Don’t Weep over the Grand Delusion of an Assadic Resistance
by Abdul-Latif Halimi on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 at 08:06 ·
(Bashar and the Saudis)
It will not be long before Bashar al-Assad will sit naked and battered, haemorrhaging to death on the curb of history like other uninhibited despots before him. As his regime hurtles chaotically out of control amidst an ever-reddening blur of desperate savagery, allies are solemnly administering Last Rites, predators and victims are circling for a feast they have long yearned for, and the many lies, secrets and bones buried in the family mausoleum are finally about to be undug.
Amongst the secrets is one already mentioned in popular circles by the late singer, Ibrahim Qashoush. A few months ago, Qashoush stood on a platform in central Hama and sung in support of the uprising like he usually did. However, one of his lines was a late addition: ‘O Maher [Al-Assad, the brother of Bashar] you are a coward; an agent of the Americans’. Though apparently inconsequential, a few days later Qashoush was found dead with his throat slit open.
Such secrets pertaining to the agency of the Assad family are already obvious to those who know the regime most intimately. The minoritarian Assad regime has long deployed and exploited fraudulent notions of pan-Arabism and political resistance only to mandate its existence. For beyond the popular sloganeering, the Assad regime is deeply intimate and at ease with its alleged enemies.
The Assads' blatant historical cooperation with the United States of America on key strategic issues and latent agreement with Israel are easily demonstrated. And these forty years of treachery to the ‘Arab and Palestinian cause’, supposedly the cause de celebre of Damascus, have left visible remnants in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and, of course, Syria that are visible to all.
Case One: Israeli-Syrian Peace Negotiations and Mutual Confidence
The Golan Heights, a plateau of great strategic importance at about a fifth the size of Lebanon, has been occupied by Israel right throughout the tenures of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian military, however, has not engaged the Israeli Defence Forces in an attempt to liberate its own occupied territory since 1973. Instead, an agreement in 1974, signed by the government of Hafez al-Assad, has allowed Israel to extend a de facto annexation over the Golan Heights with no challenge.
Furthermore, Hafez Al-Assad had even promised Benyamin Netanyahu to give up parts of Syrian territory to Israel in a prospective peace deal. Far from ‘liberating Palestine from the river to the sea’, as Al-Assad once claimed he’d do, he offered to give up the Hermon to Israel so that the Jewish state might keep an eye on its eastern border. Netanyahu, in statements documented by Israel’s leading paper Yedioth Ahronoth, says: "He gave me the Hermon. I must say that I was surprised, but he gave me the Hermon and I was pleased."
Such concessions, which contradict the apparent commitment to ‘liberating Palestine’ and instead seek to achieve peace and recognise Israel, are a historical forte of the Assad regime. The 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, which the Syrian government participated in and followed up with direct talks with Israel right throughout the 90’s, was a precursor to flirtation and talks between the two parties the following decade.
Between September 2004 and July 2006, the Syrian and Israeli representatives reached a ‘formulation for peace’ through secret talks. The Assad regime was willing to sacrifice Hamas, its alleged ally, in an attempt to appease Israel in the agreement. These negotiations continued unhindered under Turkish mediation between 2008 and 2010, despite Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2009 that led to the death of more than a thousand civilians in Gaza.
This willingness on the part of the Assads to make peace with Israel, normalise relations with it and recognise its existence paints an image contrary to the popular rhetoric of the Syrian regime. And it is for this very reason that Israel’s leading security and political officials have expressed great concern at the thought of the Assad regime collapsing.
For example, Amos Gilad, the Director of Political-Military Affairs at the Israel Ministry of Defense, stated that the removal of Assad would be a ‘devastating crisis fοr Israel.’ Similarly, Israel’s prominent daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, ran an editorial immediately after the start of the Syrian uprising declaring Assad to be ‘Israel’s favourite dictator of all’ and that ‘it seems Assad has wall-to-wall support here, as though he were king of Israel’.
Such sentiments have also been expressed by the Syrian regime itself. Rami Makhlouf, President Bashar al-Assad’s cousin and one of his confidants, waved the stability card at Israel during his May interview with the New York Times when he stated: “If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel.” As such, only through the survival of the Assad regime can Israel maintain its stability and security, creating a relationship in diametric contradiction to the grand claims of the Syrian regime and its supporters.
Case Two: The Gulf War and Syria’s Cooperation with the United States
During the 1991 Gulf War, the Assad regime chose to actively support the US-led campaign that resulted in the death of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Despite the fact that Saddam Hussein was fighting a coalition led by the West and lobbing scud missiles at Israel, Hafez al-Assad still opted to side with the United States of America and send in troops to support the campaign. Singlehandedly, such should have been sufficient to nullify the regime’s pan-Arab and resistance credentials forever.
Furthermore, the Syrian regime cooperated with the United States of America in Lebanon. President Bush Senior and subsequent presidents entrusted the Syrian regime with controlling and occupying Lebanon for fifteen years following the Taef Accord to end the Lebanese Civil War. The security agencies of both countries also cooperated extensively during the war in subduing Palestinian resistance groups and arming militias loyal to their mutual strategic interests.
This cooperation between the US and Syria also extends to intelligence, the most notable recent case being that of Maher Arar, who was transferred between Syrian and American hands under the charge of being a member of Al-Qaeda. Ironically, this process took place during the tenure of George Bush, who allegedly designated Syria as part of the 'Axis of Evil', and had supposedly cut off relations with Damascus after the assassination of Rafiq Al-Hariri in Lebanon in 2005.
Such cases demonstrate a heightened level of confidence and trust between Washington and an autocrat who has demonstratively and apparently done nothing but denounce the United States of America. Of course, the real relationship between the Assads and American administrations of the past four decades was beyond strong; one manifestation of which is in the confidence between Bashar al-Assad and John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an ardent pro-Israel senator.
Kerry, Congress's point man on engaging the Syrian regime, met Assad six times in two years and called him, along with Hillary Clinton, a reformer even after the violent crackdown in March of 2011. Assad even found a confidant in Kerry according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal recounts how‘Kerry described how the Syrian leader bemoaned the growing conservatism in Syria’ and the fact that Assad’s wife ‘had to wear a head-scarf when visiting Damascus's historic Umayyad mosque’.
Assad’s strong relationship with American senators, House representatives and diplomats is further demonstrated in cables released by Wikileaks. In a meeting in March of 2009, just five weeks after the end of the Gaza War, Assad met American diplomats and denounced Hamas as ‘uninvited guests’ akin to the Muslim Brotherhood his father massacred in 1982. And in contrast to such enmity towards resistance forces, Assad emphasised that he ‘saw two key common interests between Syria and the US: peace in the region and combating terrorism’ and that the two administrations ‘shared a common interest on 70 percent of the issues at hand’.
Case Three: A Bloody Contribution to the Palestinian Cause
One of the great ironies of the Syrian regime’s history is that its mechanised divisions have murdered Palestinians above all. In 1976, the Syrian military invaded Lebanon to assist right-wing Christian forces, who happened to be allies of Israel, against the Palestinian forces led by Yasser Arafat. A few weeks later they again lined up alongside racist Christian militias, such as the Guardians of the Cedars, to commit unspeakable atrocities in the Tel az-Za’atar refugee camp.
Over three thousand Palestinian refugees, essentially the most downtrodden and oppressed of any community in the Middle East, were slaughtered in cold blood by Syria and the Christian, Israeli proxies in Tel az-Za’tar. To add insult to injury, the camp was then bulldozed and its refugees relocated and scattered all over Lebanon, many to be eventually slaughtered by the Syrian-Israeli double-agent Elie Hobeika and his militia in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Bashar al-Assad recently revived his father’s fetish for Palestinian blood by using gunboats and ground troops to attack a refugee camp off the Syrian coast in August, 2011. Dozens were killed and over five thousand people were forced to leave according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Conclusion
The Assads might not have been blatant and direct allies of the West and Israel like some other forces in the region over the past four decades, but they were definitely complicit to the international, West-dominated political order. They were without doubt in agreement with the United States of America on strategic issues and in active, serial cooperation with Israel. All the while, they upheld a popular façade of resistance and anti-Americanism. As Israel’s foreign minister said in November 2010, ‘Assad is enjoying the best of both worlds’.
While the regime may have funded resistance groups for an array of purposes, its own artillery has only found the flesh of those in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Not a single bullet has been fired over the Golan Heights or at Israel for forty years, and that remains a supreme reality that supersedes all the rambling propaganda the regime is now putting out.
So when the brave people of Syrian rip down the imaginary curtain once and for all, the resistance paradigm in the Middle East will not be compromised. In fact, the seeds for a genuine and authentic challenge to Israel will be taking form and re-shaping the Levant forever. This is the beginning, not the end.
(Bashar and Ahmedinejad of Iran)
(Bashar and Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah and Ahmedinejad of Iran)
(Bashar and Erdogan of Turkey)
(Bashar and John Kerry of USA)
Syria - Iran - Turkey - USA - Saudi Arabia
See the links? Don't forget Bashar has the support of Russia and China:
Syria - Iran - Turkey - USA - Saudi Arabia - Russia - China
Dig deeper into the truths and you may as well lump country after country in the chain:
Syria - Iran - Turkey - USA - Saudi Arabia - Russia - China - UK - Europe - Israel - Egypt etc etc
They are all in it together, and we the Muslim Ummah are alone except that we have Allah swt on our side and they have the devil. It is a shame that not one Muslim country has sent their armies to fight the Syrian army and remove Bashar al-Assad and his government. Egypt? Turkey? Qatar? Saudi Arabia? Or why not all of them? It is clear to us that these Muslim governments do not like the Arab Spring and do not want the Muslims to remove their leaders and unite together and re-establish the Khilafah. Their masters the western powers does not want this to happen either hence the cooperation between all of them.
On another note, some people in the West (non-muslims) are saying that the West are siding with the Islamic fundamentalists/revolutionaries. The West simply do not want the people in the Muslim world to kick out their installed tyrants and dictators who serve their interests and keep the population down and backward.
While Russia and China are blatantly support the Assad regime, the USA, UK and the West are secretly supporting them behind closed doors and granting Assad green light to continue killing his people. However they know that Assad is soon on his way out just like Gaddafi so they are using the Arab League (especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia) and even more especially Turkey to organise the opposition to the Assad regime to replace him when he leaves.
No doubt these opposition will be more 'moderate' but will again be the same complaint servants like Assad who will serve the Western interests.
The Prophet (saw) said that a Muslim does not get bitten from the same hole twice...
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On the 15th of Rabee’ ul-Awwal 1433, corresponding to 7th Februrary 2012, 107 Muslim scholars issued a declaration regarding the events in Syria. This statement included fatawa about the sanctity of the Muslims’ blood and their right, and that it is impermissible for members of the army or security services to kill anyone or to remain in their posts. They expressed support for the (Syrian) Free Army, and called on the Arab and Islamic countries to take a serious position towards the Syrian regime, and towards the states supporting it, like Russia and China. In addition, they called on the opposition to join ranks so that they could build their state on the basis of justice, protection of rights, establishing the freedoms, and institutions that would protect the country and its interests. They also announced their support for any effort which would prevent shedding of the Syrian people’s blood, and that such efforts should lead to free elections, a fair distribution of power and compensation for victims and their families.
It is indeed good that Ulema from many different Muslim lands have joined together, which emphasises that the Muslims’ causes are one; however it is highly blameworthy that this declaration does not contain any Islamic solution. It is as though it was intended to please certain authorities with whom Allah subhana wa ta’ala is not pleased – in other words the Western Kafir Capitalist states, and the regimes who do not rule by what Allah has revealed. It is obligatory that the declaration of Muslim scholars should be comprehensive, definitive, clear, bold and should put the right points in the right places, expressing the true position of Islam regarding what is happening in Syria and the rest of the Muslims’ lands. They should send a genuine call to all the Muslims, so that they take a stance which is sincere to their Lord and to their Deen. They should declare that the Islamic Ummah – in her causes, her peace and her war – is one Ummah, and she cannot be separated by walls or borders. Nor can she remain separated by regimes cultivated by the West to divide her according to their interests – the same West which now fights over our lands as the wolves fight over the sheep.
We in Hizb ut-Tahrir Syria remind these ulema’ first of all that they are the inheritors of the Prophet (sall Allahu alaihi wa sallam), and they are the trustees of his Deen; Allah has taken a covenant from them that they must convey the truth to the people, and not conceal it.
We also remind that Allah sees and hears them, and among the Sharee’ah rules that they would be sinful for concealing and not conveying are the following decisively proven rules:
- The Muslims of Syria are obliged to overthrow the regime in Syria because first and foremost, it is a regime which does not rule by Islam
- The method of change must be according to the method of Rasoul Allah (sall Allahu alaihi wa sallam). It must be a clean work, which is undertaken by all of the Muslims, including their scholars, leading personalities, the general masses and the people of power amongst them, by their own hands, as they are the ones who have the power to change the situation practically in their land.
- The people of power in Syria must know that they have two Shar’i obligations: protection of their people, and supporting their deen in order to establish the Islamic Khilafah state, as the Ansar supported Allah, his Messenger and the Muslims in Madeenah Munawwarah.
- The call for a civil, secular, irreligious state is a call of falsehood, as such regimes are regimes of Kufr which it is forbidden to adopt, implement or call for.
- Foreign intervention in the Muslims’ lands is forbidden, whether this was America and Europe, who hypocritically claim that they support the people of Syria, or Russia and China who are open in their enmity towards them. All of these states are united In their enmity towards Islam and in fighting it, however each of them uses their own methods.
- Calling for UN Security Council intervention is forbidden, as its legislation is Kufr legislation, and its goals are tied to the objectives of the major powers, particularly America.
Along with this, if these scholars intend to be sincere men of knowledge, they should declare that the situation of all of the Muslims in their lands is one, and thus the Sharee’ah solution for them is one – that the tyrant regimes which do not rule the Muslims by what Allah has revealed must be removed and the Islamic state must be established in their place.
O distinguished Ulema in all of the Muslims’ lands:
Indeed the time has come that you say the word of truth, after a long period of silence, and that you work for the establishment of the promised Islamic Khilafah state, after a long period of waiting. It may indeed be that the homeland of the Khilafah may be Ash-Sham (Syria region), which Allah has blessed. Take your share of the reward in this critical time of the labour, which may give birth to the Islamic state.
Allah ta’ala says:
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَىٰ لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِّن بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا ۚ يَعْبُدُونَنِي لَا يُشْرِكُونَ بِي شَيْئًا ۚ وَمَن كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
“Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that – then those are the defiantly disobedient”
[Surat un-Noor, verse 55]
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Wilayah of Syria
17th Rabee’ ul-Awwal 1433
9th February 2012
17th Rabee’ ul-Awwal 1433
9th February 2012
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Syria: Our Test of Sabr
by Manal Badar
To our horror, Bashar Al-Assad continues to ravage and massacre his people, a people who are under his dreadful custodianship. Such a paradox! That Bashar Al-Assad holds such a position rather than protecting and guarding his people from harm's way, while he is the clear and present danger to his population. He heavily bombards any threat in his path be it a recently widowed woman, premature infant, or elderly man. His ruthless acts have truly tested the Eman (faith) and courage of the Syrian people. Men and women alike favor death over surrender in light of the savage unceasing violence. This death, inshallah, is considered an honorable death in the sight of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Despite the heavy shelling from the Syrian military destroying homes, schools, and hospitals, people still persevere and remain determined to have their voice heard.
Penetrating deep into the hearts of these tireless protesters, we find a unique trait captivating onlookers. What keeps them determined and focused, knowing that may not live to see the following sunrise? Their minds and hearts are filled with distinct feature non-Muslims may find it nearly impossible to comprehend, yet Muslims grasp it fully thereby inspiring others to continue their struggle for a victorious reform. This blessed feature is Sabr (patience) in the face of adversity.
Sabr often times confused as silently standing by witnessing the oppressions and wrongs of our society. Distancing ourselves from the vital issues and keeping ourselves busy with the spiritual aspects of Islam's rituals: tasbeeh, duaa, unconcerned with the Ummah's state of affairs. All the while, people including ourselves suffer from injustice and hardships. This type of silent suffering has greatly contributed to our Ummah's decline. Misconceptions and fear from government repercussions have played a major role in this.
Yet the true definition of Sabr is the opposite of silently accepting injustice or isolating oneself from the evils of society. Sabr is speaking the word of Haqq (Truth) in front of the oppressor. Sabr is resisting the tragedies that afflict our Ummah without fear of repercussion. Sabr is going about real change to achieve true revival in our precious Ummah. The Believers understand Allah's سبحانه وتعالى Laws so thoroughly that they are willing to suffer any consequence towards triumph, enduring torture-filled imprisonment, loss of wealth, and the ultimate sacrifice: loss of life.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى said,
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ
"And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.). Who, when afflicted with calamity, say: Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return. They are those on whom are blessed and will be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they are those who) receive His Mercy, and it is they who are the guided-ones." [Al-Baqarah, 2:155-157]
After reading the inspiring Ayaat of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in their prayers deep in the night, it instills great motivation that drives the Muslim to stand up for the Haqq (Truth) in the face of a brutal tyrant and his terrible regime. The deep understanding of Qadda and Qadr allows the true believer to act bravely and forcefully without any worry about this temporary life, for these blessed defenders of the Haqq long for the eternal life. A glorious life as promised to them by the Creator Himself. We take these Believers as our examples who exemplify the strength of their sabr and Imaan.
The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "It is a punishment that Allah sends to whom He wills. Allah has made it a mercy for the believers. There is not a servant who finds himself amidst a plague but he stays in that land in patience hoping (for Allah's reward) and knowing that nothing can harm him except what Allah has written then this servant will be given a reward like that of a martyr." (Al-Bukhari)
What an honor to die as a martyr to be placed within the same ranks as the great warrior Hamza (ra) on the Day of Judgement for all the creations to witness.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that." (Al-Bukhari)
Remain steadfast our dear brothers and sisters. Inshallah while enduring the great calamities brought down upon you that you shall enter the Heavens pure and untainted as the day you were born.
Syria, rest assure. Jannah (Paradise) is so close to you that your bloodshed will not be lost in vain. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم expressed the goodness and blessing of the Ahl ash-Sham, "O Allaah bestow your blessings on our Shaam. O Allaah bestow your blessings on our Yemen." (Al-Bukhari) Carry that glad tidings with you to your grave. Inshallah our Ummah's calamity will soon be relieved and Islam's glorious light will fill our skies as promised by the Creator of the universe. Allah swt comforted His Believers with the following ayah:
إِنَّ اللَّـهَ يُدَافِعُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ خَوَّانٍ كَفُور
"Indeed, Allah defends those who have believed. Indeed, Allah does not like everyone treacherous and ungrateful." [Al-Hajj, 22:38]
Manal Bader
Bayt al-Maqdes
18 Rabi' I 1433
10/02/2012
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Massacre in Homs: the last throws of a tyrant?
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O Muslims of Syria: Stay firm upon the Haqq because verily this regime is on the brink of a pit of fire
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March to support the uprising in Syria, Sat 18th February
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