Sectarian injustice and sectarian justice

  It seems as though the Syrian sectarian pandemic is much older, more deadly, and more widespread than the viral coronavirus, which we encountered some years ago and which has almost stopped, while the spread of sectarianism is increasing, presenting itself under different names such as “We are the Sunnis” or others! Then “We are the overwhelming majority!” and therefore it is our right to rule, meaning the religious majority has the right to rule, and how many such models there are in the so-called Arab region, and even outside this region such as Iran, Afghanistan, and others!

We have made repeated and persistent efforts to make the Syrian sectarian and other groups understand that the majority in a country is a political majority, not a religious one, without sufficient success, It is as if the listener is deaf, but not always mute, and sometimes he speaks and says, trying to soften the blow of the disaster, “We are not in Switzerland, meaning we are behind, so we must remain so ” Then they say that Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, and even Iraq and others have not known a happy, prosperous day except when Sunnis ruled, of course without proof, Then they say that the rule of the dominant majority is a natural right, meaning that it is natural for the Syrian situation to be sectarian politically and socially, so that the dominant majority can lead the country and control its administration…of course, forever!

 We said that it is necessary to keep sectarianism and sectarian thought away from defining minority or majority socially and politically, They said that we are not in Switzerland, and since we are not in Switzerland, we must keep the wolf of sectarian thought away from the Syrian sheep, so that we can become like Switzerland!!!!! This is exactly what the Ataturk movement did in neighboring Ottoman Turkey, where this movement was able to keep the wolf of religious sectarianism away from the political state, and thus Turkey was able to progress in the direction of Switzerland. Hundreds of years before that, Europe did this and reached the Swiss state, and this is exactly what most of the developed countries of the world did, unlike the sectarian entities that called themselves “states” and are far from being states! For a state does not swim in pus or the swamp of sectarianism.

   The rule of     the dominant sectarian power is perpetual, as is the case with dictatorial regimes in this region, such as the Assad regime, There is no perpetuation except for democracy, which does not deal with sectarianism, and there is no such thing as sectarian democracy, because democracy is political and social, while sectarianism is mystical, faith-based, and personal, What is called sectarian democracy is inherently contradictory and therefore cannot be considered a single, homogeneous concept, Sectarianism is not for political action, while democracy is exclusively for political action   !

  There is no sectarianism without sects, and a sect is sectarian by its nature, structure, and formation, A sect means closing off to a group of individuals of a particular doctrine and giving that group a political project, The aim of closing off and organizing within the sectarian system is not to perform group prayers, for example. The goal of the group, like the political Muslim Brotherhood, is to reach the political goal through religious means,Therefore, it can be said that there is a political Sunni sect (Muslim Brotherhood) alongside the religious Sunni, and it can be said that there is an Alawite sectarianism alongside the religious Alawite, There is a big difference between religiosity and sectarianism, as there is religiosity without sectarianism,In general, there are no    radical differences between political Alawism and political Sunnism. 

There are those who consider themselves moderate, because they want to implement what is called “sectarian justice” to avoid “sectarian injustice.” This may mean, at best, sectarian power-sharing, consensus, or sectarian compromise, Some believe that sectarianism, in the sense of the dominance of a religious minority, is the great evil, because the dominance of the religious majority is its natural right, That is, dominance is acceptable on the condition that it is the dominance of the religious majority, as if the vice decreases when more people practice it!

A state founded on the concept of a single sectarian hegemony, whether it be a dominant majority or a subjugated minority, is a “religious” state or rather a religious entity. Therefore, what is called the project of sectarian justice and fighting sectarian injustice is the project of the religious state or the religious entity as it was during the days of the Caliphate. This project is unable to establish a state in the modern sense of this word, but rather it is able to establish an entity that we call, in a misleading way, a state, an entity that derives its legitimacy from religious law like the Caliphate, This religiously legitimized entity is only capable of establishing the collapse of the legitimacy of the real state.

 The so-called “state” of sectarian justice, sectarian quotas, or sectarian hegemony is a religious entity par excellence, that is, a non-state in the guise of a fake election, and ballot boxes that legitimize the illegitimate, It is nothing but a distortion of democracy, The  so-called “sectarian justice” is no less or more sectarian and therefore no more evil than sectarian hegemony or tyranny!

Sectarian justice is more insidious than sectarian oppression for many reasons, including the fact that sectarian justice is disguised as a false “justice,” and then sectarian power-sharing or sectarian justice is disguised as a false democracy, This falsification gives what is called sectarian justice a degree of acceptance from some, who prefer it to the sectarianism of hegemony and sectarian oppression. Consequently, liberation from clear and explicit sectarian oppression becomes easier than liberation from the deceptive sectarian justice disguised as justice and democracy, Moreover, getting rid of the hegemony of a sectarian minority is easier than getting rid of the hegemony of a sectarian majority, In addition, the hegemonic sectarian minority is forced to share power with some of the sectarian majority, as was the case with the Assad regime. Therefore, the sectarianism of sectarian justice is more unjust than the sectarianism of sectarian oppression.

 The concept of sectarianism is the origin and foundation of all these evils, and it is difficult for those who fall into the trap of so-called “sectarian justice” to recover. Sectarian justice is insidious, deceptive, and destructive, and represents nothing but a regression that is difficult to reverse. Whoever wants to make progress in solving a political problem must engage with politics, its parties, and its diversity.