The pitfall of intersecting sectarianism

   Illusion has always prevailed in and around Syria, only to be brutally surprised by the harsh reality, Many Syrians and non-Syrians implicitly, and even explicitly, believed that Syria was different from other fractured Arab states like Lebanon and Iraq, There was a misguided sense that Syria had reached a high level of national consciousness and a transcendence of sectarian identity,Some even claimed that sectarianism was nonexistent in Syrian life, “Don’t you see, for example, that Bashar al-Assad married a Sunni woman? Don’t you see that Maher al-Assad also married a Sunni woman? Don’t you see the wives’ clothing and their short skirts above the knee? Could this happen in a non-secular state? Isn’t the fact that the wives of leaders and those in positions of power don’t wear the hijab a sign of the state’s secularism and lack of sectarianism and religious bias?!” Not to mention the issue of the “Rayan” ethnicity and the ethnicity of the people of our village,Life is akin to French life, and how similar is the secularism of the Assad regime in Syria to French secularism! Let’s not forget the glorious March 8th Revolution! What is the difference between this “glorious” revolution and the French Revolution?! Based on that, one of the esteemed members of the People’s Assembly suggested appointing Bashar al-Assad as president of all the countries of the world!

             The illusion concealed more than it revealed, There was and still is a kind of division,The Sunnis were mainly engaged in trade, and recently there was a sect specializing in the army and weapons, There was a formal religiosity and another real one, and then an excess in building mosques, in contrast to the establishment of universities and hospitals, to the point that the number of mosques reached the highest percentage in the world, As for the schools for memorizing the Book of God, there is no limit to what can be said, All of this was the content of some people’s talk about Syria and its lack of sectarianism, talk that only makes you feel nauseous, What makes you feel more than nauseating is the regret for Syria many centuries ago, especially with the beginning of the conquests, which turned Syria into a frozen colony at the stage of Bedouin non-civilization, that is, at the Bedouin culture, which is based on violence, spoils of war, and the conditions that came with the covenant or the conditions of Omar, then on paying the jizya or Islamization, etc.

           The past in Syria was backward, undeveloped, stagnant, and almost dead, There was no urban development, no construction, not even art, no theaters, and no digging of irrigation canals, Even agriculture was paralyzed in the green Levant, which turned into a desert, When the Bedouin colonialism felt the enormity of the disaster, the Arabists in the Levant invented fabricated justifications, such as the conspiracy justification, which was transferred to the last century, that is, to the period after the First World War, and after the establishment of several states in the Levant, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and others, Here, the conspiracy included the process of division and fragmentation and the crime of Sykes-Picot, as if the Bedouin colonies in the Levant had formed a unity before Sykes-Picot! The brutal colonizer, who expelled the Ottomans, fragmented it, as if the region had been a unified state during the 400 Ottoman years, and even during the ten centuries of the Caliphate before the Ottomans, In order not to delve too deeply into the past, we mention the Ottoman law of 1864, known as the Law of Forming Provinces, which resulted in the division of Syria into the province of Syria al-Sham and the province of Aleppo, which included some areas of the Jazira, Then the province of Syria al-Sham was divided into the province of Damascus, then Hama, Hauran, and Karak. It is necessary to learn more details regarding the divisions in the region in the last fourteen centuries.

           Compared to the Ottoman administrative project, the Sykes-Picot project can be considered unifying par excellence, Compared to the last century, Sykes-Picot is also considered unifying, as Syria was one and in the century of independence it was divided into no less than four parts, and Iraq was divided into two or even three parts   , and it is expected to be divided Sunni-Shia, and in Lebanon there is thinking of division on a religious basis…etc. 

         Sectarianism was the main factor that fragmented and divided, especially the so-called “intersecting” sectarianism, which was based on hypocrisy and fabrication, which was disguised visually by claiming the existence of optimal coexistence between sects and then religious tolerance, even when internal policy, such as the personal status law, is subject to the rules and laws of a particular sect, i.e., Sharia, and even when the constitution claims that the state has a particular religion and that the head of state must belong to that religion.

           Sectarianism, in its various forms, is keen on staging a theatrical performance by religious figures, politicians, and some so-called intellectuals, who praise peaceful coexistence between sects where there has never been coexistence or peace. How can the followers of the son of Mary disappear in many entities called tolerant and coexisting states, such as Iraq and Syria? Here, we want to emphasize that the concept of coexistence is one of the most deceptive and corrupt concepts, and the concept of tolerance comes second in deception after the concept of coexistence, This farcical play of coexistence and tolerance aims to divert attention from fundamental societal issues, characterized by a glaring contradiction: its inside is soot and its outside is raw,Sectarianism, in its various forms, is the sectarianism of soot and raw; it is the sectarianism of the heart and mind, and the tolerance and coexistence of the imposed form, dictatorially enforced. In a separate article, we will explain the concepts of coexistence and tolerance in greater depth.         

             Cross-sectarianism represents a trap into which many have fallen, Those who have fallen into this trap are not limited to conservatives and sectarians of various denominations, but have sometimes included leftists, rightists, or liberals. Cross-sectarianism means a superficial, imposed peace between sects, that is, by dictatorships, And whoever doubts this charade is punished, The practice of cross-sectarianism hinders the achievement of true harmony, mutual support, and solidarity among the segments of society, In fact, cross-sectarianism has become a methodology for many people, because its forms are diverse and its different formulas suit different people, and therefore many people, It is spontaneous and sometimes smooth, defensive, sometimes offensive, sometimes direct, sometimes indirect, sometimes promising life, and sometimes laying the foundation for death, However, it is always harmful in the medium and long term. It is difficult for those who fall into its trap to get up. Don’t you see how the peoples of the region have fallen into its trap and have not recovered!