generalspeaking

Holy War Fatwah

"This is your end, you dogs."
"We have raised the banner of 'There is no God but God' over the houses of the rejectionist Shiite apostates."
"Here are the jihadists celebrating their storming of the rejectionists' houses! The Shiite rejectionists!"
Syrian Sunni rebels

The government of Syria busily created paramilitary groups, arming residents of Shia, Alawite and Christian towns and villages, to enable them to protect themselves against the Sunni rebels. The Shia and Alawites recognize the government as their protectors, and the Syrian Christians, fearing their vulnerability should Sunni Islamists come to power, place their trust in the government as well.

The Shabiha, a long-established Shia paramilitary loyal to the government and given authoritative militia status by the Syrian regime, have long been recognized as brutal violators of Sunni majority civil status. They have been accused of massacring Sunni civilians in the coastal towns of Bayda and Banias. Those atrocities took place in May.

And now a partial response has been enacted by Sunni rebels, among them members of extremist Islamist groups. The Syrian government claims that rebels "carried out a massacre against villagers in which older people and children were killed", in Hatlah, Deir el-Zour.  While the rebels maintain most of the 60 whom they left dead represented pro-government militia fighters.

A few battalions of Sunni rebels stormed the village of Hatla. And they posted videos online that showed them torching houses and shouting sectarian slogans of vile invective against those whom they were destroying, both lives and homes. And they raised the black flags used by jihadists and in particular the al-Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front.

When President Bashar al-Assad chose to violently use his military to disabuse peaceful protesters of the notion that they could defy his rule, he set the rules of the game to follow. The peaceful protests turned ugly and violent, mirroring the reaction of the regime. All the more so as the regime arrested and tortured children, releasing their mangled bodies to their families.

Army defectors joined the rebels, returning to their Sunni roots, taking up arms against the regime they once served. And jihadists across the region joined the battle, coming from Libya, from Iraq, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, among other sources replete with fighters prepared to take up the Sunni cause. Those extremist groups flooding into Syria have been financed by private donors.

And now, a group of influential Sunni clerics have come out in condemnation of Shia Islam, of Iran, of Hezbollah, declaring themselves opposed to Shia Islam, and urging Sunnis to prepare to confront Shiites in a clear declaration of sectarian war. They are calling for a holy war, a jihad against Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.


The worst, perhaps, is yet to come.

Labels: Atrocities, Conflict, Human Relations, Islamism, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, June 15, 2013