The Syrian Crisis Goes Beyond the Regime

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I begin by reaffirming what I have said before: that the Syrian regime, like the other Arab regimes, sowed with its own conduct the seeds of revolution and internecine fighting. It is a coercive, despotic, repressive, corrupt, and unjust regime, and it was to be expected that the people would one day explode in its face. When the regime asked me about the likelihood of people rising up against it, my advice was that it should begin change immediately, before a single Syrian citizen took to the streets of Damascus to demonstrate against it. The regime received this counsel with derision, on the assumption that it was a nationalist, resistance-minded regime that the people could never rise up against.

Now, after all this blood that has been shed and will continue to be shed in Syria, there is a Western — American and European — and Arab insistence on continuing the fighting, and there is no sign on the horizon that the press statements we hear from the mouths of Western officials about political solutions will find their way to implementation.

In short, the continuation of the fighting in Syria serves the following strategic goals, shared by both Israel and America:

First: entrenching the negative impressions of Islam now crystallizing at the global level. The people of the West fought Islam for centuries, and their achievements were quite modest. With the help of some corrupt Muslim jurists, they managed to distort the image of Islam somewhat, and had it not been for the conduct of Muslims themselves and their poor performance in many matters, the West could not have achieved any success at all. Now, at this stage, the sons of Muslims who claim to be defending Islam are rendering the greatest services to Israel and America by supplying the world, proof after proof, that Islam is a religion of crime and bloodshed. Thousands of Muslims are now proving to the world that Muslims drive cars loaded with explosives and sow death in markets, crowded streets, hospitals, and schools. These Muslims are sparing Israel and America the effort, the money, and the trouble, offering free services in turning people away from Islam and fighting it. The matter is not confined to non-Muslims — there are Muslims too who have begun to hate Islam because of these people. These takfiri bombers are more foolish than the Syrian regime, and even more so; and just as the regime never listened to anyone’s advice in the first place, these people consider anyone who advises them an infidel who must be slaughtered according to what they believe is prophetic tradition.

The West is at ease now, and so is Israel, for the sons of Islam are offering the finest gifts for rallying the world’s peoples against Islam. The matter is no longer confined to some foolish mufti saying that Islam requires obedience to the ruler no matter how unjust he may be; it now extends to encompass thousands upon thousands of madmen who feel no shame in broadcasting their criminal acts on television screens.

I am one of those who devoted no small effort to researching Islamic thought, and I wrote about it in both Arabic and English, hoping to convey a message to those who harbor doubts about the humane and moral message of Islam. My own estimate was that if the message reached people over the course of a hundred years, that would be a good outcome, especially since foreign media pay no attention to such writings. Now, what value do all these intellectual writings about Islam have, when a criminal displays his crime in the name of Islam on television screens, and can broadcast his criminality to the world within a few short minutes, easily manufacturing an ugly image of Islam? I need a hundred years to get an idea across, and I may succeed or I may not, while that ignorant man whose thinking is paralyzed by visions of houris can get his idea across to the whole world with tremendous success and at the speed of light.

… it reassured the Arab regimes and lengthened their lifespan. Long-lived, their long life owes itself to the naivety that hangs over our minds and souls.

Second: since 1979, America has been trying, together with the Arab regimes, to ignite sectarian strife in the Arab-Islamic region, because of the way this tears the ranks apart, fuels internecine fighting that drains energies, and produces a weakness that places the entire region under hegemony and control. The Americans worked hard to ignite sectarian strife in Iraq. They succeeded for a while, but the Iraqis managed to contain it to some extent, and Arab efforts to ignite Sunni-Shia strife in Iraq are still ongoing. They also tried to ignite strife in Lebanon, but the Lebanese — Hezbollah in particular — decided not to respond to the provocations and assaults, and thereby prevented sectarian strife. Hezbollah continues to absorb bombings without responding. Of course there are those who say Hezbollah is the aggressor because it is fighting in Syria, but the truth is that the opposition in Syria began threatening the party from the very first day of activity against the regime, and it was clear that this opposition would attack the party if it won against the regime. This opposition has not even uttered a single word against Israel, not even about liberating the Golan.

Sunni-Shia strife is the most dangerous thing Muslims could face, because it is destructive and crushing, sweeping away everyone on the Arab scene, and no one will escape it, Muslim or non-Muslim alike — and this in itself is the greatest service the Islamist lunatics could render to the enemies of the nation.

Third: besieging the resistance and eliminating it. It is difficult, indeed impossible, for Israel, the Western states, and the Arab regimes to coexist with a resistance directed against Israel, and efforts are continually being exerted to eliminate the resistance in Gaza and in southern Lebanon. Israel has waged ferocious wars, with the help of Western states and Arab regimes, in order to eliminate Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committees, and it has failed. This is why Israel, together with the people of the West, came to see that the best way to exhaust the Arabs and Muslims is to spread internal strife so that they devour one another. This is why certain Arab regimes, together with Israel, are now unleashing takfiri bombers against Lebanon in order to create chaos that might lead to a civil war capable of destroying Hezbollah or weakening it considerably. On the southern front, the takfiris are carrying out bombing operations in Egypt so that Egypt turns its spears against Hamas. This is why Egypt is now tightening its siege of Hamas, placing it under severe strain, under the pretext of defending Egyptian national security. It is quite likely that the Egyptian regime itself is complicit in encouraging these acts, so as to present credentials to the Gulf regimes and to America in order to obtain financial assistance. The Gulf states, America, and Israel are all concerned with eliminating Hamas, and if Egypt carries out this task, it will receive economic and financial assistance.

Liquidating the Palestinian Cause

The points above ultimately all flow into a single basin: supporting Israel and liquidating the Palestinian cause. Hezbollah is fully aware of this equation, but the problem is that the Palestinian side has still not read the map properly, and continues to let partisanship prevail over the idea of protecting the resistance camp in the region. The Palestinian side ought to realize that eliminating Hezbollah will not spare Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and that this is a war that touches everyone, not just one part. Distorting the image of Islam has a negative effect on the Palestinian cause, while internal strife destroys everything, green and dry alike. Someone might say that the Palestinian leadership is doing what is necessary to liquidate the cause, but it remains important that the resistance endure, so that the cause itself remains alive.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الأزمة السورية تتخطى مشكلة النظام” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.