	Syria
Independence	1932	1947
Flag (Longest Surviving)
Population	29 million - ([this year] – 2003) x 1 million)	19.4 million
Ruling Party	وحدة مرية اشترا كبة	وحدة مرية اشترا كبة
State Constitution	20% Sunni rules 60% Shia, Other minorities favor the 'secular' rule of the minority against the Islamic tendencies of the majority.	10% Alawi rules 74% Sunni, other minorities act the same as Iraq's.
Demographics	Shii (Imami), Sunni, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, Mandaeans, Yazidis, Shabak.	Sunni, "Shii" Alawi, Shii Imami, Shii Ismaili, Druze, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians.
Things That Make 9/11 Look Silly	Halabja (3,000) (Sunni Arabs vs Kurds) 91 Uprising (180,000) (Sunni vs Shia) Anfal (50,000)* (Sunni Arabs vs Kurds)	Hama (25,000) (Shia vs Sunni)
Government Sponsored Edutainment	Abu Gharib Prisons	Tadmur
Claims To Fame	Sumer, Babylon, Nineveh, Wheel, Writing, Saladin.	Oldest City In World, Ebla, ermm...?!?
Caliphates	Baghdad, Capital of Abbasid Caliphate	Damascus, Capital of Umayyad Caliphate

Death Counts are listed at their maximum for both Iraq and Syria, the 91 Uprising figure is from the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry.

The most interesting part of this comparison to me is the sectarian model of government, theoretically, the model is almost identical, both countries have a minority that rules under secular guises a majority it is historically hostile to. But the regime in Syria has been relatively much more cautious and gentle in its treatment of the majority, the reluctant diplomacy of the Syrian regime in comparison to the uncompromising Iraqi brutality is a trait that exhibits itself almost everywhere you look, even in the respective heads of state, as noted by US ambassador April Glaspie. So how could we explain this? Is it just a difference of temperament between Syrians and Iraqis?

Perhaps it plays an effect, but I think an important factor lies in the identity of the dominant minority sect in either country. The orthodox faction, the Sunnis, are 85-90% of the Muslim World, and so when they ruled in Iraq they assumed a supremacy that was historically natural. All the education books (history, and religion) we studied in elementary schools were 100% Sunni, sometimes even implicitly molded to counter Shia arguments (a chapter about the strong relationship between Ali and Umar, for example) The Sunnis stubbornly refused to accept the majority percentage of Shia in Iraq, before Iraq became independent, it was always ruled, except for brief interruptions, by Sunnis. So when push comes to shove with the rise of Shi'i Islamic movements as part of the general religious awakening in the whole Muslim world, the Sunni government found no qualms in entirely suppressing all religious Shia practices. The Shia, historically and religiously attuned to suppression and tyrannical rule, did not act against this ban with the veracity one would expect from a majority oppressed in its own homeland.

and so it is only natural that the Nusayri pseudo-Shia Alawi regime in Syria would manifest its Shia identity in Syria somewhat cautiously. To the Alawis, who are a very small minority who lived in the mountains and are considered extremists by Shia themselves, this moment of rule is historically without precedent. (the magnitude of such an accomplishment can be felt when imagining Saudi Arabia ruled by its minority Shia, or Iran by its minority Sunni) and so, education in Syria remains, as this excellent report shows, traditional, rigid, and entirely Sunni. Sunni worship is accommodated graciously, even after the Muslim Brotherhood Hama revolution and was never really made to feel actively threatened or assaulted full-on, in fact, the report goes so far as to say that Alawis have traded their religion for political power, effectively becoming Orthodox Sunnis, attempting a process of integration in the pan-Arab identity which is closely intertwined with Sunni Islam (read it).But I don't really think that they've abandoned their religion entirely, instead, they are coy in pushing up their own version ; for a 10% minority, they are ubiquitous, pictures of Bashar al-Assad and Hasan Nasrallah together are a no-brainer and are visible everywhere, hell, I even saw pictures of Khomeini and Khamenei together with the words 'Leaders of the Nation' plastered next to a clothes shop, something I haven't ever seen in Iraq. When I went to help the Ba'ath Party neighborhood official who owned the apartment of my relatives install Yahoo Messenger on his computer, the first thing I saw inside his house was a large poster of Nasrallah, at the corner of the street, I encounter a young man with 'Ya Ali' tattoed on his arm, many Iranians walk the streets, Shia books are sold side-by-side next to Sunni ones in the street, Kiosks turn on Shia sermons freely...the references are endless.

The question presents itself, if for some reason America decided to do to Syria what it did for Iraq, would they end up with the same results? Would the minority, supported by an unbreakable relationship with Iran, cause the same havoc the smug, historically confident minority in Iraq did? Or would they turn back to their mountains in acceptance of their historical outcast status vis-a-vis the majority Sunni and forget about it? I don't know, maybe, but it's too costly to find out, and Iraq is the biggest proof of that.

===================================

*("to be in error"?!? fuck, I'm getting too scholarly. Here's an extra fuck to balance it out: fuck. That's three fucks, and with the last one it's four, all hail Fred Durst for this lame joke.)

Blogging Via Proxy

Ramadhan Karim.
More posts to follow soon.

Iraqi Refugees in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon *EDIT*

I'm staying in bed today due to a mild fever, so expect a post or two.
Here's the new Crisis Group detailed report about Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon(PDF, but click here for overview)

Okay, so I read the report, it's a very extensive and detailed description of refugee status, but it's also quite long, so here are a few interesting tidbits for the less patient:

* While the report finds excuses for the host countries [Syria and Jordan], it is very condemning of the Iraqi government, describing it as neglectful, if not outright hostile to the refugee population, not hearing any of its admittedly lame excuses "No doubt there are senior former regime figures among the refugees, but this does not excuse callous neglect of overwhelmingly non-political people who loyally served Iraq rather than any particular regime."
Next up the bat is the International community, the focus naturally goes to the "country whose policies caused this chaos", blaming the US for "downplaying the issue, providing far less assistance to host countries than needed and admitting to its own shores merely a trickle of refugees and only after unprecedented security checks to which asylum seekers from other nations are not subjected."

* When it comes to estimating the number of refugees, the host governments tend to bluff a lot, often raising or lowering the number depending on the circumstances (when they need to ask for money, or when pressured for taking care of more refugees), for instance, when the Norwegian NGO FAFO estimated the number of Iraqis last year, it came with the astonishing figure of 150,000, the Jordanian government fiddled around a bit and came up with the figure 450,000-500,000 (and before that, the Iraqis in Jordan were estimated to be 750,000 - 1 mil)

* The governments of both Jordan and Syria have imposed restrictions on charity organizations civil action and NGOs that can help Iraqis, this is because (a) Jordanian politics tend to frown on most associational work and (b) in Syria, they just don't know nor trust NGOs.

* The Syrian regime seemed to have a hard time figuring Iraq and was largely unfamiliar as to how to approach it, this is expalined because "of the historic rift between the Iraqi and Syrian Baath branches."

Other than that, the report in general is pretty solid and is a treasure trove of information, tracing the refugee status in each country and how it developed and why.

للشام يهدوني

al-Marja Square, where I stayed in Sep 2007

Syria is beautiful.

The kindness of the average Syrian never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps I am exaggerating, maybe it is the effect of the new Syrian dominance over pan-Arab entertainment that made the mannerisms and dialect of Syria so familiar, I often fear that I might be too self-critical of Iraqis at the expense of not seeing the shortcomings of others (for example, you won't get the self-flagellating speech about how all Jordanians hate us from me) but having lived in two countries other than my own, I found something instantly amiable about Syrians in particular, they are not overtly soft and chic like the Lebanese, nor helplessly derisive and sneering like the Iraqis, and not frowning for no particular reason like the Jordanians. That doesn't mean they are actually better human beings than their peers, but they sure know how to put on a great show of it, the comparison between Iraq and Syria's dictators by US Ambassador April Glaspie comes to mind as a concise comparison, both are pan-Arab Baathist dictators, but the Levantine one was softer, smarter and more charming than the brute-force Mesopotamian. I found their dialect, with its odd rhythm in which every sentence ends on a rising, elongated note, very entertaining, and while certainly soft-spoken like other Levantine accents (with the exception of the Bedouin Jordanian, which has more commonalities with regular combative Iraqi) there is some sort of elegant pride in that rising tone that makes Syrian Arabic looks sexy on women and masculine on men, which is what made Bab al-Harra the hit TV show that it is.

Damascus is loads more fascinating than Amman, for all its dirtiness and uncompromising traffic that has no understanding of the concept of lanes, there is a sense of urgency, history and soul that penetrates you the moment you enter it, Amman, with its sprawling, ultra-modern West side, spikey-hairdos and American fast food chains feels depressingly fake and sleepy in comparison.

This was my second visit to Syria, I've been there for a week back in September, and spent that time between Damascus, where I was fascinated by the Ummayad Mosque and enjoyed eating the famed (and overhyped) Bakdash ice cream in Soq al-Hamidiya, and between visting my relatives in the Damascene Countryside, the area they lived in, Sahnaya, is Druze territory, but I only found Iraqi shops and people there, in fact, the entire area reminded me of the more quaint parts of Baghdad such as al-Ghazaliya, back in Damascus, Hezbollah flags and Nasrallah pictures were all over the place, Shi'i literature was all over the 80% Sunni country, Iranian pilgrims flooded the Ummayad Mosque [which contains one of several sites that claim to have the head of Imam Hussein] Iraqis were ubiquitous, most of them were poor and had no place else to go, in fact, the Sayda Zainab district looked exactly like Sadr City. They were visibly less this time, after Syrians imposed new restrictions and regulations. Overall, I found Syria pleasant, if only for the ridiculous amount of pictures of Bashar al-Assad, found on practically every building and shop, something even Saddam didn't do. All in all, Syria felt shockingly like what I felt Iraq resembled in the 1980s, with a much friendlier weather.

My first trip was somewhat sketchy and family-centric, but this second trip marked me doing several things for the first time in my life. I decided to see more of the seedy underside of Damascus, which is a popular destination for Gulf Arabs looking for some poontang (the more affluent ones frequent Southeast Asia and Europe), I was hoping I'd run into of these poor Iraqi prostitutes, to see them face to face after reading so much about them, so I took a taxi with my friends and headed to the Ma'raba Nightclub area outside of Damascus...

Categories of Syrian Hijab

Being a closeted Pan-Arabist (democracy first!) , there are two countries I especially like: Egypt and Syria. Egypt was the leader of the modern Arab world, even though that role has faded with the stagnation of the Pan-Arab movement, weighted down by dictatorships, Egypt remains the cultural and intellectual hub of the Middle East. Syria, in spite of all its totalitarian, evil-axis troubles, has also managed to wield an impact on the larger Arab world recently. I've been to Syria last September, and it looks just like Iraq before the war (it even has Iraqis :D) but there are waaaay more pictures of Bashar al-Assad than Saddam Hussein ever did.
Here's a brilliant caricature drawn by Puppeteer, whose blog is now defunct. [click to enlarge]

Jordan Pardons Staying Fines of Iraqis

Something's going on.

the Jordanian street is today boiling after the lifting the subsidiaries off the economy, which sent prices to the roof ; meanwhile, after ranting about the cost of Iraqi refugees here, the Jordanian government has supposedly forgiven the cumbersome 1.5 JD a day fines from 360 thousand "illegally staying" Iraqis, this was presumably done at the request of Vice president Tariq al-Hashimi (I caught myself before adding the S-word before his excellency's name) who said this move would encourage Iraqis to return home due to the improved security conditions currently in Iraq. I'm still skeptical about this, as I've heard it many times before, but let's see.
One wonders if many Iraqis are actually going to return, I don't really think the ones who will return will do so out of the improved security conditions, which I believe is propagandist, but out of desperation ; there are many Iraqis here who have accomplished nothing and are living on their savings, on the other hand, there are many rich ones who are well-off. In any case, the one thing that I know is fore sure is that the Jordanian security officials have been doing raids on Iraqis recently.

Younis, a friend of a friend, is an Iraqi in his 20s who came here seeking to 'make something for himself', however, he cannot even afford to rent a room, so he sleeps in a shop where he works, the manager of that shop pays him about 200$ a month for 16 hours work, 4 of which is outside Amman, one day he was walking and then he got apprehended by the police, who held him in prison for more than a week, Younis's S-passport is expired and even his UNHCR registration card was expired as well, and his Jordanian boss refused to have anything to do with it, citing his reluctance to interfere given that he is employing an illegal alien without a work permit ; he even prevented a Jordanian co-worker from going there to bail him, ordering him to do it when he's not working, in the end, Younis's brother managed to find a friend who is an associate of the governor, who negotiated his release, Younis went to renew his passport and then he went to UNHCR, who offered him the free services of a lawyer as he is now required to go now for an interrogation. On top of all that, the governor's friend wants 2,200 JD (3100$) for his trouble. His brother had to borrow some money to pay him off.
Today, Jamal, another Iraqi co-worker in the shop, was almost arrested by the Jordanian security had he not been warned by the nearby barber that they are searching the area, he quickly exchanged places with a Jordanian customer, the police came in and thoroughly searched the shop and the back-rooms, perhaps acting on a tip?
A female acquaintance of mine was also recently fired from her work, she said that her company told her that the Jordanian security are searching for Iraqis without work permits rather excessively those days.

On a related note, Last of Iraqis is rejected at the borders again, naturally, he is pissed, he was rejected once before, so this didn't come as a surprise to me. My cousin was also rejected twice, they aren't impressed with insistence.

Also Today, Imad Mughniya, a scary Hezbollah muthuh, was assassinated - rather suspiciously, in Damascus! That guy looked sneaky AND good-looking, he would've made a sweet movie villain. Reactions in the Middle East were based basically on your sectarian affiliation.