Photo: Abu Mohammed al-Jolani led the group that spearheaded the overthrow of Syria’s Assad regime.
The successful ouster of the 50 year old Assad regime from Syria, already a failed state with no control over its oil resources, reliant on air support from Russia and ground troops of Hezbollah, was met with universal shock.
There is much discussion in the Western media and in the Muslim Ummah about the nature of the new order being established in Syria.
Jolani, leader of the HTS, a designated terrorist group, took Hama, Aleppo then Damascus.
He had pledged allegiance in his younger days to Al Qaeda but, when becoming aware of its nature, he repudiated it and drove it from Syria.
The term “terrorist” has become tainted by the decades of propaganda from Israel designating any resistance as terrorist and or anti-Semitic. Words are losing meaning.
What most agree upon is that terrorism involves the killing of civilians for an ideological purpose as occurred and is occurring in Iraq, Syria and Palestine today. The worst terrorism, armed with the most modern weapons, is that being perpetrated against the civilians of Gaza.
The HTS administration in Idlib has been described as authoritarian but it is noticeable that unlike several earlier post 9/11 “Islamic” movements, religious minorities went unmolested.
Interviewed by a Western journalist, Jolani remarked that he wanted Islamic governance and when he received a negative reaction explained that there had in fact been no actual Islamic governments in recent years.
This of course was a reference to the behaviour of Al Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS which violated Islamic teachings.
It is a matter of shame that reference to Islamic governance creates fear in many quarters, based upon the crimes of terrorist regimes and narrow ideas of shariah law in places like Saudi Arabia.
As Sami Hamdi remarks in his excellent YouTube video, “What they are not telling you about the Syrian Rebellion,” it is the rule of justice that marks actual Islamic governance .
Moderate Islam?
When Muslim leaders speak of religious toleration, then protection of minorities and the elimination of corruption, they are often portrayed as being “moderate” Muslims.
Hamdi, in his discussion of the nature of Islam points out that the Islamic scholars long ago understood that it is only through the implementation of justice, not oppression, that a system can thrive.
He cites many examples from the life of the Prophet Muhammad (s) and the Caliphs Abu Bakr (r) and Omar (r) to illustrate how the most influential age of Islam was when justice was the foundation of government.
Islam involves the lifting up of the poor, the strengthening of the position of the weakest in society and the curbing of the entitlements of the rich and powerful.
The values of the European enlightenment
When Western commentators talk about “Moderate” Islam they think they are talking about an interpretation of Islam which has been influenced by the European Enlightenment, which broke church control of thought and scientific endeavour
They are unaware of the content of Islam on these issues . The Tunisian constitution introduced by the Islamic government there shocked them, so it was largely ignored.
It was a constitution which “guarantees equality between men and women, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, the right of association, and the right to difference and political pluralism.” [ Open Democracy, 2 December 2014]
Dark side of the enlightenment
What does not seem to trouble the minds of the Western culture supremacists is the foundations of European prosperity on the pillage of the Americas and Africa, rationalised by racism.
Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle For Life,” and his cousin Francis Galton who founded the whole science of eugenics and publicised the hierarchy of races, embedded racism in the culture.
The culmination of this was the eugenics enthusiasts of the Nazi Reich.
Will Syria follow the Seerah of Muhammad (s) or the way of oppression?
The whole world is now watching how the new controllers will behave.
It is a matter of shame that the term “Islamic government” today conjures up visions of the reintroduction of slavery, the killing of innocents, the persecution of other religions and suicide bombings.
It is understandable that the Muslim Ummah, alongside the rest of humanity, is waiting to see how this new government will perform.
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