During the past three months, Syria has witnessed unprecedented discussions about the phenomenon of sectarian incitement and hate speech, in which it participated through the media and social media various social components, compared to local elites that belong to what is described as “minorities” that reached the limits of verbal clash.
While most of the participants affirmed their standing alongside the state and its new government in pushing towards a transit culture of sects, others expressed their opposition, based on a vision calling for sectarian shrinkage inside closed cantons, threatening its political repercussions – according to experts – the country’s unity and national identity, and dragged it into a long -term civil conflict.
He was the Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al -Shaibani He has warned of attempts aimed at dismantling the Syrian society, and cultivating sedition in it, to strike its national fabric, and stressed in a speech before the 34th Arab Summit that was held in the Iraqi capital Baghdad Last May, that “any project aims to weaken the state, or to deduct part of its territory, under any pretext, security, ethnic or sectarian, or support separate groups outside the law, is a convicted, categorically rejected project.”
New old slogans
The expert in the Syrian issue, Abdullah Baroudi, attributed the sectarian incitement, which is being talked about on a large scale, to groups described as “Asadiya”, a term that was commonly used during the rule of the father of the father, to indicate a category that condemns him with blind loyalty, although the stage in which the country ruled 1970-2000 was characterized, according to Baroudi, as “album Sectarian hatred, he remained afraid like embers under the ashes.
Al -Baroudi pointed out, in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, that the development of the ethnic and sectarian trend towards political projects under various names such as self -administration, decentralization or confederation, is hiding behind a potential separatist project, Syria has previously suffered from it during the French occupation period, when France invested in sects and minorities in order to maximize its colonial interests.
In a evocation of history, he demonstrated against the Palace of Justice in “Port de Kleshi” in the French capital, Paris, Syrians opposed to the New Testament in Syria, during which they launched slogans demanding urgent international protection for minorities, against the background of what was known as the events of the Syrian coast, in a feverish endeavor to update an old novel that has been more than 100 years ago, raised the same slogan, according to experts.
Analysts believe that the choice of Paris as a place to announce this demand was not merely a coincidence, but rather came based on a complete knowledge that sectarianism as a political project has not been absent from Syria, since the French army occupied Syrian coast In the late second decade of the last century.
The documents of the French Foreign Ministry are strengthening this view, through a message sent by General Henry Guru – the French government in Lebanon and Syria – to Foreign Minister Stephen Bishon on August 2, 1920, in which he proposes to divide Syria into sectarian states, including the state of Jabal Al -Alawi and the state of Jabal Al -Druze, under the name of the regulation of lands entrusted to France under the mandate regime.
In -depth analyzes of researchers in Middle East affairs are unanimously unanimously agreed that the strategy of the French government carried by Guru to Syria was aimed at forming a new political and social map, which depends on sects and minorities, to use it as a parallel force, in front of a majority that refused to assign, and looks forward to an independent united country, which does not recognize any political system that adopts sectarian quotas in power.
In this context, the researcher specializing in the Alawite sect affairs, Kamal Shaheen, confirmed that the concept of minorities that France invented is a colonial concept, when it claimed the protection of Christians in Lebanon – for example – a sectarian state produced with distinction, as the United States brought Iraq after the overthrow of the president’s regime Saddam Hussein In 2003 to the same result.
Christians: There is no prejudice to the unity of the country
In addition, Christians – unlike most of the voices speaking on behalf of minorities – seen in their presence an integral part of the Syrian body, within an unprecedented participatory, which raised the Christian politician Faris El -Khoury to major positions in the state, the most important of which was after his presidency of the government and parliament, his administration in 1944 the Ministry of Islamic Endowments.
In the context, the Syrian Christian politician, Edouard Hashwa, views the role of Eastern Christianity, and other sects, through the national door and its alliance with the majority, not standing against it, and he sees that the more the sects are united with the majority as part of it, the greater the role.
“At the beginning of the Islamic conquest, Syria was completely Christian, but with time many moved to Islam, and kept their moderate and tolerant origins, and therefore most of the Muslims of Syria today are cousins with Christians, and exceptions are few.”
He pointed out that a filling should remain to the advanced role of the majority remain respectable, a place of persuasion, and whoever believes otherwise – according to his opinion – is similar to those who ignite a war that no minority throughout history has won.
Meanwhile, three Christian clerics, representing the Maronite diocese of Latakia and the diocese of Akkar and its dependencies of the Greek Orthodox, and the evangelical sect in Syria and Lebanon, strongly – after the events of the coast – any infringement that affects or tries to divide the Syrian territories.
They denounced the invitation by Assad’s remnants to Christians in the three coast cities, Latakia And Tartous and Class, in order to include them in the sectarian incitement they are active for.
In a joint statement, the three clerics stressed that the Christian churches in their priests, believers and intellectuals see “the necessity of putting an end to these calls, which are working to tear civil peace, and are incompatible with all our human, moral and national values.” And they considered “the suspicious invitations published to undermine the unity and stability of the homeland by asking the international community to manage the Syrian coast, but it is a dangerous escalation.”
From a phenomenon of politics to a struggle for resources
Sectarian and ethnic analysts in Syria are monitored as a multi -dimensional phenomenon, as it is – in addition to its religious, historical and political tangles – also represents a struggle for power and resources, and this is explained by the history of Syria in the period in which the Assad family took control of the country’s capabilities and resources.
And the expert on sociology, Saeed Al -Bani, states that the Assad family used sectarianism as a tool for organized looting, crowd and mobilization, and also used the success of its endeavor with narratives from other sects that brought the societal relationship to the limits of hostility and conflict.
He explained – in his interview with Al -Jazeera Net – that the sect of the Assad family belongs to the power centers in the state, at the political, economic and security levels, caused a major rift with the main social component, and the situation exacerbated more, when the latter suffered a war that spanned about 14 years, in which hundreds of thousands of victims lost.
He pointed out that the “oligarchy” of the defunct system and its tyrannical authoritarian approach destroyed society, and lost it its national identity, as well as dealing with its other components as second -class citizens, which explains – according to the brown – the escalation of sectarian discourse and the hate speech that was exchanged recently.
Do not coexist without justice
Sectarian incitement is pushed towards conjunctions – under patriotism – and side conflicts controlled by mutual hostility and hate speech in a way that threatens the security and safety of society in many cases.
In this context, the international criminal law and researcher in human rights cases, Al -Mu’tasim Al -Kilani, sees that civil peace is not only built through disarmament, but by drying the sources of discourse that incites hatred and discrimination, and consequently dismantling the social fabric that has always been coherent before the Baath seizes power in Syria.
He explained – in his interview with Al -Jazeera Net – that moving from war to peace, and from division to unity requires the existence of transitional justice, and justice cannot make its way unless the inflammatory sectarian discourse is dismantled and dealt with in a legal way that limits its spread.
Al -Kilani said that criminalization of sectarianism and hate speech is a realistic translation of the principle of coexistence, which was stipulated Constitutional Declaration The temporary, in addition to that it is an ethical guarantee for the survival of Syria, a united country, a safe country, which respects its citizens of all affiliations, indicating that the presence of a constitutional material criminalizes sectarian incitement and the speeches of hatred explicitly will serve as the first line of defense to protect coexistence between religious and ethnic components.
He was the Syrian president Ahmed Al -Shara It was issued a temporary constitutional declaration last March, which included 4 articles, according to the expert, a legal base for criminalizing sectarianism and hate speech. It stipulated: The state’s commitment to enhancing civil peace and preventing incitement to sectarian strife and violence, equality between all Syrians without any discrimination, the presence of a special body for transitional justice, and criminalizing praise or denial of the crimes of the Assad regime.
Recommendations to prevent incitement and achieve justice
Al -Kilani expert recommends the necessity of activating the above texts through the following:
- Issuing a law for criminalizing hate speech, based on what was stated in the constitutional declaration, and maintains international standards for freedom of expression.
- Supporting the National Transitional Justice Authority, and giving it powers related to monitoring and documenting the inflammatory discourse.
- Activating control over media and religious platforms and preventing their exploitation in spreading sedition and discrimination.
- Reforming educational curricula and adopting a culture of pluralism and citizenship.
In the same context, a student The Supreme Ifta Council in Syria The government is responsible for holding criminals accountable, and he saw in a recent statement that achieving justice, preserving the unity of the class, and preserving blood and symptoms is one of the most prominent guarantees to protect society from sedition, and that the fulfillment of rights must be done through the competent legal institutions, not through individual reactions, stressing that overcoming the law would open the doors of sedition and threaten the security and safety of society.