The complexities of sectarianism, both new and old

    Complex sectarianism is a socio-political phenomenon that combines religious affiliation with the interests of power, wealth, and fear of the other, Here, religious groups turn into quasi-political entities that struggle for influence, and historical factors and external influences intertwine within them, The sectarian complexity is due to linking positions of power to a specific sect that may represent the majority of those belonging to a particular religion or even a religious minority, All of this leads to the absence of citizenship, to conflicts, to the absence of institutions, and to the emigration or extermination of talents!

  The worst sectarians in the Middle East claim that their groups are not sectarian, and their evidence is as clear as day!!!! They have friends from the rest of the sects! Such a ridiculous explanation represents a superficial and limited populist understanding, especially with regard to complex authoritarian sectarianism, which requires the establishment of a new sect like the Assad sect, or with regard to sectarianism that does not require the establishment of a new sect, meaning it is old and believes that it represents the dominant majority, like theAl julanism

The important thing is that the sect rules and that power becomes the sect’s power, dominating the rest of the groups, who are then forced to act and think along sectarian lines, The Assad regime established a new sect, and the al julani revived an old one , The Assad regime was a copy of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and the al julanism wanted to be an Umayyad version, The goal was the same: the domination of one group over those outside that group, albeit in slightly different forms and guises, The important thing is that the ruling power represents a sect, whether newly formed like the Assad regime or old like the Umayyads—it makes no difference, There is no fundamental difference between the Assad regime’s sect and Saddam Hussein’s sect, nor between these sects and the   al julanism  sect, in that they are all “power” sects that dominate the rest of the people and force them into religious sectarianism as a means of confrontation or resistance, The exception is the Christians, who preferred to emigrate and flee from Syria and Iraq rather than engage in sectarian conflict, As a result, their numbers have dwindled from several million to several hundred thousand in both Syria and Iraq, In Iraq, about 300,000 remain, and in Syria, about 300,000 also remain, With all due respect, it should be noted here that there is no Christian “sect” in these countries, because the concept of sect is linked to authoritarian goals and other matters such as sectarian geography, such as the presence of Kurds and Druze in large proportions in certain geographical areas, Christians are randomly distributed throughout all Syrian and Iraqi regions and they did not have authoritarian goals, Therefore, it can be said that there were Christians in Syria and there were Christians in Iraq, but there was no Christian “sect.” Now there are no Christians in numbers worth mentioning, and those who remain are sitting on their bags waiting for the completion of immigration procedures.

Not all of the Assadist groups belong to the Alawite sect, nor do all of the Saddamist groups belong to the Sunni sect, The al julani  group, however, belongs exclusively to the Sunni sect, All three groups have additional commonalities, such as familial tendencies, i.e., ensuring the interests of the family, Even the al julani which considers itself the dominant group, is developing along familial lines, Now we have the Shara brothers, from Ahmed and those around him, such as Hazem, Maher, and their in-laws, like the governor of Damascus and others, The Assadists also know Bashar, Bushra, Maher, and the in-laws, and the Saddamists know Saddam, then Qusay and Uday, That is, the additional organic link or familial tendency is known to everyone.

   All sectarians have common denominators, whether they are from the dominant majority or newly formed from gathering opportunists from all sects, or whether they are all family-based as we mentioned in the previous lines, There is a new form in political knowledge,This form was named by Moncef Marzouki (a former Tunisian president) as the “Jamalouki” form, that is, the republican-monarchical form,This Jamalouki form is almost divine, then it is hereditary and not time-bound, that is, it is eternal, and for its sake it is permissible to burn homelands, while God does not ask for homelands to be burned for His sake!

What distinguished them all from other people was the concept of “authoritarian sectarianism,” whether they originally belonged to different sects or were assimilated into a new sect such as the Assad sect, Sectarianism was accompanied by a loss of trust towards the rest of the people, and the lost trust towards the people was directed towards an organic, familial direction that placed sectarian cohesion, whether newly made or old made, at its service, Sectarian cohesion does not mean sectarian homogeneity as a condition of belonging to the modern group or to the old group that was recently activated, such as the Umayyad Golan group.

Power, its rent, and isolation helped to give birth to new sects or to revitalize old sects such as the Umayyad al julani, To ensure continuity, this sectarianism had to swallow up everything related to the state, not only material wealth, but also non-material morals such as values ​​like “patriotism,” which was attached to the authority without substance or practice,In order to enshrine patriotism, there was a need to submit to the sectarian authority and a need to accuse those who oppose it of treason, Here, patriotism was stunted and turned into a tail of the sectarian authority instead of being a tail of the homeland and patriotism.

 The complex sectarianism becomes even more distorted when it becomes an international Muhammadanism, as happened about 20 months ago in Syria, The Muhammadan Umayyad authority is international by nature, meaning that it is not interested in the homeland and patriotism and does not recognize them at all, Rather, it considers the homeland an idol that must be destroyed, As for other sectarianisms such as the Assadist or Saddamite, patriotism has been reduced to mere chatter and wooden rhetoric that is limited to cursing Zionism and imperialism, In general, patriotism has turned into rent-seeking for all authoritarian sectarian groups, i.e., mercenary work and mercenaries!

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