There is no doubt that the ruler has a traditional status that necessitates obedience and submission to him, Over time, obedience and submission have reached the form of a social epidemic or a chronic disease called tradition, On the basis of this tradition, the authorities have dealt with those who oppose or differ from them for 1440 years. The opponent or the different one had nothing but the edge of the sword, slaughter, and beheading,From here we understand the mechanism that drove the previous traditional authority in Syria to do what it did in terms of torture, demolition, destruction, and barrel bombing, even committing massacres, We do not understand this! But there is no effective or practical value in our lack of understanding! For the inherited tradition that imposes authoritarian behaviors of this bestial, predatory kind is stronger than us by degrees.
The previous regime defended its existence by whatever means and methods it deemed legitimate because they were traditional, based on its belief in the validity and necessity of the concept of obedience to the ruler and submission to him, stemming from the prevailing misguided concept, i.e., the confusion between the state and the regime, The prevailing culture considered the regime to be the state, and any threat to the regime was considered a threat to the state!
The previous regime adhered to the heritage, and the armed factions similar to the regime’s brigades also adhered to the heritage, each from its own perspective within the fabric of the heritage, The regime’s barrel bombs had a heritage background, and the destruction of museums and important historical landmarks, such as what happened in Palmyra at the hands of ISIS, also had a heritage background, The heritage was responsible for what happened recently in the Syrian National Museum, when the heads of statues that were 2000 years old were cut off. Slaughter and burning people alive were part of the heritage,There is no need to recount more about the virtues of the current regime and its predecessor, and we do not see a fundamental difference between ancient destruction and modern destruction,There is no heritage difference between genocides, Just as the Banu Qurayza tribe was exterminated, the masses of Yazidis and non-Yazidis such as Druze and Alawites were exterminated, and burning people alive, dragging them through the streets, cutting off heads, and other such acts were practiced.
In general, it can be said that this is the case with any group that relies on and sanctifies heritage, whether it is the Assadist group or the julani group, Generally, traditional systems do not allow revolutions, because heritage is in its essence backward, while revolution is in its essence renewal and progress,Revolution moves towards the better, while heritage means remaining on the old model, meaning that its essence is continuing in backwardness, whether the backwardness is relative or absolute, Therefore, the orphaned revolution of 2011 was only allowed to live for a few months, and within a few months, the armed Islamist factions eliminated the revolution, in full view and hearing of the Assadist traditionalists, After eliminating the revolution, the Assadist authoritarian monster confronted the Islamist factional monster in a battle on the field of heritage, as if hell had taken on the form of the Syrian situation, and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq had taken on the form of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Is there any fundamental difference between al-Siddiq and al-Baghdadi or between Assad and julani?
The concepts of leadership, sovereignty, and hegemony represent an extension of the idea of succession, which is conditional on religious obedience, This is achieved by linking religion to power, and thus this link enables the ruler to consolidate his dominance in the name of God, that is, to be able to tame the people and hold them with an iron and sacred grip, In addition, the strength of the link was conditional on the ruler’s goals, which sometimes change according to his mood and this ruler’s understanding of the content of the sacred. The ruler is an individual, and the rule of an individual negates the collective presence of power, which the religious tradition did not allow, since the religious tradition is originally linked to the individual as a messenger, for example.
Despite the attempts produced by the historical and cultural process of the groups called Arab since the time of the Arab Renaissance attempts in the early twentieth century, as there were attempts to develop the socio-political-social field, i.e., the position on individualism and collectivism, and despite the ideas that were put forward, the traditionalism conditioned by old values was not eliminated, Rather, the projects of Renaissance transformations were dressed in the old garb of sectarianism at the level of political parties, so that political life was transformed into sectarian life, i.e., the sects were transformed into parties, This is what Antoun Saadeh warned against, and he considered a development of this kind as a “death note” announcing the death of the state project.
Although pure traditional religious jurisprudence has lost much of its influence, the influence of political groups has increased by riding the wave of formalistic religiosity, as Sadat did and the title of the pious president, and as Saddam Hussein did by adding the phrase “There is no god but God” to the Iraqi flag and carrying the Quran, and others like them! Thus, the culture of obedience and forced submission has moved to what can be called “civil jurisprudence,” that is, replacing the turbaned sheikh with the dictator in a suit and tie, as Al-Julani appeared, That is, the bazaar of political trade was developed with men of a new type in appearance, but in essence it was religious-political deception, that is, it was practically a functional continuation of the old religious dealings, currency, and values, which can be called the shell of civil jurisprudence that covered traditional religious jurisprudence.
As expected, civil jurisprudence, in appearance, and religious jurisprudence, in practice, have perpetuated stagnation and backwardness, The necessary break with the miserable past has not been made, Here is al-Julani, “perfumed” with Trumpian perfume, considering his appearance an extension of the Umayyads, with some differences,Only the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil managed to escape the swords of the Abbasids and flee to Spain, while al-Julani declares the perpetuity of his rule because he is an Umayyad and the heir of the Umayyads, We do not think that his end will be like the end of Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil, as the first year of the rule of the new Umayyads witnessed five attempts to assassinate al-Julani, Thus, it can be said that al-Julani did not learn from the experience of the Umayyads, which lasted only about 90 years, Saying that al-Julani learned only from Bin Laden and Ibn Taymiyyah is not a fabrication, Bin Laden was killed, and Ibn Taymiyyah died in the prisons of his executioners and those who declared him an infidel, Distributing Ibn Taymiyyah’s books for free at the recent book fair in Damascus will not lead to the rebirth of Ibn Taymiyyah.
It seems that the Arab Bedouin and the Arabized have not yet buried their Quraysh ancestors. The descendants have managed to be like the ancestors, that is, they have cultivated the culture of the ancestors in the fields of their brains in an open manner, as the Baath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood wanted, who have bound the present temporally and morally to the rear of the past, That is, they wanted to perpetuate the correspondences between the past and the present despite the temporal difference, Perhaps this can be described as a repressive “static” state, can we be surprised by the death of human groups that have been repressed and prevented from breathing for 1440 years?
