JLH has translated an interesting take on the civil war in Syria from a German perspective. The translator includes this note:
Here is an odd little item that demonstrates how differently from us Middle Easterners can see things.
There is also a little good old cold-blooded Teutonic logic at the end. I am sure the soft hearts (and heads) of the American Left would cluck sympathetically at the first part and exclaim in horror at the second.
The translated article from Junge Freiheit:
“After 2014, There Will No Longer Be a Syria”
by Billy Six
Tuesday, April 30, 2013“What is happening in my country has surpassed our worst expectations,” says Fawwaz Haddad (born 1947) in reference to Syria, Considered one of the most significant authors in contemporary Arabic literature, he left Damascus — “the occupied city” — for Qatar, six months ago.
“I wanted some distance,” he says today during his visit to Germany. “For a writer, writing is life — anything else is death.” His latest, book, which has just appeared in Aufbau publications under its German title, “God’s Bloody Heaven”, also deals with death.
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation presented an evening book-reading and about 120 people attended. It all revolves around the family tale of a Syrian father with a leftist past who loses his son to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
He sets out on a search for his offspring, but also for the uncomfortable truth. In the madness of the civil war between the Sunnis and Shi’ites, he begins to realize that his failure is that he has not passed on the values of socialism and secularism. Fawwaz is making a political point. He explains how the inability to achieve Arabic unity and the fall of the Soviet Union have led to Eastern youth putting “all questions on a religious level.”
Fundamental Debate on Jihad
Father and son meet. The central debate about jihad — holy war in Islam — flares up. Was the Prophet speaking about “improvement of self” or of going before Allah as a martyr, Kalashnikov in hand? At any rate, there is no lack of the obligatory criticism of America. The story tells of a US soldier who is pursuing an alleged form of Christian jihad, with the goal of killing as many Muslims as possible. “Both sides believe they are fighting in a holy war for God and both use the same hate-filled speech,” says Haddad, who uses this aspect as a diversion from the subject of bloodshed in a battle between Muslims of differing faiths.
“The Decisive Signal Will Come from the USA”
In the ensuing discussion, Fawwaz speaks with clarity about the Salafist brigades in the Syrian war. “The West is responsible for the fundamentalists!” In Syria — unlike other states in conflict — the West “was on the regime’s side from the start.” This judgment does not agree with what the German reader knows, but is apparently shared by the people in the zone of the uprising.
It is the same with thoughts of the “great game” — a conspiracy by the USA and Israel. “Soon,” says Fawwaz, “there will be an Alawite state, a Sunni state, a Kurdish state and a Druse state next to the Jewish state. Israel will no longer be alone.” If the West does not fundamentally alter its policy “to stop the killing,” then the Syrian state will be history within the next year.
As a continuation to this authentic Arabic presentation with raised index finger and loud voice, there is a calm lecture by Dr. Heinrich Kreft, who is responsible for cultural dialogue in the foreign office. He describes the traditional alignment of Syria with Germany — in contrast to the Gulf states, which have concentrated on the Anglo-Saxon sphere.
“Syria has been the focal point of cultural and educational exchange,” says Dr. Kreft, who points to the fact that 60 Syrians a year since 2008 have been invited to Germany for Master’s level study. “Relationships have developed intensively in recent years.” In regard to the conflicts in the Levant, the diplomat seems less optimistic. The civil war in Lebanon from 1975 to 1990 showed that, in the end, the status quo ante remains. Cynical though it is to think, perhaps the parties to the conflict must bleed out before dialogue becomes possible.
Religion is a function. It is a result of something and not a thing in itself. It is a facet of culture, as are political systems, legal systems, modes of dress, styles of architecture, social relationships, art and music, each a means by which man has dealt (is dealing) with the issues that arise out of being. The totality of culture is the manifestation of man’s relationship with nature.
Cultures differ because men differ. This is the issue; religion is merely a symptom of it.
“religion is merely a symptom”
When you used your time machine to go back to the Stone Age and the formation of religion, I think what you said may have been true. However, since the beginnings of culture/religion/society (and the first stone tools) it has been impossible to see any one one of them as entirely separate from the other or from history.
Islam is a product of the ‘Muslim’ view of the world. That view will remain irrespective of the existence of Islam.
Do you mean Islam is product of the Beduoin Arabs and that world view would exist irrespective of the Islamic costume?
No doubt the following deluded sense of equivalence is prevalent in the contemporary Arab-Muslim mind:
‘The story tells of a US soldier who is pursuing an alleged form of Christian jihad, with the goal of killing as many Muslims as possible. “Both sides believe they are fighting in a holy war for God and both use the same hate-filled speech,” says Haddad’.
Where on this planet is there a single US soldier with the goal of killing as many Muslims as possible? Even as a fictional device this is absurd and insidious. The only instance I can think of in modern history of any Europeans with such a mind-set is the Serbs vis-a-vis the Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims – and the US in both instances notoriously and brutally (cf massive air raids on Belgrade) sided with the Muslims – a geopolitical error not least because it won NATO no “brownie points” whatsoever with the Muslim world.
The next bit is even more delusional:
‘If the West does not fundamentally alter its policy “to stop the killing,” then the Syrian state will be history within the next year.’ And, again, this is significant Arab author Fawwaz Haddad speaking not a character in a novel of his.
So the Syrian civil war between the murderously repressive Ba’athist regime of the Assad family and repressively murderous Muslim Brotherhood rebels is due to the “killing” policy of the “The West”? All part of a sinister plan by the Great Satan and the Little Satan? The Arab-Muslim world makes an art form of casting itself as victims and never taking responsibility for anything that happens in their cesspit, but this is priceless.
Haddad’s doomsday scenario in fact contains one positive suggestion, a breakaway Druze state providing a buffer between Israel and rump Syria: “… and a Druse state next to the Jewish state. Israel will no longer be alone.”
Although the best known geographical locus of the Druze is the Chouf mountains in south-central Lebanon, they are sprinkled throughout southern Lebanon, northern Israel and south-western Syria. In the last mentioned are they are spread between the Golan Heights – the villages of the Golan are overwhelmingly Druze populated – and eastwards to the Jebel-al-Druze, ie the mountain of the Druze. Both the Israelis and the Jordanian monarchy would understandably be pleased to have a Druze state in south-western Syria.
It is a little known fact that the Druze citizens of Israel, numbering well over 100,000, participate fully and enthusiastically in the life of that grotesquely maligned country, appreciating the democracy, rule of law and prosperity that they have never previously in history had the privilege to live under. Although Arab (and their religion being anciently related to Islam) the Druze, shortly after the establishment of Israel, demanded to be drafted into the Israel Defence Forces to demonstrate and have practically recognised their full citizenship. The dedication of the Druze to their IDF military service is legendary:
‘Reda Mansour a Druze poet, historian and diplomat, explained: “We are the only non-Jewish minority that is drafted into the military, and we have an even higher percentage in the combat units and as officers than the Jewish members themselves. So we are considered a very nationalistic, patriotic community.”
What lies behind the fears of Arab nationalists like Haddad is that the Druze of Syria would be delighted to create their own Israel-alllied state in south-western Syria. Haddad explicitly fears this because then “Israel would no longer be alone”. Very telling. Of course Haddad doesn’t care less what the Druze want for themselves, he wants them to remain a minority without any rights under any future Syrian regime.
J O’M:
Excellent.
From the little I know about the Druze – gathered a few years ago when I was looking into the Israel-Druze cooperation in wineries, olive groves, etc. – iirc, the Druze are not Semites. They are a mix, but DNA is showing Cypriot lineage and a mix of Persians.
I have no idea if that is correct but such a claim would account for the unusual amount of Greek philosophy in their version of Islam. Since they broke off from the Shia sect, they also use taqiyyah extensively, seeing it as necessary to survive as a minority everywhere. They certainly differ from mainstream Islam in that they do not accept converts – nor do they allow followers to leave.
They seem to have survived so long because they adhere to the nationalism of whatever country they’re in. With Syria that’s become a problem though.
Indeed the Druze, like the Sikhs, do not accept converts. The roots of their religion are obscure, I referred to it being “anciently related to Islam” but there is a degree of conjecture & short-hand in that: the Druze are so zealously secretive about their religious rites that only a privileged minority of adherents become cognoscenti. They reject any suggestion they are a sect or offshoot of Islam. I don’t know whether they practice taqiya as such. No doubt they “dissimulate” with non-Druze to protect themselves in adversity.
In terms of survival & loyalty to nation-states, until the 1860’s they economically & socially dominated over the Maronite & other Christians in what since the 1940’s has been independent Lebanon; they are not Lebanese nationalists. In Syria, they do what a minority in a dictatorship has to do: pay lip service to the regime. In Israel they comprehended very early on that their wisest course was to embrace a democratic nation-state and become a nationalistic & patriotic minority. It worked. There is a large Druze-Zionist organisation & in 2007 a Druze became the Acting Oresident of Israel. They are also over represented in the Knesset & the elite military units.
Julius O’Malley
Indeed the Druze, like the Sikhs, do not accept converts. The roots of their religion are obscure, I referred to it being “anciently related to Islam” but there is a degree of conjecture & short-hand in that: the Druze are so zealously secretive about their religious rites that only a privileged minority of adherents become cognoscenti. They reject any suggestion they are a sect or offshoot of Islam. I don’t know whether they practice taqiya as such. No doubt they “dissimulate” with non-Druze to protect themselves in adversity.
In terms of survival & loyalty to nation-states, until the 1860’s they economically & socially dominated over the Maronite & other Christians in what since the 1940’s has been independent Lebanon; they are not Lebanese nationalists. In Syria, they do what a minority in a dictatorship has to do: pay lip service to the regime. In Israel they comprehended very early on that their wisest course was to embrace a democratic nation-state and become a nationalistic & patriotic minority. It worked. There is a large Druze-Zionist organisation & in 2007 a Druze became the Acting Oresident of Israel. They are also over represented in the Knesset & the elite military units.
Julius O’Malley