Did the Killing of Abu Bassir Lead to the First Lattakia Offensive?

by Matthew Barber

Make sure to view this amazing video published by Vice News, entitled “Wolves of the Valley.” The video contains daring reporting by Aris Roussinos (@arisroussinos) who entered Idlib to bring us an interesting picture of the front-line in the conflict between ISIS and SRF fighters.

Vice’s posting of the video is here.

Roussinos also has an article about the situation, published yesterday, here.

In the video, one of the leading SRF fighters gives “a message” to Muslims in the West emphasizing that they do not want new fighters to join them in Syria. He says they have enough men and don’t need more. They do discuss their need for weapons, however, and the video gives an interesting look at equipment and training materials provided to the fighters by the U.S. One of the men describes participating in a weapons training program in Turkey and Qatar. After completing the training, the men return to Syria and receive shipments of weapons. Only those who participate in the training receive weapons, the fighter claims, and he says that the weapons are for “fighting Da’ash” rather that for fighting the regime.

The tactics of ISIS are renounced as un-Islamic by the SRF fighter speaking to Roussinos. He attacks such practices as decapitation and extracting jizya from Christians.

Along with this effort to self-market as “moderate” comes the practice of denigrating ISIS (who, as everyone knows, represents the very antithesis of “moderate”), and amusingly, the commander does denigrate them… as Shiites “who have nothing to do with Islam.” There’s something inherently ironic about leveling the accusation of “Shiism” against al-Qaida groups: first, no one has targeted Shiites with more violence than al-Qaida, and second, one of the defining features of al-Qaida’s immoral character is the intolerance that typifies their ideology. The problem isn’t that they’re “this” or “that,” but that they’re willing to kill those who are “this” or “that.” So judging them because they are “Shiites”—beyond the categorical inaccuracy—seems to betray the fact that even the rebel enemies of ISIS are more influenced than they’d like to admit by the intolerant outlook of al-Qaida itself.

At one point in the film, Roussinos visits a number of prisoners being held by the SRF, among whom are captured ISIS members. They require the men to view a video of a recent mass execution of civilians performed by ISIS and then ask the prisoners if this behavior is Islamic. One of the prisoners in this scene can be heard responding to the accusations of his captors in another video that was posted online a little over a month ago, after his capture:

In this video, the fighters are arguing about the first Lattakia offensive that occurred last August, because the events leading up to it were partly what led to the beginning of the war between ISIS and other rebels groups. Though the Syria National Coalition tried to take credit when the offensive began, calling it part of the Syrian Revolution, it soon became clear that it was masterminded by the al-Qaida franchises. FSA participants were the followers, only joining up after the Islamists spearheaded the campaign. (Here is a video of Salim Idriss visiting the front as a gesture of participation.)

In the video, they argue over who lost more fighters, then the SRF commander says to the captured ISIS fighter: “Why did [ISIS] choose that time to invade? You know why? Because Abu Ayman al-Iraqi was suppose to be presented to a shari’a court for killing Abu Bassir, and he asked for 3 days after which ‘under shari’a I will surrender myself.’ So he started this battle to divert attention and people lost martyrs; we lost 230 martyrs in this failed battle you’re talking about and we suffered 300 injuries and everybody had to focus on themselves.” The ISIS fighter then says he admits that Abu Ayman al-Iraqi killed Abu Bassir without cause, and also that he doesn’t understand why they killed Abu Khaled al-Suri.

What we see here is that the SRF fighters blame ISIS for starting a battle that FSA fighters felt obligated to join, but which ultimately failed and resulted in heavy losses. They are also accusing ISIS of starting the first Lattakia offensive as a distraction to evade the question of justice following their killing of Abu Bassir, an FSA field commander.

 

Round-Up

 

Al-Qaeda Is Dead, Long Live Al-Qaeda by Jean-Pierre Filiu

Since the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden, his al-Qaeda group—which is now led by bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri—typically has been seen as a complex of overlapping “franchises” that together make up the core of a global jihadi movement.

But this is no longer true. The former Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda has now superseded bin Laden’s network to become the more important driving force behind the global jihad in its current guise as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. The key to understanding current jihadi dynamics is not which group Zawahiri is prepared to bless or banish but which forces tolerate or fight the ISIL.

It is time to forget about Zawahiri, because it is now the ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who is the most important inspiration for global jihad. …

… The UN estimates the number of foreign fighters in Syria at a minimum of 7,000. Not all of them join the ISIL, but its recruiters are roaming the Turkish borders to catch inexperienced volunteers and use them as cannon fodder for their global propaganda and suicide attacks. Syria is far more accessible than any jihadi battlefield in the past, and the ISIL is now bracing for a sustained global campaign from the core of the Middle East.

The foreign recruits will not significantly enhance the ISIL’s fighting force in the current battles in Syria. Instead, they are basically a trump card to magnify the international outreach of Baghdadi’s networks—first in the jihadi diaspora and later as potential operatives in their home countries. The Sinai-based jihadi faction known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which is presently the most active jihadi group in Egypt, has already endorsed the ISIL, and many others are also tempted to switch publicly their allegiance from Zawahiri to Baghdadi. The clock is ticking—and it is no longer only about Syria.

Despair of the Syrian beggar boy – Ruth Sherlock

Before Iraq election, Shi’ite militias unleashed in war on Sunni insurgents

… “There were men in civilian clothes on motorcycles shouting ‘Ali is on your side’,” one man said, referring to a key figure in Shi’ite tradition. “People started fleeing their homes, leaving behind the elders and young men and those who refused to leave. The militias then stormed the houses. They pulled out the young men and summarily executed them.” …

What Would the Fall of Homs Mean? – Aron Lund

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi gives an interesting lecture on the various jihadi factions of Syria, their origins and conflicts, here

If Assad Wins War, Challenge From His Own Sect May Follow – Anne Barnard

FSA strikes jihadist-held stronghold

Syrian rebels launched their biggest offensive yesterday against thousands of jihadists in the north who have used terrorist tactics and imposed strict Islamic rules on minorities.

About 1,500 members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were involved in the push towards the city of Raqqa, which is controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis), according to an opposition spokesman. …

Massive explosion in Aleppo today, here; Zahran Aloush/IF take credit for the explosion, here.

Kuwait, a U.S. ally on Syria, is also the leading funder of extremist rebels – WP

Comments (159)


Syrialover said:

MJABALI, please see my comment in the last thread where I have responded to your support for Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi enthusiastically publishing over-large photos of dead people on this site.

Just hope that nobody you know gets murdered in Syria and their corpse splashed across the world internet for ghouls and creeps to look at and gleefully re-post.

It shouldn’t have to take that for someone to finally get what the rest of humanity feels about such images.

April 27th, 2014, 8:56 pm

 

Syrialover said:

Iraqi army strikes ‘jihadist convoy’ inside Syria

Airstrike that killed at least eight – the first cross-border raid since Syria’s civil war began – comes days before Iraqi elections

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/27/iraqi-army-strikes-jihadist-convoy-syria

April 27th, 2014, 9:12 pm

 

Ghufran said:

GNN:

Sohr decided to break the silence about the theft of Syrian oil and natural gas by rebels and terrorist groups, please note that this was reported here on SC months ago, and more than a year ago we pointed to the fact that what is going on in aljazeera was replacing regime thieves by rebels thieves who according to opposition sources not regime media were worse than what the area witnessed under 43 years of Assad control.
Isis now has started a partial withdrawal from Raqqa promoting speculations that the army may be considering an attack on the city. Isis imposed taxes and arbitrary fees on citizens but the money there may be drying up and Isis seems to be more interested in the lucrative oil and gas looting business, they also want to focus on their Iraqi franchise after suffering from losses there.
In Kasab the chief chechnyan terrorist was killed and the army is in alsamra village now and appear to be eying Kasab city and few other towns still held by jihadists. FSA sources admitted that their presence in north Latakia is symbolic which again confirmed the claim that the invasion of Kasab was a foreign occupation supported by Turkey.
Finally, Ghoutah area will again come in focus after rebels lost qalamon and are ready to hand Zabadani to locals who agreed not to attack the army. If the press reports have merit we will see a new chapter in Damascus before the beginning of June, but I am not sure what comes next since Assad are now poised to appoint himself president for a third term throwing the prospect of a political settlement up in the air.

April 27th, 2014, 9:21 pm

 

annie said:

… and we were fooled by the regime”s support of Palestinians

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/27/yarmouk-refugees-brutal-treatment-syrians

April 28th, 2014, 1:26 am

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Welcome to the new Afghanistan that used to be Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrQxEpGzRhM
==

April 28th, 2014, 4:39 am

 

Juergen said:

Rejoice!

The great Commander has given in to the overwhelming support of the masses, he just announced to rule more for the sake of the clan ah the nation.

SANA requested the masses not to shoot salutes in the air, as this could be misinterpreted.

A question to all, how many Syrians would you guess are displaced in this war? Estimations by some go to 1/5 of the population to 1/2. Given the nature of this regime, many would definitely not choose to identify themselves officially to the foreign authorities in Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon.

April 28th, 2014, 6:51 am

 

ghufran said:

The Syrian army started a large scale offense towards Kasab after taking Al-Samra village, it is likely this time that the army will not stop after returning Kasab to its lawful citizens. Of notice is Turkish army’s passive position when areas that are a stone throw from borders were attacked then taken by the Syrian army.

April 28th, 2014, 8:10 am

 

Observer said:

well in South Korea the prime minister resigns after the death toll from the sinking ferry and in Syria ( the laughing stock of the world were it not so tragic ) the iPad retard is running for reelection in a sham country made up of an animal farm run by animals and their cronies.

Now Mjabali what do you think of this article. I would love to hear your comments and ideas not your emotions I do not post it to offend or anything just teach me

http://www.all4syria.info/Archive/140043?wpmp_tp=4

April 28th, 2014, 10:00 am

 

mjabali said:

Syria “lover”

1- Before trying to steer the conversation to your regular aggressive tactics…try to read the article…

2- Yes I know some people who were killed in Syria and their pictures are on Facebook. They bragged about torturing him. They never gave his body back.

Another relative of mine was stabbed in the face and then shot march 2011: the first week of the lunacy in Syria. After a week his cousin was sniped in the heart of Latakia. Another relative of mine was blown to pieces, and another disappeared: many we could not get their dead bodies for burial. I could go on for hours about the people related to me or those that I know….

3- Till now you produced zero content other than personal attacks…before you were against Ayman Jawad al-Tamimi…now you are targeting me….stay on the topic…

4- You are interfering in this blog and in this you are showing a very dictatorial face.

5- The story of Ayman Jawad al-Tamimi requires pictures, so stay clear of other people’s way of writing.

6- To draw the public attention to these things you need to show it, right?

7- The Jihadis in Syria are tourists according to you swimming in the ocean, while Ayman Jawad al Tamimi presents another tale about them: do you have anything you want to share with us other than personalization?

April 28th, 2014, 12:19 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

Come on Observer, you should know that I did not answer your repeated demands for an answer to this article because I try to follow a rule that centers about not giving legitimacy for idiotic ideas.

I have read many articles like this, especially recently. All of them are by semi educated men repeating the same stereotypes about the Alawits without any real scientific study. They all reach “conclusions” that could be deemed racist in any respect school in the modern world. The language of the article you linked me too is absolutely insane…Check out this sentence:

“- ترتكز كل الطوائف الباطنية على فكرة المؤامرة المستمرة في الزمان، لأن انقطاع المؤامرة أو انكشافها يقضي على أسباب الباطنية ويستدعي انتفاءها وانتقالها إلى المستوى العلني العام، وذلك ما يتعارض بنيوياً مع تلك الطوائف. ”

هذا كلام مجانين

Where did the Writer do his research? In his room? Come on Dr. Observer, I thought you rely on science and real research, and not emotional crap like this.

It is obvious that this writer is writing to a Sunni audience. Can’t you see this?

As when he tried to show that the Alawites believe more than the others in the conspiracy theory, I had to laugh. Sorry, Dr. Observer, your writer is not going to convince even my dog that the Alawites believe in conspiracy theory than others in Syria. In Syria all believe in conspiracy theory.

The main mistake of this article is that he is trying to put the mistakes of al-Assad regime on the Alawites and their creed. This is not successful.. This writer is not up for it.

مستوى هذا الكاتب ضعيف

To tell you the truth: I enjoy reading these articles.

April 28th, 2014, 1:04 pm

 

mjabali said:

Do we need to search ourselves to find out who is Abu Baseer in our case? and which Latakia offensive they are talking about?

Also: What is missing from this Vice documentary is what happened to the Alawites in the area where they were shooting? By the way: This Vice video is lame…where is the battle against ISIS…everything seemed staged to me…shooting a gun towards any direction is not a battle….

April 28th, 2014, 1:12 pm

 

Juergen said:

Bouteflikas sworn in ceremony. after numerous strokes this man looks like Bourguiba in his last days. Who will be the Ben Ali?

April 28th, 2014, 1:53 pm

 

Juergen said:

1st time election ads in Syria?

ad by Mohammed Ridwan

Dear Syrians, if you vote for me, I will not throw barrel bombs on you nor send you Scud rockets. Not to mention poison gas!

April 28th, 2014, 2:03 pm

 

sami said:

“What is missing from this Vice documentary is what happened to the Alawites in the area where they were shooting?”

At the 5:30 mark when entering the village the repeater clearly states that the former inhabitants fled to regime held areas.

April 28th, 2014, 4:54 pm

 

Observer said:

Mjabali I agree fully with your assessment of the writer.

However, I would like for you to refute the argument point by point if you can for I would love to see if it coincides with my assessment.

I also agree fully that the mafia has taken everybody hostage including the sect yet if they were to withdraw support he would fall in 48 hours

April 28th, 2014, 7:04 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Many Syrian alawites, as many other Syrians before 2011,were poor and lived under a corrupt and brutal dictatorship then they watched the jihadists fighting for a new Syria where people , Sunni or non Sunni, who do not submit to sharia Talibani style and convert to the ” true Islam” were labelled as traitors, Kuffar or Zimmies as a justification to take away their rights or even their lives in the name of the false slogan of majority justice.
The lack of a decent and national opposition that respects diversity and accept dissent made millions of Syrians realize that the rebels and their backers do not care about a free and democratic Syria. As simple and poor those Syrians are they were right in their refusal to sign their own death certifucate. Whether transformation of what started as demonstrations into a terrorist movement was intentional (with or without help from the regime))or not the truth is that rebels lost whatever popular support they had especially after they started a campaign of terror, assasinations and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas under the silent approval of many pseudo secular thawrajiyyeh. When the history of the Syrian war is written historians will note that the revolutionaries themselves carry most of the blame for the failure of this so called revolution, they had billions of dollars in funding, a huge propaganda machine and the support of most NATO countries but they failed in convincing millions of Syrians that they can be trusted, it is a classical case of an evil versus another where the advocates of the new evil tried to sell fish in deep water expecting people to be stupid enough to buy it.

April 28th, 2014, 11:05 pm

 

Juergen said:

Matthew vanDyke says it right in his comment about the campaign of Assad for reelection:

He has begun massive urban renewal projects (now in the demolition phase), supported community organizers (shabiha), and millions of Syrians are studying abroad (refugees). The clear winner in 2014? What a joke.

April 28th, 2014, 11:54 pm

 

Syrialover said:

MJABALI #9, it is your right to be as cranky, intolerant and insensitive as you want.

But attacking someone for objecting to the outsized “death porn” images Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi keeps posting in the lead articles here – that feels like pushing things to the edge.

Our current exchange started because you jumped in and kicked me for criticizing al-Tamini’s persistence with that practice. But I am not the only one here who feels that way.

You challenge me to read al-Tamimi’s articles. I certainly do, and I find myself wondering at such fascination with the shallow inner workings of the jihadists, and questioning the rationale for posting such images.

I am not just talking about the most recent – he has gone over the top with enormous gruesome images of corpses a number of times here. Images which are NOT particularly relevant or important to the text of the articles they accompany.

MJABALI, I challenge you to read MY comments here. Then you could not rationally accuse me of tolerating the jihadists and posting “no content”.

April 29th, 2014, 8:57 pm

 

Ghufran said:

This is from alarabiya not from SANA:
كشفت الحلقة التي ناقشت “عودة مسفر من سوريا” من برنامج “الثامنة” مع داود الشريان، أن مسفر رضخ لدعاة تويتر بعد أن تابع تغريداتهم المصحوبة بالأدلة أن الجلوس عن الجهاد في سوريا لا يجوز، كما أوضحت الحلقة أن مجموعة من السعوديين المتواجدين في سوريا يقومون بقتل بعضهم البعض في العديد من الجماعات المسلحة، وقد شددت الحلقة على ضرورة اقتداء أبناء الوطن بالعائد “مسفر” بعودتهم لوطنهم وأمهاتهم المكلومات، وذلك بحضور أم محمد، وابنها العائد من سوريا مسفر، وخال العائد مسفر محمد.
وأظهر تقرير عرض ضمن الحلقة عودة مسفر من سوريا، حيث عاد لأحضان والدته في لحظة تتمنى فيها الأمهات معانقة فلذات أكبادهن. وقد أوضح التقرير أن مسفر تأثر كغيره من الشباب بالدعوات المضللة.
What the thugs of al- saud want is for the war to continue but they want the Syrians not the Saudis to die in the Syrian war. Read the whole article in the alarabiya media whore house and be ready to get nauseated.

April 30th, 2014, 12:13 am

 

Hopeful said:

#19 Ghufran

Why, in your opinion, the “thugs of Al-Saud” are allowing a report like this to be published on their own media outlet which is heavily involved in the “conspiracy”?

April 30th, 2014, 2:09 am

 

Ghufran said:

Hopeful,
Saudi sheikhs do not mind using non Saudi jihadists to do the ditty work but they find reports about Saudi citizens fighting alongside nusra and Isis to be embarrassing and they are also worried about the return of those terrorists to KSA. Alarabiya’s piece is an attempt to distance KSA royal thugs from the jihadi movement that poses a threat to the west and the region. NATO countries themselves stayed idle and lied to their own citizens when jihadists were waging a terrorist campaign against the regime and Syria as a whole but they took strict measures to stop those terrorists from going back to NATO countries. I said that before, Islamist fighters are tools hired or supported by governments and individuals to inflict maximum damage on the ” enemy” , those tools are not allowed to go beyond their calibrated mission, the problem is that jihadists do not know when or how to stop.

April 30th, 2014, 9:10 pm

 

Hopeful said:

#21 Ghufran

This conspiracy theory has many holes – things simply do not add up. For example, what “governments” were behind these jihadis when they were fighting the Americans in Iraq after 2003? Syria? Iran? Who is behind them in Afghanistan today?

April 30th, 2014, 11:47 pm

 

Juergen said:

comment on the upcoming “elections”

In the civil war torn Syria Bashar al -Assad is running for presidential reelection in June. Thus , there has been a total of seven candidates , although it is generally assumed that the other candidates against Assad will have no chance “So it runs on the ticker – . Everything is reported neutral , right? Wrong.

The fact that the winner is already determined , is true , but is justified indirectly with the opposing candidate . But Assad will win the elections because there are no elections – and the opposing candidate are no opponents, no threat to his reign at all.

In an ongoing war no election shall be held . War and elections , which is in irreconcilable antagonism : Why the agencies ignore this truism ?

Assad is waging war in Syria , as well as against civilians and against armed rebels. A war which he has still not won despite its military superiority. Instead, he has succeeded in using its air force and the infamous barrel bombs to destroy 60 percent of the country .
150,000 people have been killed , about 9 million have fled . They all do not vote on June 3. And many others do not : Assad’s bombs fall every day. Because the situation is so dangerous, there have long been no more international journalists in the country, no observers. So what to do ? The Ministry of Propaganda in Damascus will announce the preset “result” .

The certainly often unreflective neutrality of the international public which summons news snippets after news snippets on ” elections” in Syria , for many Assad is the lesser evil. After all, the Islamists and the democratic rebels have held no “elections” either . Things couldnt get more Cynical.

Ines Kappert TAZ newspaper

May 1st, 2014, 12:28 am

 
 

Juergen said:

The new Bashar show… this time an reception by the Assads for parents who have lost their only son. Normally no one has to go to the Syrian army, obviously a lot of those killed and remembered went to the service “voluntarily”.

May 1st, 2014, 2:58 am

 

Syrialover said:

JUERGEN #25,

I’ve heard a number of reports of “recruitment by starvation”. Army thugs go into areas they have surrounded and cut food supplies, looking for those desperate enough to join so they can get something to eat.

Also a growing number of those serving were identified by age and rounded up by army thugs. Their families are offered the choice of paying a bribe or seeing them packed off to be cannon fodder for Bashar Assad. Many families cannot pay or are too terrified to negotiate.

May 1st, 2014, 7:32 pm

 

Syrialover said:

One of the articles linked in the Round-Up above is worth reading to remind us that Bashar Assad is riding a tiger he can never safely get off.

Even if every single opponent quits tomorrow he is a dead man if left to his “allies” and associates.

That tiger has grown bigger and more out of control every day. It will expect to be fed, and it will chew up and spit out the Assads so fast the terrified Bashar won’t even have time to wet his pants in panic.

This article only discusses probably less than one paw of the tiger, which now includes Iran.

See: “If Assad Wins War, Challenge From His Own Sect May Follow ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/world/middleeast/if-assad-wins-war-challenge-from-his-own-sect-may-follow.html?_r=1

May 1st, 2014, 8:01 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Labwani’s latest revelation:

Labwani is angry both with the West and with the Arab world. Both camps, he feels, have failed the Syrian people, depriving moderate opposition forces fighting Assad of weapons essential to toppling the regime. Politically, Arab states — along with Western superpowers — have appointed corrupt Syrian expatriates to represent the opposition in exile, depriving it of all legitimacy with the broad Syrian public.
Discouraged by the opposition’s traditional allies, Labwani now believes Israel is the Syrians’ best hope. The Jewish state has both the military capacity to help the Syrian opposition and the strategic incentive to do so.
“Israel is able to change the international mood,” he said. “You have ties with all decision-making centers in neighboring countries, and could change opinions if you would be convinced to.”
Many in the West are glad to view Syria as a battleground for Hezbollah and al-Qaeda to shed each other’s blood, in a seemingly endless war of attrition. But Labwani believes that mode of thinking is misguided; Israel stands to suffer from a protracted civil war, and is the only country capable of convincing the world to let Assad go.
“It is the moderate forces which are being eroded, while the extremist powers are growing stronger. Hezbollah is much stronger today, holding strategic weapons. Half the chemical weapons owned by the [Assad] regime were given to it. Areas which [Hezbollah] occupies today are either being inhabited by Iraqi Shiites or converted to Shiism … this is a great danger not just for me, but for you [Israel] as well.”

Hopeful,
Conspiracies never stopped in the middle east but I prefer to call them evil policies that can only succeed when citizens and governments of the region accept the role of useful idiots or selfish thugs. The core problem in the Arab world is the lack of freedom. Dictatorships and Islamist movements both used violence and both enslaved or try to enslave the people of the region, however the Islamists mostly emerged because the ruling regimes in the Arab world who treated their people as disposable objects.

May 1st, 2014, 8:43 pm

 

Hopeful said:

#28 Ghufran

I personally find Labwani’s recent interviews refreshing…He is right about the need for a new thinking framework across the whole region. Nationalism, religion, sectarianism, race, etc., have all only led to sufferings, death and destruction.

May 2nd, 2014, 3:16 am

 

Hopeful said:

#28 Ghufran

“The core problem in the Arab world is the lack of freedom.”

I could not agree more. Unless this changes, nothing changes. Everything else is just excuses and distractions.

May 2nd, 2014, 3:33 am

 

Badr said:

Opinion: Bashar’s candidacy is bad for everyone, including himself

Amir Taheri
Asharq Al-Awsat

“Assad’s candidacy is bad news not only for Syria but also for the remnants of the Ba’ath and for both Tehran and Moscow, which would have to continue financing a prolonged conflict with no prospects of victory. Tehran and Moscow would be paying for a mistress that gets uglier and more expensive by the day.”

May 2nd, 2014, 3:41 am

 

Ghufran said:

Rebels in Homs city are withdrawing to northern country side after reaching a cease fire with the army. Some decided to give themselves and their weapons up. According to the agreement those who leave without weapons will not be attacked. It remains to be seen if car bombs and mortar shells fired by rebels will stop now, another issue is areas outside Homs including Rastan and what is left of Reef Homs ( rural Homs)

May 2nd, 2014, 1:40 pm

 

ghufran said:

GCC employees of the NC and their paper tiger FSA met and came up with a brilliant plan to keep the war raging until Syria is “liberated” :
أصدرت هيئة أركان الجيش الحر بالتعاون مع الائتلاف و وزارة الدفاع في الحكومة المؤقتة بياناً أعلنت فيه عن عدة قرارات جديدة تتعلق بالعمل العسكري و التعاون بين المجالس و المؤسسات المشتركة.

و جاء في البيان :

بتاريخ يوم الجمعة المصادف الثاني من الشهر الخامس من عام 2014 عقد اجتماع برئاسة السيد أحمد الجربا رئيس الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة حضره كل من السيد وزير الدفاع و السيد نائبه, السيد رئيس الأركان العميد المجاز عبد الاله البشير , السادة قادة الجبهات الخمسة , السادة رؤوساء المجالس العسكرية , السادة ممثلو المجلس العسكري الأعلى , السادة ممثلون عن الائتلاف الوطني لقوى الثورة والمعارضة , عدد من الشخصيات القانونية, وقد قرر المجتمعون بالإجماع :

أولاً : توحيد الجهود السياسية والعسكرية في القيادة العسكرية للثورة من خلال وزارة الدفاع و رئاسة الأركان عبر قادة الجبهات و روساء المجالس العسكرية والعمل معا بشكل موحد و تراتبي و مؤسسي بما يخدم أهدف ثورتنا المجيدة لتحرير سوريا من النظام المجرم و إقامة دولتنا الحرة.

ثانياً : إقرار النظام الأساسي لهيئة الأركان العامة و علاقتها بالسلطات الأعلى و الأدنى.

ثالثاً : هيكلة مجلس القيادة العسكرية العليا بحيث يضم السادة قادة الجبهات كأعضاء كاملي العضوية في المجلس.

رابعاً : إتخاذ التدابير والإجراءات الفورية لزيادة فاعلية الأعمال القتالية للثوار في الجبهات المفتوحة خاصة في جبهة حمص وجبهةالساحل.
I do not know which planet those clowns live on but I find their press conferences and Youtube video to be increasingly humerus.
I am sure the most common response the above statement from Jarba et al will receive from most is a long yawn or transient nausea.
If Syrians have to choose between those clowns and the Assad’s worshipers then Syria is in serious trouble.

May 2nd, 2014, 5:19 pm

 

SYRIAN HAMSTER said:

It has been a year since the “hardly a massacre” massacre took place.

Many more massacres have happened since then.

Badr
what can one say, the dog-poop prostituted the country to Iran and Russia. their mistress is not only getting uglier, its getting fatter on blood that they will eventually pay for.

May 2nd, 2014, 6:29 pm

 

Syrialover said:

Everything there is to know, here in one tweet:

“We asked the Muslim world for help and all we got from the entire 1.5 billion were a bunch of lunatics that came for their own benefit”

https://twitter.com/TheMoeDee

May 3rd, 2014, 9:53 am

 

Syrialover said:

More powerful truth by tweet:

“There is a loneliness in being Syrian that no empathy can cross”
https://twitter.com/Maysaloon

May 3rd, 2014, 10:07 am

 

ghufran said:

If the agreement between the army and rebels in Homs survives you can cancel Homs out of this war and add it to areas under regime control after half of the city was destroyed. Now thawrajiyyeh writers are trying to put a beautiful face on this unwanted outcome of the ” capital of the revolution”. I support the agreement but I think it is 2 years late, I yet have to see what the rebels and their supporters achieve in 3 years of a war that should not have been waged in the first place.
These are the 6 lines of Homs agreement:

1- يتم انسحاب مقاتلي الكتائب المقاتلة والكتائب الإسلامية المقاتلة، أحياء حمص المحاصرة بمرافقة القوات النظامية ومندوبين عن الأمم المتحدة.

2- يتم بالتوازي مع البند الأول، فتح ممر آمن لإدخال المساعدات الغذائية والطبية إلى بلدتي نبّل والزهراء في ريف محافظة حلب، واللتان يقطنهما مواطنون من الطائفة الشيعية.

3- الانسحاب سيتم عبر طريق حماه – حمص، باتجاه بلدة الدار الكبيرة في ريف حمص الشمالي.

4 يتم ” تسوية أوضاع” 50 مقاتلاً من حي الوعر في مدينة حمص، من المنشقين عن القوات النظامية.

5- تسيطر القوات النظامية على حي الوعر، إضافة إلى دخولها إلى أحياء جورة الشياح والقرابيص والحميدية ووادي السايح وحمص القديمة.

6- يتم إبقاء السلاح الفردي مع مقاتلي الكتائب المقاتلة والكتائب الإسلامية المقاتلة المنسحبين، لحماية أنفسهم من أي خرق للاتفاق.

Rebels did not sign this agreement until they killed as many people as possible in areas under regime control, the last Ghazwah was few days ago when car bombs and random mortar shelling used by rebels in heavily populated areas killed scores of civilians who were described by rebels supporters as pro regime “Nusairiyyeh” , but despite all of the terrorism acts and sectarian killings committed by rebels we still hear some boneheads wondering why minorities and Syrians at large did not support those rebels !!

May 3rd, 2014, 4:48 pm

 

ghufran said:

Muhammad Al-haj Saleh accusing Islamists and the GCC of giving Syria to Iran the same way they did to Iraq:
بكل الفرح والسرور والبهجة وترافقاً مع خطاب الظواهري الذي يأمر فيه الجولاني بوقف القتال مع دولة البغدادي، نعلمكم أننا خسرنا المعركة الاعلامية في أوروبا وبات المعلقون والخبراء والمحررون الاعلاميون وبلا أدنى رفة جفن يشيرون إلى إدانة عنف الثورة مع عنف النظام ويميلون إلى جانب النظام. لا يكذب الاعلام الغربي لكنه بات انتقائياً ويرى القشة في عين الثورة ولا يرى العمود في عين النظام.
مبروك إخوتي الاسلاميين الرائعين في تمثيل ثورتنا وحرفها نحو ما يهواه ويشتهيه الغرب وروسيا وإيران كل لأسبابه.
مبروك وعلى مسؤوليتي إلا إذا أراد الله شيئاً خبيئاً سيفاجئنا به عند منعطف اللوى، مبروك تسليم سورية بهبْلنة مرة وبهمجية وبعمالة مرة وبغباء ألف مرة لإيران كما سلمتوا العراق إلى إيران.
مبروك أخي الاسلامي خسارة سورية وربح وتجديد أسماء الصحابة حتى الخامل منهم المنسي في بطن الكتب
مبروك أخي خسارتنا جميعاً سورية وربحنا جكّ اسم الاسلام وصفة الاسلامية في اي مكان وحيثما وأينما وأنى كان، ألا إنه الربح الصافي الذي يجازي عليه رب العباد.
مبروك للخليجيين الغشم الذين بلونا بكل طشم زنزلة ومعتبر حاله وصي على السوريين لأنه جايب معه كم دولار وبدو يكسب حسنات وحوريات على حسابنا
راحت سورية التي تحبون ودخلنا نفقاً آخر
مبرووووووووووك

*محمد الحاج صالح

May 3rd, 2014, 5:18 pm

 

apple_mini said:

The head of the Military Council of Daraa with another 5 commanders of FSA just got snatched by Nusra.

This happened couple days after we heard UK and US are getting ready to reinstate their “non-lethal” to “lightly lethal” support to the “moderate” rebels.

Last time, it was in the north when Islamists snatched the warehouse of “gifts” from the west. This time, Islamists got a little inpatient.

It is always a comic show to watch when the rebels are fighting for turf, power and influence. Occasionally, ludicrous clowns like US and UK come on stage to entertain us.

May 4th, 2014, 7:33 am

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

May 4th, 2014, 7:36 am

 

Observer said:

Guffy

There are no news worthy of comment. The reality is that it is going to grind on for decades. The country is broken, the animal farm that the regime created is finished. The generational hatred firmly rooted. The destruction resulting in a failed state. The division is virtual and geographic at the same time.

As for the response of Mjabali the silence is deafening to the article about the psychology of secretive sects. The author must have hit a nerve somewhere.

May 4th, 2014, 9:20 am

 

ghufran said:

The news in post 39 was reported by opposition sources today, Nusra is now arresting FSA commanders in another blow to efforts to create a fighting force not affiliated with ISIS and Nusra:
أفادت تنسيقيات الثورة في درعا عن قيامِ جبهة النصرة باعتقال قائد المجلس العسكري العقيد أحمد فهد النعمة، وأكد ناشطون أن العقيد أحمد فهد النعمة تم إعتقاله بعد أن أصدرت الهيئة الشرعية في المنطقة الشرقية من درعا بيانا طالبت به اعتقال العقيد و شخص يدعى أحمد الحريري.
Nimeh was accused by locals of theft and using funds sent by GCC to serve his own interests, however his name has lately emerged as a potential participant in efforts to take over Daraa and create a security zone in Qnaitra supported by Israel and KSA.

May 4th, 2014, 3:17 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

Come on Observer why should I respond to lunacy…by a someone writing under a fake name?

The only nerve that insanity hit in me was the laughing nerve…

It is bad to see you adopt this type of conspiracy theory…

But, if it is that important for you to know my opinion regarding this article, here are some points:

1- Your writer talks in his “article” about many groups, did he really study them all?

2- Can you name them the groups he was referring to so we could understand what are you guys talking about? Or do you agree that the writer is lost here and is using the conspiracy logic and language compared to the academic language you need when tackling a topic like this?

3- Where are the previous writings and finding by this author? he is talking as if he is Ali al-Wardi. My estimate he does not have a college degree as obvious from the type of writing. Most likely he was a Baathist before, because this article has a Baathi tone to it.

4- Your writer said : “فالعلويون ينظرون إلى التاريخ كسلسلة متلاحقة من المؤامرات المتتابعة، التي تهدف في جوهرها إلى تغطية وإخفاء الحقيقية العامة التي يؤمنون بها”

This is incorrect and fabrications the Alawites had heard the Sunnis repeat over and over. The Alawites need you guys to do a better job trying to prove something like this.

Based on what research he reached this “conclusion?”

Is it his assessment or a study?

The hidden question here is : Did the Alawites get subjected to conspiracies by the Sunnis or not? Did the Alawites for 1000 years get persecuted because of their creed?

The answer is Yes and Yes, which makes what was written in the “Article” just lies.

So, when your writer said that the “Alawites look at history” this way he was a lying. He was fabricating to suite his own agenda.

5- What your writer called “continuous lies” is the history you Sunnis always lied about. It is the history of the oppression of the minorities. It is obvious that your writer is not a fan of minorities.

6- What your writer called the “continuous conspiracy” to me is the continuous Fatawi Sunnis in Syria always had against the Alawites. There is a record of every Fatwa Sunnis had against the Alawites and other minorities. Every generation there was a Fatwa. There were Fatwas in the 14th and the 15th and the 16th and the 17th and the 18th and the 19th and the 20th and now the 21st against the Alawites by Sunnis in Syria. Do you want me to list them for you?

7- The conspiracy theory is popular inside almost every middle eastern, so when your writer tried to pin it on the Alawites, it was a miserable attempt at best. For your writer the persecution the Alawites been through for 1000 years did not occur and only in the imagination of the Alawites. He wants to convince someone that the Sunnis were nice all along to the Alawites. Come on Observacion respect our minds a little here.

8- When al-Assads have secret meetings with their inner circle, that is a pattern with every ruling class in the world and throughout history. Check the history of Syria for that matter and you will see that al-Assads are playing the same rules the Ottomans followed, for example. So for your writer to do this linguistic gymnastics to pin this on the Alawite creed is laughable at best. The Alawites do not meet and conspire, when did this happen other than in the conspiratorial brains of this writers and those who like what he wrote. Yes there was Assadist meetings but these meetings were not done according to any Alawite teachings: it went according to any amateur political manuel.

May 4th, 2014, 11:26 pm

 

ghufran said:

Rebels lost control of Al-Mlaiha, one of the major centers for weapons and supplies around Damascus.

May 5th, 2014, 12:22 am

 

ghufran said:

A new front is about to be created in Daraa that threatens to end any plans to advance rebel troops loyal to KSA in the south. It looks like Nimaa was not the only one arrested by Nusra but he was among a group of 5 senior officers in FSA. The man is seen as close to Jordanian intelligence and funded by KSA:
درعا ـ ‘القدس العربي’- من محمد الحوراني ووائل عصام: اقدمت جبهة النصرة على اعتقال قائد المجلس العسكري في درعا العقيد احمد النعمة وعدد من قيادات المجلس التابع لهيئة اركان الجيش الحر المرتبطة بـ’الائتلاف’ السوري المعارض.
وعلمت ‘القدس العربي’ ان الاعتقال جاء بعد مطاردة قامت بها مجموعة من جبهة النصرة عند حاجز اليرموك في درعا البلد واستمرت الملاحقة حتى بلدة صيدا حيث اعتقل النعمة ومعه عدد من قيادات الجيش الحر البارزين ومنهم خالد الرفاعي، موفق العتيلي، وموسى الأحمد قائد فوج الفرسان.
وتشير الانباء الواردة ان الفصائل المسلحة التابعة للمجلس العسكري والجيش الحر امهلت النصرة 24 ساعة لتسليم النعمة والا فستتم مهاجمة مقرات جبهة ‘النصرة’ والفصائل المتحالفة معها مثل ‘بيت المقدس′ و’المثنى’، وتتواصل المفاوضات وسط توتر كبير، بعد ان هوجم بالفعل احد المقرات للنصرة في درعا البلد.
ونشرت النصرة حواجز في درعا وريفها في حالة استنفار بدأت منذ يومين حين اعلن النعمة عن تشكيل ‘جبهة ثوار سوريا’ وهي تكتل يضم مجموعات مسلحة معتدلة مرتبطة بهيئة الاركان التابعة للائتلاف. واصدر النعمة فور تشكيل الجبهة بيانا ينتقد فيه ‘المتطرفين’ مطالبا بترسيخ الديمقراطية وحقوق الانسان.
لكن النصرة اعتبرت هذا التشكيل مشروع ‘صحوات’ يهدف لمحاربة الفصائل الاسلامية المقاتلة في درعا. واصدرت بيانا تهاجم فيه النعمة الذي تتهمه بعدة قضايا من ضمنها التواطؤ مع النظام السوري في تسليم بلدة خربة غزالة بعد حصار دام شهرين.
وتقول المصادر ان ‘النصرة’ سلمت النعمة للهيئة الشرعية وهي هيئة قضائية تضم ممثلين عن الفصائل المقاتلة في درعا، بعد ان اصدرت الهيئة الخاضعة لسيطرة الاسلاميين أمراً بالبحث عن النعمة على خلفية ورود اسمه في التحقيق بقضية اغتيال قائد لواء عامود حوران قبل عام.
والنعمة هو عقيد منشق عن المخابرات الجوية التابعة للنظام وكان من ابرز قيادات الجيش الحر في درعا ولكن الفصائل الاسلامية الراديكالية تتهمه بالارتباط بمشروع ‘سعودي ـ اردني’ يقضي بمواجهة الفصائل الاسلامية.
If Nusra prevails, Israel may have to rethink its plans for a security zone held that was supposed to be held by Naimee and Aldulaal. The NC is dead silent on this serious breakthrough.

May 5th, 2014, 12:44 am

 

omen said:

Kuwait, a U.S. ally on Syria, is also the leading funder of extremist rebels

this story fails to note large number of kuwaitis are shia who are funding extremists. are iran loyalist funding criminal mercenaries with intent to make sunni rebels look bad?

and/or is this a fight over who controls oil fields in the east?

May 5th, 2014, 2:12 am

 

omen said:

anything more on this? one assad soldier said to have died from poison gas.

and if anyone is feeling down, here are reports of regime infighting.

cheers 🍹

May 5th, 2014, 2:33 am

 

omen said:

9. mjabali

please stop messing up his name, it’s annoying. profanities would be easier to take.

May 5th, 2014, 7:03 am

 

Observer said:

Thanks Mjabali this is better

May 5th, 2014, 7:52 am

 

ghufran said:

Aleppo is witnessing another change in battle lines after a large number of Islamic front fighters withdrew from areas around Layramoun leaving Nusra and foreign jihadists to fill the void.
If this situation in that strategic section of Aleppo continues to deteriorate a large attack to retake Aleppo is likely to follow forcing rebels to go north.

May 5th, 2014, 7:55 am

 

Uzair8 said:

Posted on a Salafi type forum 18 hrs ago (regarding the Nusrah-FSA situation in the south):

JAN is under serious pressure to release ahmed nimah. His tribe are calling for his release. It doesnt help them that the balance of power in the south lies under FSA control.

There are some local JAN who are being given a choice. Either renounce al qaeda and break away from them or be a pariah like ISIS and face a battle like them. Interesting few weeks coming up

http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/syria-thread-4-0-read-rules-before-67862/index332.html#post756470

May 5th, 2014, 11:35 am

 

Uzair8 said:

Did anybody else read the interview linked in the SC ‘feedburner’ above?

Interesting and revealing stuff, if true. Particularly the part about the secret committee running the show, overseen by Assad himself.

‘General Ahmed Tlass on Syrian Regime & Repression of Deep Alawi State’

http://t.co/lXTcIpzUpw

May 5th, 2014, 11:42 am

 

Uzair8 said:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it seems the Emergency Law, lifted earlier in the crisis, was only holding back the Shabeeha regime.

May 5th, 2014, 11:46 am

 

Uzair8 said:

Alan

Didn’t think you’re suggestion to quit was serious…

May 5th, 2014, 3:29 pm

 

EK said:

How fun is this. So the terrorist in this movie does not need fighters. They are fighting ISIS!! How radiculos is this. So he is saying what his masters in EU and USA wanted him to say. Those terrorists are fighting ISIS who are Islamic terrorists like them. Only fools trust or believe these Islamic monesters.

May 5th, 2014, 11:25 pm

 

Badr said:

Persistent Saudi-U.S. differences hurt Syria strategy

By Yara Bayoumy and Angus McDowall
DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters)

“The frustration with the Saudis was that they never gave us a plan,” a former senior U.S. diplomat who worked in the region told Reuters.

The former diplomat said there had to be a strategy that included pulling the opposition together into a political and military union dominated by moderates, while arm-twisting Assad’s main backers in the Security Council: Russia and China.

“There’s got to be something more than throwing weapons and suitcases of money,” the former diplomat said.

May 6th, 2014, 6:12 am

 

mjabali said:

The most famous Abu Basir is Abu Basir al-Tartusi…he is still alive…the one they are talking about in the video is Abu Basir al-Ladhiqani (Kamal Hammami), a lesser known Abu Basir.

May 6th, 2014, 4:13 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Yes, well spotted sherlock, I’m anti Islam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIaGWURONRU
==

May 6th, 2014, 9:57 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Waddah Khanfar who for years has served Qatar’s aljazeera is waking up or pretending that he did:
:وضاح خنفر
يعبر الشرق بأممه الأربع: العرب والترك والكرد والإيرانيون أعمق تحول إستراتيجي منذ نهاية الحرب العالمية الأولى*
مشكلتنا نحن العرب أننا لا نجد من يمثل مصالحنا في واقع إقليمي متغير، فنحن منشغلون بمعارك صغيرة تزيدنا وهنا على وهن*
مناعة الوعي العربي تهتز تحت مطارق الشحن السياسي والطائفي والأيدلوجي. الإعلام يؤدي أسوأ دور في تقطيع أرحام مجتمعاتنا*
مرحلة تحول إستراتيجي تحدث في ظل تدني هائل في مستوى القيادة السياسية العربية، وانشغال تام بمخاوف مصطنعه وانتصارات *
وهمية
I found this in Heetan’s blog which has not received an update in 4 months .
Khanfar is saying what we have been screaming about for 3 years.
” Arabs and middle eastern countries have failed political leaderships and are engaged in small wars that are based on imaginary fears and stained by fake victories. Arab media made things worse ( remember khanfar’s long career in aljazeera) by increasing the divide and tearing apart societies ”
يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الامم

May 6th, 2014, 11:29 pm

 

Badr said:

Expressing strong and sound national feeling:
الدول الوهمية

واهم كل من يعتقد أن سورية يمكن أن تتقسم إلى دول حتى لو وصل صراخهم إلى السماء، وحتى لو كان هناك ما يوحي بجدية مشاريع التقسيم على الأرض. ما يسمى “الدولة العلوية” وهم، و “الدولة الكردية” وهم، وكذلك “دولة الخلافة الإسلامية
سورية إما أن تكون دولة وطنية واحدة موحدة، وإما أنها لن تكون دولة بل كانتونات تتحارب إلى أن تعود إلى رشدها وتعي من جديد أهمية الدولة الوطنية. يمكننا أن نعفي أنفسنا من مستقبل أسود إن وعينا هذه الحقيقة السياسية وإلا سينطبق علينا المثل
” الاهبل لا يصدق حتى يرى ”

الدكتور حازم نهار

Glad to help, if translation of this comment is needed.

May 7th, 2014, 3:38 am

 

sami said:

As usual great link Badr. Thanks for sharing!

May 7th, 2014, 5:49 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Partition of Syria is a form of suicide but for that to be avoided Assad and his family need to allow a new class of leaders to emerge and be given a chance and the war needs to come to an end. Enough is enough.
Rebels in Homs are reported to have claimed that they kept no prisoners in Homs ( ie they killed them all), they instead gave the UN a map of where they buried their victims. Rebels however released 15 members of Syrians police and army personnel held in aleppo and 15 civilians from Latakia’s rural north. Nusra stopped aid from reaching two villages in northern Aleppo, that if not resolved will lead to a delay in implementing the agreement in Homs. Some see the agreement as surrender, others see it as a concession to rebels who last week killed over 100 Syrians in car bombs in Homs. I still prefer an imperfect agreement that ends the blood shed in Homs over a continuation of the war there. Assad and his cronies are mostly interested in adding Homs to their list of towns that can hold parades to congratulate King Assad for ” winning” a third term !!

May 7th, 2014, 8:18 pm

 

habib said:

57. Amir in Tel Aviv

Islam and Judaism has more in common than either has with Christianity when it comes to laws.

May 7th, 2014, 9:14 pm

 

mjabali said:

Good news today:

15 Alawite women and kids (mostly kids) been released by their Sunni captors…also the same Sunni group released 10 or so soldiers they were holding….they said there are more to be released.

The women and children released were taken into captivity during the infamous 4th of August attack of last year.

It seems that al-Assad and groups in the opposition are making some deals. Also pro Assad soldiers were released in Allepo…

May 7th, 2014, 10:42 pm

 

alan kurdish said:

I think that its clear that bashar al asad becam american and weast man that he lead along war betwen sony and shiat the two main parts of islam

May 8th, 2014, 2:19 am

 

Mina said:

After the huge explosion in Idlib yesterday, someone on SyrPer guessed the same would happen to Aleppo

Instead of underlining the madness of the people who built these tunnels and stuffed them with explosives, Le Monde has a cynical title “Large explosion in the sky of Idlib”, which is understood after the first two lines of the articles as an explosion that killed 30 Syrian soldiers (ostracized as “loyalists” by Le Monde)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/video/2014/05/06/gigantesque-explosion-dans-le-ciel-syrien_4412514_3218.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27323790
The Carlton hotel stands right in front of the Aleppo citadel. One can surmiss that the citadel has been damaged too.

May 8th, 2014, 4:54 am

 

Mina said:

Same trend with the BBC and crucifixion (about the recent executions by fanatics in Raqqa… without explicit condemnation, sort of)
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27245852

May 8th, 2014, 6:46 am

 
 

Uzair8 said:

Going through a Salafi type forum and saw a heartbreaking image posted of Syrian fighters crying due to reluctance to leave Homs. The user writes:

“This is how much the homs means to them. They have been bombed to hell and back but they still do not want to leave.”

http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/syria-thread-4-0-read-rules-before-67862/index334.html#post756934

These are the brave Syrian Heroes, the brave men defending their homes and neighbourhoods throughout Syria. The world ignores them and focuses on the extremists thus playing into Assad’s hands.

I salute these brave men who were ready to put their life and everything on the line to defend their homes and resist this tyrannical regime. The tears show how difficult it must be to leave the areas they have grown attached to through the most trying of times. I cry with them. We will not be denied the tears of joy, cause surely God Almighty is Just, and Justice will prevail. In Sha Allah.

*********

There was another image a couple of posts before the above image. The user writes:

“A homsi revolutionary bids farewell to his home he defended after 2 years of seige and bombardment”

http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/syria-thread-4-0-read-rules-before-67862/index334.html#post756884

May 8th, 2014, 12:32 pm

 

Hopeful said:

Are you kidding me? Is this what a “victory” looks like?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VcBQDoiBPHE&feature=youtu.be

Just as a reminder, this is how it all began and why it was destroyed. Look at them terrorists!!!

May 8th, 2014, 2:17 pm

 

Uzair8 said:

It seems now it’s Barrel Bombs Vs Tunnel Bombs.

I was hesitant to write this at the risk of equating the two.

Nevertheless the regime has something to think about now. A source of frustration and trepidation. It’s going to really shake regime confidence. Are they safe anywhere?

Have the Freedom fighters gained an edge over the regime in the mind games department?

May 8th, 2014, 3:57 pm

 

mjabali said:

More Alawite hostages were released today by the Sunni groups. Most likely as a part of the Homs deal….reports say they are 45 women and children from the villages of al-Hambushiyah, Baruda, and Obeen that were taken last year in August.

May 8th, 2014, 7:18 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Habib #62,

The issue is not the law, but how do you interpret the law, and how you modify the law to make it relevant in changing times. In Judaism there’s the religious mechanism to interpret, alter, and in some cases to cancel biblical laws.

[For an example: during the biblical times, it was the norm for a man to have more than one wife. Today, and according to a rabbinical ruling, made around the year 1000 AD, it is not allowed to have more than one wife. So we live according to new ruling rather then biblical norms].

Islam (these days), lack those mechanisms, and therefor it is less flexible than Judaism. I believe that in the past (hundreds of years ago), Islam was more able to adjust and to absorb newer rulings made by religion-elders. It’s not the case today.
==

May 8th, 2014, 7:59 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Christianity and Judaism today are adapting and changing, Islam is not but many Muslims are, those who do are called kuffar, fake Muslims, etc.
Most Jewish people where I work have non Jewish first names and eat pork and can not be distinguished from non Jewish individuals by their behavior and the way they think. civilized nations today put religion on the shelf and use it as needed, usually for ceremonies and social events, things will get better in the Muslim world when Islam receives the same treatment, a religion that justifies killing of others because they are different is a form of fascism that keeps eating its followers when it can not eat others.
The most idiotic slogan I heard in my adult life is the one that says: “Islam is the solution”, Islam under Wahhabi dominance is more of a problem than a solution, that is why Muslim nations today are the butt of jokes in the world, and that is one reason why income per capita in Israel is higher than the one in ksa.

May 8th, 2014, 9:05 pm

 

mjabali said:

Islam had one period only when it was flexible. It happened during the Abbasid period, but it ended when the hard line Sunnis took over and adopted the rigid face we know today. It was this type of Sunnism that married to the oppressive foreigners who ruled the area to prevent any change that reflects the times.

Today, Islam is in a big crisis and trying hard to fight for its survival against forces of change.

May 9th, 2014, 7:22 am

 

Observer said:

It is clear finally that Ghufran is simply a Christian and nothing else and Mjabali is Alawite and nothing else; not Syrian, not Arab, not anything else.

This is just stating facts and the ultimate proof that there is no such thing as Syria or Syrian Identity or Syrian Nation or Arab Nation.

There are tribes and clans and sects and religious fanatics on all sides in the wretched part of the world.

Once again for God’s sake break it up into city states. Singapore and Dubai are doing just fine.

Long live Alawistan

May 9th, 2014, 7:48 am

 

Tara said:

Ghufran

“a religion that justifies killing of others because they are different is a form of fascism..”

Wow!!! If this is your view of Islam teaching, why did you tell us you fast Ramadan.

Have I been fooled all along?

May 9th, 2014, 9:15 am

 

Tara said:

Amir,

You are nothing but a big disappointment. My American Jewish friends are extremely different. They are balanced, tolerant, moral, ethical and non prejudice.

Your spreading hates peach is disgraceful especially when it comes from someone whose background was wrongly accused of children blood libel.

Please stop inciting hatred.

Not that I care of your personal opinion but hatred only begets hatred.

May 9th, 2014, 9:22 am

 

Mina said:

Hamoudeh
Thank you very much for this link.
If anyone needed more proofs that these fanatics adapt religion to whatever they fancy, we have here a good selection:
– they “think” djihad is incumbent but smoke cigarettes;
– they “think” they need to get out of Homs to eat with their families in their own villages before returning, denying God’s might who could have sent them food from the sky;
– the owner of the website calls Khalid ibn al Walid “sayyidna” .
I’m sure I forget plenty.
Did they have invitation from the people of Homs to come and destroy their city? Why don’t they just destroy their own houses and villages?

May 9th, 2014, 9:23 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

1- I am Syrian from day one, and this does not mean that I can not think and speak about my sect when discussing Syrian affairs. This is new to you, and many, who want to keep the fact that we are different beneath the surface.

2- You need a modern law to govern the relationship between the many factions that live in Syria. Do not be surprised if others asked for things. This is natural.

3- The Alawtie State, when it existed, was a great example. It was based on elections, Sunnis, Christians, Alalwites and Ismailis in the cost were represented in a democratic assembly under the watch eye of the French. Things were good in the Alawite State Dr. Observer. The Sunnis, Alawites, and Christians lived together with no problem. The ones who disrupted this for them were those who wanted to be part of a bigger state. That state could have survived like many around.

4- Still waiting for your answers regarding that mess of an article you made me read few times and spend precious time answering you. Your silence is speaking volumes here.

May 9th, 2014, 12:53 pm

 

mjabali said:

Tara:

Do you remember when you called me “a man with no principles” because I said that I see the Jews as one of those minorities that went through a lot in the Middle East?

Do you remember the outlandish racist things you ranted about Iranians, Shia, Christians and Alawites?

When there is no real answer to the real points: Tara goes the usual route….

May 9th, 2014, 1:02 pm

 

Tara said:

Jabali,

What are you talking about?

I like the Jews. Most my friends since I was 22 are Jews and Christians.

I do not like haters.

May 9th, 2014, 1:10 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Tara,

In your eyes it’s hatred, in my eyes it’s the painful truth that you refuse to see. It is a pity that Muslims can’t watch themselves in the mirror. Self criticism is foreign to them. When the criticism comes from non-Muslims, it automatically makes the criticizer, A Islamophobe and hater.

You see what is going on in the ME and beyond, because of the Islamic and the Muslim bigotry and extremism (among others), yet you prefer to stick your head in the sand. As if you live in a parallel universe.

I’m really sick and tired of you and MOST Muslims for not-wanting-to-face this sad reality: today’s Sunni Islam is a violent religion. Not all Muslims are violent. In fact, I suppose that most reject violence. But your mistake is that you allow the few radicals to hijack Islam from you, and set the violent extremist path of today’s Islam.

Nothing will change until you manage to take your head from the comfort of been stuck sand, and free Islam from the radicals who stole it from you.

For god sake.
===

May 9th, 2014, 7:16 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Tara,

I’m quite sure that your Jewish friends, whom you like so dearly for their “balance and tolerance”, are simply cowards. They wont tell you what they really think. Try to hide a microphone in a room, where they (your Jewish friends) meet and talk among themselves when you don’t hear them. They just don’t want to offend you. And of course, they are cowards.

I refuse to be that coward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z38qqSZZEc
==

May 9th, 2014, 7:38 pm

 

Tara said:

Amir,

You are so ilusioned! My Jewish friends differentiate between OBL’s culture of intolerance and between the general teaching of Islam that 99٪ of Muslims who correctly understand Islam submit to.

My friends are not coward. They are just not blinded by whatever that blinds you.

There is nothing in the Islam’ teaching that begets hatred. And the religion of peace and tolerance of the 99% of the Muslims who understand islam correctly can’t be judged as evil except by haters. So it is now me who is asking you to lift your head from the sand you have buried it in and see the truth.

And do not hide behind your Israeli identity. You are giving bad name to all Israelis. Not too long ago. I met an Israeli woman in Venice, Italy on a business trip. She unsolicitedly “fell in love” with me and literally begged me to visit her Jewish Venetian friend in the Jewish ghetto the following day and so I did. The woman , her husband, and I alone hopped from one water shuttle to another water shuttle to find the address in Ghetto Novo.

The woman and her husband will be my guest when she visit to lecture in the state.

Link as much hatred as much as your heart desires and I hope you reach the ecstasy you are longing for.

May 9th, 2014, 8:15 pm

 

Tara said:

And I do not like this new ==, stop using it.

May 9th, 2014, 8:17 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Tara,

this is not between you and me. Actually, I quite like you, despite you being a Muslim.. kidding…

One of my best friend is Muhanned. He is my friend for over 12 years now. He is an optometrist and owns his own shop. He lives in TLV now, but originally is from the north (a not very typical Arab, coz he is Muslim and 100% secular). Only lately did I find out that his name ‘Muhanned’ has something to do with the Prophet’s sword (“a religion of peace…”). Muhanned and me joke about it regularly.

I have zero intention to try and convince you that there is a deep problem with today’s Islam. It is your, and other Muslims, who don’t belong to the violent minority to figure it out, and to bring a fundamental change into Islam in order to reform it.

This has to come from you, not from non-Muslims like me and other. Until you and other sane Muslims wakeup, and take control over the steering wheel of Islam, Muslims and other will continue to suffer.

May 10th, 2014, 6:33 am

 

Tara said:

Amir,

Now you are talking….

I do not deny there is a present and clear problems related to Islam nowadays. I never did. I do not deny that a radical reform needs to take place in its structure, governance, fatwas, interpretation, etc.

What I oppose to is the blind label of Islam as a “bad religion” or an “evil religion ” or directly attack it’s texts. That promote hatred and counter-hatred. I agree that there must be reinterpretation and re- emphasis on a historical context and on spiritual meaning the way I (and all Syrians by the way taught) to understand it.

I wholeheartedly believe Islam to be a religion of peace and tolerance, not because I am religious but because I am convinced it is by actually reading and understanding the texts, I do not practice all “duties”. I drink alcohol, wear bikinis, have only men friends, fast Ramadan, pray sometimes, teach my little children Quraan, visited Thailand but never visited Mecca but will sometimes in the future, and when I took my children to the mosque where they learned to memorize the first part of Quraan I do NOT cover my hair.

I also understand that until a reform takes place, Muslims and others will continue to suffer and a low life Batta al Assad and other filthy dictators will continue to be successful manipulating the world into their importance of fighting radical Islam while they have all along promoted it and use it to their advantage.
….

And I like you too… Despite you being Israeli… The difference is that I told you first
Additionally, thank you for stopping using ==. It takes ( in my opinion) a confident man to respond to such a request. 😉 . Most men would continue to prove something in their brain of no value..

May 10th, 2014, 8:03 am

 

Observer said:

Jabali

You are an Alawite not a Syrian. You rejoice for Alawites only not for your fellow Syrians. You have never shown any compassion to what is happening to non Alawites. You were mad when Lattakia was attacked and never mentioned any other area that was attacked. Homs’ devastation is nothing to you. Like the woman interviewed on Syrian TV who said that she is happy to have Homs free of Sunnis.

The concept of a Syrian National Identity that supersedes and is above the sectarian particularism does not exist. It is actually combatted daily by the sects to allow for their continued particularism.

As for the article, you clearly stated that you “had” to read it. Which as usual proves that your first response was just the usual belittling of the “other”

I happen to think that for sects to continue to survive as particular sects and avoid assimilation into a higher identity that is more universal and liberating they need a history and a myth of persecution. That was why Spinoza was ex communicated from the Jewish community because he advocated integration. That is why any Alawite like Khair is punished more severely for not toeing the line.

I think that the refusal of the Alawite community to dissociate from the mafia regime speaks volumes about the state of mind of the sect in terms of political position today.

I think the author of the article had some very valid concepts about “The Rule of the Clan” the state of affairs that societies revert to when the state fails as it happened under the Alawite rule since 1971.

In Syria and in Lebanon and in the Palestinian camps the Alawite rule of Hafez and his brood destroyed systematically the state. I will never forget one of his speeches where he encouraged people to “give gifts to the public service employees” as the ultimate in instituting corruption at the highest level of the country.

The Alawite state is what I live for, I wish with every fiber of my being that you recreate the Alawite state and I challenge you and your sect to go ahead and declare it and show us the rest of the world how stupid we are in not believing in such a wonderful state and its incredibly modern principles.

There is not a single area of the Syrian society where the Alawite rule of the Mafia regime did not result in failure
1. Education system is a failure
2. Health system is a failure
3. Cultural system is a failure
4. Tourism is a failure
5. Banking is a failure
6. Infrastructure is a failure
7. Communication is a failure
8. Irrigation is a failure
9. Water policy is a failure
10. Defense is a failure
11. Arab unity is a failure
12. Sovereignty is a failure
13. Crime fighting is a failure
14. Transparency is a failure
15. Constitutional reform is a failure

So please go ahead and create and establish and live in your Alawite state and get out of our hair once and for all.

And please do not twist the last sentence into some imagined persecution and exclusion. The sects cannot live together anymore under this mafia rule and as long as the sect is in with the mafia we are ALL hostage to this abomination. Yes it is an abomination and will go down in history as one the worst periods of Syria’s history similar to the Mongolian invasion

May 10th, 2014, 9:02 am

 

Uzair8 said:

Good to see this Baathist given a piece of this rival guests mind:

Jordanian Commentators Demolish Studio While Arguing over Syria War

May 10th, 2014, 9:30 am

 
 

Tara said:

Ghufran

You owe us an explanation.

May 10th, 2014, 12:03 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

I did not ask to debate you. You went after me repeatedly to know my opinion

As for arguing with you about who I am, it is futile because you will never understand me ever.

You could have been a Yemeni or an Egyptian, because the Ottomans could have posted your grandfather there…أنت سوري بالصدفة

I do not want to bore the people who read this blog with the repeated argument with you…that is why I will not answer your regular insults, fabrications and calls for sectarian cleansing…

If you want to be mature or civil and answer my questions regarding the mess of an article that I had to read for your sake only…I will gladly battle your lame readings of the situation …

Emotions blinded you and you did not answer my questions:

Here they are…

1- Why the writer has a fake name?

2- Did the writer study the Batini groups he talks about repeatedly?

3- Name the Batini groups he is talking about?

4- Do the writer know what he is talking about or this article is meant for something else?

These are simple questions..

Note: Comparing what al-Assads did against the Ottomans, Salah al-Din, the other invaders is a very interesting idea to see who is more ruthless and killed more. Who caused ethnic or sectarian cleansing and how…

May 10th, 2014, 12:09 pm

 

ghufran said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gWvgYPugRUQ

anti-government media activists in Syria have released a video purporting to show rebel fighters preparing the massive bomb attack Thursday that obliterated a historic building in the embattled city of Aleppo in which Syrian army soldiers were billeted..
Constructed in the 19th century and facing the stone entrance of a 13th century fort, the building was part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and was the opulent home of the five-star Ritz Carlton Hotel in Aleppo. Fighters claimed to have tunneled under the site, planting a large cache of explosives that when detonated, had caused a plume of smoke to rise for miles above the city.

May 10th, 2014, 12:29 pm

 

Observer said:

It would be great to have Jabali’s posting for a course in logic.
It does not matter whether the guy studied or did not study the Batinis, one could study and still be mistaken and his credentials are irrelevant to whether he posted or did not post a valid point. I do think that the myth of persecution real or imagined is used to sustain the sect. Once again you rejoice together at the liberation of people based on their sectarian belonging and you have never lamented the destruction of the country the displacement of millions the massacres by the hundreds of thousands and the imprisonment without trial of hundreds of thousands.

You have had your state of Alawistan and it was according to you an utopia of the rule of law and human rights. Go ahead and create it for the Alawites and if you are so smart for the rest of us Syrians. As for your identity, I do not need any of your assertions all I have to do is to read your posts to know that you have one prism and one prism only that of how the sect was persecuted and massacred and all you know is a list of fatwas that were issued against the sect.

No doubt that injustice was done and therefore go ahead and carve yourselves a piece of land and call it your state and stop pretending to be Syrian wanting to live with us. Go listen to the Alawite woman who was praising the latest accord as Homs will be free of Sunnis on Syrian TV of all places.

In the end, you are trapped in your wrapped mind and will always be a prisoner of hate and discrimination: first the one that was imposed on you and now the one that the sect finds itself imposing on others.

In contrast to Dr. Landis I am an American, I am proud of being an American, and I will always state that because I am originally from Syria I do have a conflict of interest when writing about Syria in contrast to his position as Political Science Professor who has never stated that he has a conflict of interest married to a “prominent Alawite Family”.

I tell you as an American we do not have a dog in this fight. Let them fight each other for another 1400 years that is the best that they are good at.

Long Live Alawistan

Time to get them on their glorious new statehood.

As for my emotions, they are nothing but contempt for such a regime and all of its supporters. Barbarism at work

May 10th, 2014, 8:06 pm

 

Ghufran said:

This is NZ’s response to my line about the status of Arabs and Muslims
(يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الامم)

Ghufran, your multiple aliases are not the issue, nor the multiple lineages you claim to have, nor your profession. Whether you are part of the Arab nation or not, does not concern me either. In every nation, you have the good, the bad and the ugly.
Bush was elected twice by his people. I was against Bush’s wars -vehemently so, more importantly against the polarization that came with Bush Jr presidency. The bloodletting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the images of torture coming out from Abu Ghraib, were gruesome, barbaric.. to say the least. Yet, he was elected for a second term. Those who voted for him, and who supported him for a second term are no different than those who are watching what Syria’s Asshead is doing to his own people and turning their heads the other way.

Heetan has not been updated in 4 months, I found that it has 2 contributors today, NZ and dr death who told us how much he hates shia, alawites and persians and bragged about his vacation choices, I hope NZ will come back and elaborate on his last 3 lines, I find them disturbing because we know how thawrajiyeh feel about regime supporters and we hate to think that NZ wants GWB supporters to receive the same treatment.

May 10th, 2014, 8:11 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

how can I answer you when you write something like this:

“It does not matter whether the guy studied or did not study the Batinis”

Speaking of logic: according to your logic a bus driver could diagnose heart failures…he may be correct or not…why should people study mr. Observer?

Still you did not answer the questions and turned it into your wild rants:

Questions 1- Why did the writer use a fake name?

2- What are the Batini sects you and writer are talking about?

Why are you trying to hide these answers, and try to delve into my character and whom I stand for and when I was happy and when I was sad.

What type of logic you use here? none?

Contrary to your lies about me I always stand from day one with every Sunni al-Assad killed unjustly. حاجة كذب وتلفيق احترم الناس يازلمة

If I do not cry that much like you, that is my type of character.

It is a lost battle trying to deny the persecution that happened against the Alawites throughout history. The more you speak with your belligerent logic the more people like me are going to throw it in your face. If you reach an understanding about this with people like me is the only guarantee for a better future.

When I stand against the violence against the city of Lattakia you take that against me? What type of logic is that. You are for violence. You stated this many times before.

Do you know that there are rockets that had been falling on Alawite areas every day? Do you know that the last one of my relative to be killed in this war was killed last week? how many of your family died in this war so far? I would love to know…

The rockets fall less than hundreds of yards close to my family’s house on occasional basis. I do not speak enough Observer.

As for your rant about you being an American: I wish you apply the American rules on yourself when you repeatedly speak your sectarian cleansing slogan: Get out of our hairs.

As for the Alawite State: it does not matter what you say, and as we say in Arabic: من جهل شيئآ عاداه

Again: When you could not provide real answers, resort into attacking me….

I told you before مستواك ضعيف

May 10th, 2014, 9:24 pm

 

apple_mini said:

The rebels have posted a video showing those militants calling each women’s name and then releasing them with their kids. It is a sickening scene: those bearded “macho” men vs. timorous women with crying kids.

And that was the deal for “evacuating” those rebels from Homs: Besieged militants in exchange for kidnapped women and children.

Then there is this very publicized stunt by Michelle Obama holding placard saying “Hashtag Bring Back Our Girls”, girls who have been kidnapped by Islamists, not in Syria, but in Africa.

The Syria revolution and its FOS backers are a bunch of shams. Their supported militants are a bunch of scumbags.

May 10th, 2014, 11:04 pm

 

ghufran said:

Labwani is, again, begging for help from Israel.
Here is a piece from his vomitus at the daily beast:

“The immediate step needed for the 4 million people displaced in Syria is the establishment of a protected free zone, in which Assad will have no reach and where the process of reconstruction can begin. Our allies in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and, yes, Israel, should act upon this resolution. We plead once again for help.
Obviously the Syrian problem is too complex for us to handle alone and, once again, we plead for help before even more civilians die. But we offer something else in a return, a paradigm shift that comes from people who have been awakened”

Labwani later on declared that Israel is no longer the enemy, so he suddenly decided to forgive Israel for turning Palestinians into a nation of refugees, invading Lebanon twice, bombing Lebanese and Palestinian land ad lib and occupying Arab (and Syrian)land and trying to steal Jerusalem and change its character.
All of that because he wants to get rid of the regime, yet and despite the fact that:
1. most rebels are financed by GCC sheikhs and
2. rebels’ new found love with Israel and
3. the bulk of fighters on the opposition side are foreign jihadists, and
4. despite the blatant anti shia, anti alawite and anti Christian nature of the rebellion,
some of you still call this a “national revolution” !!

May 10th, 2014, 11:46 pm

 

Hopeful said:

#97 Ghufran

History will always write that the Syrian revolution started with one war: a war of freedom and dignity waged by peaceful demonstrators against decades of corruption, brutality and indignity.

Six months later, and after repeated promises by Assad and his gangs to burn the country down, the war expanded into several wars. There years later, we now have six wars in Syria:

1. The original “freedom” war waged by national activists and FSA members
2. Economic war waged by countryside militias against poverty, injustice and hopelessness
3. Sectarian war between Sunnis and Alawis
4. Regional war pitting GCC countries against Iran
5. Global cold war between the West and Russia
6. War against Alqaeda and between Alqaeda branches

These wars are all entangled among each other with one thread keeping them all together: Bashar Assad. He brought them all to Syria and kept them all alive for over three years. The only way to finish them is to remove that common thread.

May 11th, 2014, 2:40 am

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

Tara,

Thumbs up!!

May 11th, 2014, 3:43 am

 

Observer said:

I do not know why the person used a fake name and it does not matter probably the same reason that we do not use real names here for fear of retribution on our loved ones back home.

What does credentials have to do with his assertion that sects love a history of persecution to keep the sect together.

The persecution of the Alawites was real and now it is their turn to persecute the others.

Now you tell me there are rockets falling on Alawite villages and well there are barrel bombs falling on the rest of the country.

There is a siege of Nouboul and Zahra and there was a siege of Homs.

All of this proves to me that the regime headed by Alawites, manned by Alawites, trooped by Alawites, supplied by Shia, using Shia slogans, using hatred and racism has FAILED.

So if this Alawi state when it existed was a model how come that since 1971 with the Alawis in control and more so since 1982 we have not seen Dubai on Barada or Singapore on the Mediterrenean?

This is because as Tara has pointed out the regime is based in exclusion of the majority of the population and on oppression, corruption, graft, and criminality.

Now, the only attack you have against the article is that the author is unknown and you do not know his credentials. You make an analogy by saying that a merchant can write about heart disease that does not make him an authority. Well anyone can write anything they want, what will make his writings correct or not correct are facts and scientific proof. As for his opinion in contrast to his assertions these are to be refuted based on logical systematic deconstruction of the argument.

This is a dialogue of the deaf. I do not think for one minute that you care about anything but your sect.

As for getting out of our hair yes I want the entire ME to get out of our hair starting with the zionist abomination of apartheid and the ultimate racist and sectarian state followed immediately by that of KSA the other theocracy par excellence and then with the other Velayet e Faqih of Mullahsstan and pox on all their houses let them fight for the next 10 000 years that is all they are good at.

Now my family recognized my cousins in Hama in 1982 from their wedding rings after Hafez’ troops mutilated them: they were 72 and 65 years old. They are victims like your family member of Alawi hatred.

That is the enlightened Alawi state at work for you.

Enough with political correctness the reality of the barbarism of the Alawi sect in power is the worst of all.

May 11th, 2014, 8:36 am

 

ghufran said:

covered women terrorists working under the “revolution” flag bragging about shelling Damascus with mortar bombs most of which have killed civilians and landed on markets, hospitals, etc.
يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الامم

May 11th, 2014, 10:47 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

1- al-Assads represent themselves and do not represent the Alawites. So, when you keep on repeating day in and day out that al-Assads are doing this for Alawism: You are fabricating things.

2- Up to this day: There are thousands of Sunnis with al-Assad, as well as others from other sects: You see everything as Alawites…You are fabricating here الكره اعماك

3- al-Assads, father and son, never did a thing for the Alawite creed. According to you they are doing everything for the Alawite creed….You are fabricating here again..we could say here with scientific certainty that you are a liar here. Show me what the Assads did to the Alawite creed? Add this to the questions you are never able to answer.

4- When your writer does not put his real name and fabricate things, and you do not see this as a warning flag…you are fabricating with him…c0-fabricator in this case.. And of course you run away from the other questions of course and turned it personal.

5- The Alawites did not attack Hama in 1982, it was al-Assad’s Army, scientific studies would show you that it included a large number of Sunni soldiers and officers, which means…you are fabricating also to blame the Alawites…

6- You comparing the democratic Alawite State in the 1920’s and 1930’s to al-Assad rule is a cheap lame attempt at fabricating a lie to tarnish the reputation of the Alawite State.

7- The Alawite State was based on elections. Sunnis, Christians, Alawites and Ismailis of the coast were tallied and given power accordingly. Sunnis, like you of course, can never digest this because your whole being is based on stripping these minorities from their basic human rights. This is obvious through your “logic.” and the history of your family… what about that?

I was able to detect your hatred to the Alawites from day one. I see why you hate them. Please do not play the role of a peace loving person because you are not.

AS for political correctness: your language is an evidence to what you harbor to other minorities. Let us check your views against the norms in America, Ya Amreeki, to see where you get classified….

Again: The Assadists do not represent the Alawites…فشرت وفشر اكبر راس معك

من الواضح عدم قدرتك على الاجابة على الاسئلة المتعلقة بموضوع مقالتك المهزلة…من هم تلك الفرق الباطنية التي كتب عنها ذلك الشبه أمي؟ هل مستواك ضعيف لهذه الدرجة؟

NOTE: the Alawites had been through a lot regarding the literature the Sunnis publish about them. All of this literature is dehumanizing, like the article this so called Observer directed me too.

One method to dispense this hatred and Sunni decrees regarding the Alawites is through books written with fake names.

“Observer” does not see anything wrong with the language and accusations of the article he directed me to. I wonder why?

May 11th, 2014, 10:58 am

 

ghufran said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyH8rWuQAF4&feature=player_embedded
it is obvious that kidnapping women and children in northern Latakia is a war crime, but it is also obvious that staying in power is more important to Assad et al than protecting the people who supported the regime or refused to support the rebels.

May 11th, 2014, 11:04 am

 

ghufran said:

Take every claim of an offense you see on rebels media and replace the term FSA with Nusra/ ISIS, even the NC website has no problem fabricating news and taking credit for ” victories” while they and their officers are either in Turkey or in the air travelling for diplomatic jihad. This business is irritating Islamist rebels who are the ones fighting and dying and is also raising more questions about the true size and capacity of the so-called moderate rebel force. To make things worse, it is clear now that the Homs deal was done between local rebels and the regime with the blessing of 2 other rebel groups in Northern Latakia and Aleppo WITHOUT the involvement of Jarba and his friends who heard the news in the media the same way we did, indeed we talked about a pending deal here on SC before NC media ever mentioned it. The issue of credibility is critical if the NC wants support from foreign nations, or even Syrians, and the lack of credibility will translate into lack of money and weapons. Do not let the latest diplomatic stunt by Washington, giving the NC a diplomatic (but not state representation) status, fool you, it means nothing and it probably cost KSA tons of money and other concessions.

May 11th, 2014, 2:59 pm

 

Ghufran said:

A good read and a good comment from Fariuq Yousef in middle east online (UAE) and one of the readers :

كان من ضمن الهدنة التي شهدتها حمص أن تعهدت الجبهة الاسلامية بالافراج عن 70 امرأة علوية من ضمن 125 تم اعتقالهن من القرى العلوية في معركة الساحل الاولى قبل نحو سبعة اشهر مقابل خروج مقاتلي المعارضة السورية من حمص.
فلمَن يحسب هذا الانجاز التاريخي المشرف؟
سيكون من الصعب علينا أن نلتفت إلى الوراء وسط كل هذا الدنس الذي يحيط بنا من كل جانب. كانت هناك غزوات، لم تعلن نتائجها إلا عن طريقة صفقة ربح المحاصرون في حمص من خلالها حريتهم، ولكن المقابل كان اعلانا عن تفسخ شعار الحرية التي خرج من اجلها السوريون إلى الشوارع قبل اكثر من ثلاث سنوات.
فمن تواطأت جهات عديدة في الارض من اجل أن يكون حاملا لذلك الشعار ومقاتلا من أجله صار يمارس خيانته علنا من أجل أن يغطي على عجزه في ساحات القتال. فهل كان مشرفا لمقاتلين صمدوا سنتين في مواجهة الحصار أن يتم خلاصهم عن طريق الرهان على نسوة خطفن من قراهن المسالمة؟
إنها قسمة ظالمة ومجحفة وقاسية بل ومخزية.
سكت الجميع عنها ولم تتداولها الأخبار إلا بطريقة حيية، اخفت قدرا هائلا من الشعور بالصدمة الذي سيتم تناسيه، كما لو أن الحروب ينبغي أن تكون كذلك دائما.
وكما يبدو فان الحرب في سوريا قد وصلت إلى منعطف خطير، يبدو التراجع منه امرا صعبا بالنسبة للجميع. فحين ترتكب الاطراف المتحاربة كلها الجرائم في حق المدنيين، وكل طرف منها يفكر في انه سيلحق عن طريق جريمته الضرر بالاطراف الأخرى، يكون المجتمع السوري وحده هو الضحية.
وهو ما يجعل كل نهاية سياسية للنزاع أمرا غير محتمل، بالرغم من أن القوى الدولية قد اجمعت على أن الخيار السياسي هو الحل الوحيد للحرب في سوريا. وهو خيار لن يرضي شرائح كثيرة من المجتمع السوري وهي الشرائح التي تعرضت لجرائم حرب، صارت مادتها بل ومعرض قسوتها من غير ان تكون لها مصلحة فيها.
ستكون صورة الاسيرات العلويات المحررات نبوءة كارثة، لا تقوى أمام اعصارها كل محاولات الدفاع عن الحرب عن طريق تبرير أخطائها.
فاروق يوسف

This is the comment:
الاسم وليد الناصري
الدولة المملكة المتحدة
ماذكرته من إختطاف المدنيين الأبرياء لإفتدائهم بعناصر مسلحة تم أسرها في ميدان المعركة، الإعتداء على إخوتنا من المسيحيين، تطبيق عقوبات همجية بربرية (بحق حتى الأطفال) والترويج للدعارة تحت مسمى (جهاد النكاح) هيّ غيض من فيض مما إرتكبه أولئك، بإسم الإسلام وتحت رايته.
ماكتبته هو بالضبط السبب الذي دفعني لمناصرة النظام السوري السيئ والعنفن، مقابل أعدائه الأسوأ والأكثر عفونة منه، وبما لايقاس. يتمتع النظام السوري بحد أدنى من العقلانية والتفكير القويم، فيما يظهر أعدائه وكأنهم وحوشآ بشرية تفتقد ذلك الحد من القيم ولاتعرف غير القتل والدمار.

The author’s main points:
1. Rebels who kidnapped women and children are traitors of Islam and the ( revolution)
2. The guilty silence of the opposition about this crime is a declaration of the death of the freedom slogan raised by the rebels and their supporters.
3. The atrocities committed by both sides make a political solution very difficult if not impossible.
4. The shame of using women and children to save rebels who were defeated in the battle field is a storm that wipes out any banners used to cover this scandal.

The media used in this post is sympathetic to the opposition but I think that the crimes committed by rebels is making it very hard for many to keep apologizing and covering for a movement that was once an uprising for freedom and justice but is now an evil force that shot its supporters in the back and ended up as an armed rebellion that only serves foreign powers and acts with no red lines and no morals.
كل ثوره و انتم بخير

May 11th, 2014, 9:27 pm

 

Observer said:

Jabali
You do not read go back and read: I agree with your assessment about the author and the article. I did not see you refute his arguments though just accusation against accusation, character assassination for character assassination and no it was
Sarayya Defaah that destroyed half of Hama with mainly Alawite officers like today commanding conscripts and others.

If the Alawite community does not support the Assad rule how come they never demonstrated and objected and revolted against it.

Facts speak loud in this situation.

As for my hatred it is only reserved for those that kill and torture and imprison and and corrupt and it is universal human trait not particular to anyone.

Once again why don’t you re invent your wonderful state of the 1920’s ?

Go ahead make my day.

Collusion and collaboration and sectarian hatred and mythical superiority with contempt for the other that is the creed of all the persecuted minorities today for instead of rising above the level of discourse of a mafia state they have embraced it fully.

Pitiful indeed that simple reading is beyond the Professor of History

May 12th, 2014, 7:51 am

 

Hopeful said:

#105 Ghufran

“the crimes committed by rebels is making it very hard for many to keep apologizing and covering…”

Kidnapping civilians is a crime against humanity. I hope the day will come when human rights abusers, on both sides, are put on trial so that the Middle East will never see crimes like these committed again. Syrians have shown the world in the past three years how barbaric they can be. I am ashamed and shocked.

I have said that before Ghufran, but the opposition is full of people (like me) who are not afraid of condemning the rebels when they commit crimes and abuses. I have yet to see A SINGLE LOYALIST condemn the regime for its obvious abuses. Assadism is like Nazism and it must be eradicated from the consciousness of our country.

It is not enough anymore that “Assad” in popular or not. After all Hitler was democratically elected, and we all know how that ended!

May 12th, 2014, 9:12 am

 
 

mjabali said:

Observer:

1- I answered in a previous comment in this thread to almost all the points in your miracle article. Go back and read them. Stop fabricating that I did not answer. Your answer to me then was one sentence.

2- As for “refuting” your miracle article: here, to make you happy, I will refute it all in two or three sentences:

You, and the writer, believe there is a secret group of Alawites that is “Batini” in design (as if you and the writer know what the word Batini means) conspiring while looking down in contempt at the populace.

The counter argument to this is one sentence: This group exists only in your imagination. Many Sunnis fabricated this about the Alawites for a long time…

Again: Fabrications. You should change your name from “observer” to “Fabricator”….

3- How do I “character Assassin” the writer of your miracle article? Who is he, let us know him first to see if he really had studied enough to talk like Ali al-Wardi. The type of writing your miracle article is written with is the same in the books that used to be published in the 1970’s and 1980’s trying to smear and dehumanize the Alawite.

This type of writing is nothing new to a man like me who has read your lame attempts at smearing the Alawite for a long time. The language is a mixture between psychology, anthropology, sociology and of course some sprinkles of Fiqh. Who in their right mind write like this?

4- The Alawite State of the 1920’s and 1930’s was a good example to be followed, no matter how hard you bark against it. Why are you against democratic elections? strange….

May 12th, 2014, 10:15 am

 

Observer said:

I am for full democratic elections with multiparty system and with primary elections of the party candidates and with free press and the rule of law.

How come now that the Alawite community is in charge we do not see the wonders of the state of the 20’s and 30’s and have just mafia rule? how come the wonderful enlightened and modern democratic and humane community has not sacked the current mafia regime and replaced it with a civil based society under the rule of law.

Who cares about your past or my past when it is time to move forward but I guess everyone in this ME is keen on going back 1400 years to exact revenge on the current descendants of this or that sect.

In the meantime here is Syrian Democracy at work for you watch till the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpeWFly-mNo#t=748

As for a supposed accusation of hatred is again in you imagination just as the jewish people see any accusation or faulting of Israel as anti semitism.

Zionist ideology is racist and the current regime in Syria is equally racist and the lack of objection to its policies is collusion in its crimes.

There is no two ways about.

Last but not least the author of the article has a name and it is Rami Makhlouf or Rifaat Assad or Sheikh Al Bouti. Who cares what his name is and who cares where he studied. Perhaps you have forgotten how the police state in Syria would imprison children as young as 6 years old for months and years until their parent or brother or cousin surrendered to the authorities. That is probably why it is a pseudonym. Today, many write under a pseudonym such as Spangler at Asia Times but more so in dictatorships. You like to pigeon hole people so that you can then prosecute their ideas according to their origins or credentials and not according to their merits. Many a scientist were ridiculed when proposing a new theory and were burned or killed such those that challenged the church about the earth moving around the sun or Darwin’s theory or relativity. Others have achieved great success without a formal education. Henry Ford went to eigth grade only and could barely write a coherent paragraph yet he was a billionaire in 1920 so in today’s value maybe 100 billion. His ideas of providing the people with reliable sturdy and cheap car revolutionized the industry and put the company at the forefront of car making. Again he made mistakes later and his company slipped to third place.

GO ahead and please create the example of the Alawite state in Syria as you have experience in doing so in the 20’s and 30’s and if not in the whole of Syria in whatever portion you can accomplish. Have an example of a shining city on a hill and all of Syria and Lebanon and Iraq and UAE and Jordan and Palestine will flock to emigrate to this new modern Singapore on the Mediterrenean.

May 12th, 2014, 6:44 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Farmaz Hussein ( Syrian writer in Sweeden) posted an article on Syria in middle east online:
للخروج من عنق الزجاجة المليئة بالدماء هناك احتمالان.
الأول، بروز معارضة بديلة قد تضم بعض قوى الائتلاف، المجلس الوطني، المجلس الكردي، ربما شخصيات من العلويين المعارضين الصامتين تجاه سياسة الأسد الأمنية شريطة أن يجمعهم الهم الوطني المشترك بعيدا عن الشعارات الدينية والقومية المتطرفة، معارضة تكون مصدر توافق داخلي من غالبية المكونات السورية وتكون مؤهلة لتحظى بدعم خارجي لأخذ زمام المبادرة واستلام دفة القيادة التي من شأنها إيصال عموم السوريين الى بر الأمان من جديد.
والثاني، الاتفاق على صيغة للمحاصصة الطائفية والقومية على غرار ما هو قائم في لبنان والعراق.
أخطاء دول أصدقاء سوريا تكمن في محاولتهم لم شمل قوى معارضة لا تجمعهم روابط فكرية مشتركة سوى العداء للنظام تحت مظلة واحدة، في البداية تمثلت بالمجلس الوطني السوري وفيما بعد بائتلاف قوى الثورة. الحل يكمن في فصل مختلف قوى المعارضة عن بعضها البعض ليظهر كل على حقيقته ويكون مسئولا عن أفعاله ويتحمل تبعاته. لابد من فصل التيارات الدينية التي تسعى الى تبديل سلطة ديكتاتورية حاكمة بأخرى أشد ديكتاتورية تحت مسميات مختلفة، عن الفصائل الوطنية الأخرى التي تريد أن ترى سورية دولة مدنية ديمقراطية تعددية.
يمكن تحت الضغوط الإجماع بين قوى علمانية وأخرى دينية متطرفة أو تيارات قومية شوفينية مع أخرى ليبرالية في صف واحد، لكن من الجنون أن نتوقع نجاحهم معا. حشد الطاقات يمكن أن تتم بين قوى تحمل هما وطنيا واحدا ولها رؤى أيديولوجية متقاربة.
قبل السعي لإيجاد نظام حكم بديل عن البعث والأسد لا بد من إيجاد معارضة بديلة.
Farmaz main points:
1. Being anti regime does not provide enough glue to keep the opposition together
2. There is a need to form parties that bring together people with similar ideology instead of forcing competing forces to fight under one flag
3. One possible solution is to divide power based on ethnic and sectarian identity

The problem with Farmaz second solution ( dividing power along sectarian and ethnic lines) is that it will deliver a deformed and dysfunctional political system in a country that is already divided. I hope Syrians will reject a Lebanese-type formula where sects and ethnic groups enter into an endless political game that places tribal identity above national interest, both Iraq and Lebanon have tried this and failed miserably. I believe that syria needs a period of transition to heal its wound, during that transition security and the welfare of millions of hungry and displaced Syrians should be the top concern. A western style or even Lebanese/ Iraqi style system will not be a cure, it will be a new disease.
End the war, force Assad family out and start building a more diverse government and national army, when that happens we may be able to afford the luxury of a western type democracy, as bad as albaath(and similar parties) is, it had Syrians from all sects, the problem is that Assad dynasty transformed albaath into a family-run business.

May 12th, 2014, 9:13 pm

 

ghufran said:

another agreement is ready between the government and rebels, this time it is In Damascus where rebels agreed to free 1500 families in Adra (al-umallieh) in return for 1500 prisoners held by the regime. Once again kidnapping civilians proved to be an effective tool for rebels but I think we should welcome any agreement that free and reduce the suffering of Syrians, all Syrians, details are not available yet.

May 13th, 2014, 12:20 am

 

Juergen said:

German and French government will prevent “elections” for the Syrian presidency in their countries.
Syrian embassies are the place for foreign residing Syrians to vote, their votes will be taken on May 28th ahead of the official date.

Both countries have agreed that they will not allow elections to be held at the Syrian embassies for the upcoming 3rd of June elections. Frank Walter Steinmeier has already called this “election” a farce, which will deepen the tensions inside the war-torn country.
Damascus answered in the boldest way calling France and Germany supporters and financiers of the terrorists and therefore responsible for the destruction of Syria.

May 13th, 2014, 12:47 am

 
 

Juergen said:

great to see such artwork… I just wish it would be true.

May 13th, 2014, 1:21 am

 

Juergen said:

To explain more about this provocative art performance. The center of political beauty has been preparing 6 months for this campaign in which the government will be pushed to deny that a foster programme for syrian refugee children is put up in Germany. By using the example of the gracious act by the british government as the only country in Europe willing to accept jewish refugees during WW2, they will get the attention by the media and the public. For next week an demonstration is planned for the center of Berlin. In an artwork installation passing Germans can choose 1 child out of 100. Photos of the war will be shown on big screens. The curator of the initiative promised that syrian doctors will build up an tent for fainting Germans. Too much reality? Too cynical? May be sometimes one has to leave the borders of good taste and etiquette to show to the world the suffering of the Syrians.

More on this artwork by the center of political beauty:

http://www.kindertransporthilfe-des-bundes.de/en/

May 13th, 2014, 1:55 am

 

From Aleppo said:

I am very disappointed by the lack of any reporting on the millions of civilians in the city of Aleppo (Syria) from whom all water has been cut 8 days ago. This is one of the oldest inhabited city, in the cradle of civilization, and it has been under siege for 2 years now. The rebel groups have decided to punish its population for not supporting them in the Syrian civil war and so they have simply cut the main water supply to the entire city. This is a crime against humanity, with children having to drink dirty water pulled directly out of a small river, and the media has been silent about it!! I can only imagine the headlines if the government forces were responsible and not the rebels.
Can you please show some objectivity and report on the crimes of these extremists, who represent the majority of the opposition that have been supported so well by the West over the last 3 years? They are very similar to Boko Haram in their ideology, brutality and extremist views, however the collective punishment they are imposing on millions of civilians has gone completely unnoticed!!
Thank you.

May 13th, 2014, 6:18 am

 

Juergen said:

We should thank the Syrian army for helping clean up in Homs…

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=701860376537819&set=pcb.701860939871096&type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=701860373204486&set=pcb.701860939871096&type=1&theater

Brahimi will leave the position as UN special envoy to Syria at the end of the month, thats a real surprise for me that he still had the office.

May 13th, 2014, 4:14 pm

 

Amir in Tel Aviv said:

We thought that this revolution brings us to the 7th century?
No, it brings us much earlier to the Roman times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=E2fRodfaDAI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catapult
.

May 13th, 2014, 4:40 pm

 

Syrialover said:

Brahimi gives up

“UN Arab envoy resigns after two years”

EXCERPT:

With Brahimi at his side, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blamed the failure of the peace effort on the warring parties, but especially the Syrian government. He also blamed the deeply divided Security Council and countries with influence on the fighting sides. Ban pledged to keep working to achieve peace and urged all involved to rethink what they can do to bring hope to the Syrian people.

Ban said Brahimi will step down May 31. He said he will appoint a successor but gave no timetable.

Brahimi “faced almost impossible odds with the Syrian nation, Middle Eastern region, and wider international community that have been hopelessly divided in their approaches to ending the conflict,” Ban said. “He has persevered with great patience and skill.”

Brahimi is the second UN-Arab envoy to quit after failing to achieve a breakthrough in the more than 3-year-old conflict between the regime of President Bashar Assad and rebel groups.

When Brahimi took over from his longtime friend, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, he said it would be “an extremely complicated and very, very difficult mission.” On Tuesday, he indicated he could see no end in the near future to the bloodshed.

Brahimi managed to get government officials and opposition to two rounds of peace talks in Geneva, but they ended without an agreement.

He had been working behind the scenes to restart the Geneva negotiations but that effort was all but doomed when Assad’s government announced that elections would be held on June 3. The Geneva talks were intended to lead to a transitional government, and with new elections on the horizon both Brahimi and Ban have indicated it would be impossible to get the opposition to new negotiations.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/un-arab-envoy-to-syria-resigns-after-two-years-1.1819681

May 13th, 2014, 6:14 pm

 

Syrialover said:

MJABALI said in #102

“al-Assads represent themselves and do not represent the Alawites.”

Thank you. Remind people of that and you don’t need to be saying anything else.

May 13th, 2014, 6:27 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Google this:

بالصور: كيف تعيش عائلة بشرى الأسد في دبي.. حفلات ومايوهات ورقص وانبساط 0

May 13th, 2014, 9:53 pm

 

Ghufran said:

Try to decipher this new statement from KSA foreign minister:
قال وزير الخارجية السعودي الأمير سعود الفيصل إن الرياض جددت توجيه دعوة لوزير الخارجية الإيراني لزيارة السعودية.
وأضاف في تصريحات صحافية، اليوم الثلاثاء: “هناك رغبة في إعادة التواصل وقد تم إرسال دعوة لوزير خارجية إيران لزيارة المملكة، ولكن هذه الزيارة لم تتحقق ولم يأتِ, وآمل أن تسهم إيران في استقرار المنطقة ولا تكون جزءاً من مشكلة التدخل في المنطقة, وإيران جارة ولدينا علاقات معها ونتحدث معهم ونأمل في إنهاء أي خلافات بين البلدين”.
وأوضح أن الأزمات السياسية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط فتحت مجالاً أوسع للدول الكبرى للتدخل في الشؤون الداخلية للدول، مشيراً إلى أن التدخل في الشؤون الداخلية يزيد من تفشي ظاهرة الإرهاب، التي تعود بالضرر على الجميع، مما يتطلب تعاون الجميع للتصدي له والكف في ذات الوقت عن التدخل في شؤون الدول الداخلية.
Faisal invited Iran’s FM to visit KSA and expressed his willingness to improve relations with Iran to reduce tension in the region and fight terrorism. He also said that the current confict between the two countries allowed super powers to intervene in internal affairs of middle eastern countries.
If it was not alarabiya who published the statement I would have thought that the man speaking was Faisal Miqdad not Saud Alfaisal !!

May 13th, 2014, 10:10 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer said:

“How come now that the Alawite community is in charge we do not see the wonders of the state of the 20′s and 30′s and have just mafia rule? how come the wonderful enlightened and modern democratic and humane community has not sacked the current mafia regime and replaced it with a civil based society under the rule of law.”

How can any sane person who knows Syria answer this? Where is the Alawite community that is running Syria? I see you deep into the conspiracy logic. I really would love to meet them. How do you come up with sentences like this. I would love to know. تخريف

Also: for your information: when the Alawite State was up and running the Alawite traditional leaders were in the high positions: al-Assads were nobodies…So, يارعاك الله, how do you expect al-Assads to erect a system that brings real Alawtie traditional leaders? To give you some names: Jaber al-‘Abbas was the most visible one, along with ‘Aziz Hawash and the head of al-Kinj family.

You really have zero knowledge, as evidenced here, with the Alawite State…

al-Assad, the father, put Alawites in prison and killed them before he showed his brutal side to the Sunnis.

May 14th, 2014, 12:07 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

Before I forget; about your writer, what ever he wrote he did not discover. He was just repeating what others wrote before him. You gonna say you do not know this.

He is repeating the normal fabrications about the Alawites.

If you want to read the same earth shattering discoveries about the Alawites; read Abu Musa al-Hariri from the 1970’s or ‘Abd al-Razzaq Eid for the last 5 years. These two, amongst many for example, wrote the same exact thing. You can go to Facebook and find both. Sunnis, like you and the writer, did not come up with that many original ideas about the Alawites. You guys imitate each other, and at the end you are just parroting Ibn Taymiyah. You gonna tell me who is this guy.

Instead of showing off and lecturing us about the merits of skipping school and how without education one can reach the newest discoveries: tell us where you got your شهادة محو الامية

According to your logic Henry Ford could diagnose heart failures, or write a sociology theory, or pontificate a political theory, or …or…. إحترم عقولنا يازلمة

May 14th, 2014, 1:12 am

 

Juergen said:

See how competent Hassan Al Nuri the well known opposition candidate against Bashar really is. He sees nothing wrong in the politics of Assad, nothing needs to be changed, he deals with the terrorists, and Syria wants him. Someone may need to brief him about the role of opposition in real democracies…

May 14th, 2014, 2:42 am

 

Juergen said:

tv discussion over Syria goes into the madzone…

tables should be more solid these days…

May 14th, 2014, 2:45 am

 

Observer said:

Once again there are no refutation based on merit of the article posted.

Just belittling of the other and accusations of a lack of knowledge.

So now Assad is also the abomination on the Alawi community as well as the rest of the country. Good beginning. Where are the demonstrations and the defections then?

I do not see any. I see Shia from Iran and Iraq and Lebanon flocking to the aid of the regime with sectarian slogans and banners.

As for the discourse of Jabali about being Syrian: all we hear about is the true and well documented hundreds of years of persecution of the Alawis by the Sunnis.

Good and true, can we get out of the sectarian thinking and build a civil society again? Can this Syrian identity emerge from the rubble or is it being buried under it?

I guess the later is true: Alawis suffered true and very true but do not insult our intelligence by claiming you are Syrian first or Arab first: the only lamentation that we hear is how this or that Alawi community suffered again or was liberated.

9 million displaced and 250 000 dead and God knows how many in prison and we hear about 14 families here or there.

In the meantime enjoy the great democratic process of the new Greater Syria and I do not associate the community with the mafia but this time their fate is not in the responsibility of some Sunni Fatwas. Their fate is in their hands fully as they are the backbone of the security house of cards built by the regime

May 14th, 2014, 7:55 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

I did not only “refute” your miracle article: I destroyed it.

I destroyed the writer (the impostor)

I destroyed the language of the piece.

I destroyed the methodology.

I shredded the logic.

Grounded to dust the conclusions..

I dismantled the idea behind it.

I exposed where the writer of your article stole almost all of his ideas from.

I showed all how racist this type of writing against the Alawite.

I showed how harmful this type of writing is…

I showed how stupid is it to associate the Alawites and Alawism with what al-Assads did. Still waiting for your like to produce something about how Hafez al-Assad promoted Alawism?

بهدلناك وبهدلنا المنطق الاعوج تبعك وعم بتقلي لم ارد عليك…ذكرتني باللي أكل عشرين كف على غفلة….

What did you have: NOTHING…you can not even answer the question about who are the groups they are talking about in the article.

Note: it is obvious that you know nothing about the history of the Alawite State so why don’t you read more about it.

Also: Observer: the persecution of the Alawites continues with your attitude about them and that of the article you adopt.

May 14th, 2014, 11:57 am

 

Observer said:

Thank you but I am not convinced. I have abandoned my old Sunni creed and my Syrian nationality. I never believed that there is such a thing as Syrian Nation. Arab Nation yes but not Syrian or Lebanese or anything else.

Why don’t you abandon your Alawi nationalism if you say that you are Syrian first and foremost?

Why do we need to know about your state and your centuries of persecution? No one gives a rat’s ass about the sects of the ME these days.

I also disagree that you destroyed anything. The article posits that the sects are secretive and that they use persecution to keep the sect cohesive and under the thumb of the elders of the sect. I think that all sects including the Sunni one par excellence are doing the same except that the Sunnis being a majority are overt about it and not covert.

They all practice exclusion and hatred and the Alawis are as guilty as the Sunnis are of such tendencies. Not to make them all guilty but the problem is that the dissenters are very few if any and then they are all put in prison be they Sunnis or Alawis.

The problem is the complete lack of freedom for all of us.

As for your emotional rants they are just that.

Assads have successfully hijacked the entire sect and enslaved them into their infernal machine and creating the sectarian divide is the trump card used repeatedly to sacrifice the flower of the Syrian people for the personality cult of the Assad family.

In this my dear friend you are as guilty as all the supporting groups Sunnis or Christians or Druze or whatever in perpetuating the misery of everybody.

I am never insulted by your rants for they are very informative and intellectually stimulating. I pity those trapped in their identity straight jackets though.

Why don’t you emigrate to the US, for we will welcome you and as Ronald Reagan correctly said: Every Immigrant Makes America more American. For we are an idea nation not an identity nation and it is the only nation where people can say that the are XXXX American be it Norwegian American Arab American or Alawi American. For after all your culture and your customs enrich us by the diversity and from the multitude we are one

E Pluribus Unum

God speed and welcome to the USA when you decide to come.

May 14th, 2014, 10:45 pm

 

ghufran said:

This is from a pro regime site mocking the “festivals” in Latakia that started last week, people thought the gun fire was the usual goodbye salute to soldiers who fell in battle but this time it was the pro Assad thugs who paraded the streets expressing their affection to Bashar after their successful Hajj in Beirut and Dubai bars:
نبارك لمدينة اللاذقية عودة أبنائها (البررة) من أبناء المسؤولين والمتنفذين وكبار الضباط والتجّار (تجّار ما قبل الأزمة وأثناءها) وذلك بعد إمضائهم لفترة (خدمة العلم) في بارات ‫#‏بيروت‬ و ‫#‏دبي‬, حيث تم (إيفادهم) إلى هناك حفاظاً على صحّتهم النفسية وضماناً لسلامتهم الشخصية كونهم من (ثروات) البلاد وأعمدتها للمستقبل

هذا وتزامنت عودة (البررة) وحاشيتهم (بالصدفة البحتة) مع قرب موعد الإنتخابات الرئاسية, حيث تتكثف الإجتماعات والتحضيرات التي يقيمها (العائدون) للمشاركة في العرس (الديموقراطي) وللخروج بأبهى (طلّة) تعبر عن الوجه (الحقيقي) و ليس (الكاذب المتداول) لمعاناة أبناء مدينة اللاذقية وزوّارها

عودة (البررة) بمواكبهم وحاشيتهم ذكّرت بعض (المعاليق) بذات المشهد ولكن قبل ثلاث سنوات وثلاثة أشهر تقريباً, وبالتحديد في ليلة 25/03/2011 وعدد من الليالي التي تلتها حيث شوهد ذات البررة (ولكن بسيارات مختلفة وباتجاه خارج المدينة وليس داخلها) يشدّون الرحال نحو مطار الباسل في مدينة اللاذقية أو نحو ‫#‏طرطوس‬ كمحطات مؤقتة قبل التوجّه إلى (العاصمة) ومنها إلى مناطق (إيفادهم) في بيروت ودبي, بحسب الوضع والترتيب
العودة الميمونة رافقها استعراض للسيارات على مختلف أصنافها (الفاخرة) بشرط أن تكون من موديلات أعوام 2012 وما فوق وذلك لمحي ذكرى بداية الأحداث السيئة في 2011 وللتأكيد على أن حركة (الإستيراد) ما تزال بخير, الإستعراضات الجديدة تحمل الطابع (الثلاثي), حيث لم تعد سيارة (مرافقة) واحدة تكفي بل بات (البريستيج) الإجتماعي بعد إمضاء مدة (خدمة العلم) بين بارات بيروت – دبي و بالعكس يفرض أكثر من سيارة (مرافقة) ليس لدواعٍ (أمنية) ما عاذ الله, بل للضرورة الإجتماعية
Rich pro regime Syrians are coming back to Latakia to declare their support for their beloved leader who agreed to let 2 other men run for “elections” which excluded millions of Syrians because they left Syria “illegally” and became refugees in 5 stars refugee camps.
يا أمة ضحكت من جهلها الامم

May 14th, 2014, 11:17 pm

 

Hopeful said:

#130 Ghufran

Any self-reflection from any pro-regime loyalist who is NOT directly benefiting from the regime will undoubtedly lead to the conclusion that Assad and his cronies must go for Syria to rise again.

Any self-reflection from any anti-regime opposition figure who is NOT directly benefiting from the armed conflict will undoubtedly lead to the conclusion that arming the revolution opened the door to the jihadis and islamists to wreak havoc in Syria and that the Islamist/jihadi ideology must be defeated if Syria is to rise again.

Assadism is a totalitarian ideology not unlike nazism and fascism (love for the leader and no tolerance for dissent). Alqaeda’ism is a sectarian theocratic ideology that has no place in a multi-cultural society like Syria. For this war/struggle to end, they both must be defeated resoundingly. If this does not happen, it tells me that the majority of Syrians belong to either camps. I will then be ready to give up my Syrian identity and raise my children to be anything but Syrians. Having been born in Syria will turn out to be a curse not a blessing.

May 15th, 2014, 3:38 am

 

Juergen said:

Its a grotesque and absurde move by the beast of Damascus to open his photoalbum for his “voters”. The message is clear, can such a cute x shaped legged nerd be a monster? Of course not. Its cynical to use such sweet memorablia when so many have lost their loved ones, have lost their homes their photoalbum. Assad was popular before 2011, now its just a mere farce to believe many will follow him unconditionly.

Sawa- Together this slogan of this “election” campaign is the biggest joke of all, there never was an understanding of opposing views nor the defense of opposition itself. There was and is only: who is not with us, is against us.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-das-fotoalbum-der-familie-assad-fotostrecke-114540.html

May 15th, 2014, 7:14 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer

To tell you the truth: I really do not gain anything from these battles with you. We are on different planets.

I am not really interested in teaching you anything about people from your own country.

The joke was when you said that you believe that people add up to create a culture: is that your attitude about the Alawites in Damscus? Don’t you see the Alawite of Damascus as nothing but a foreign entity, although the Alawites existed in Damscus and its surrounding before your family ever set a foot in Syria. Wasn’t you who said the Alawites added nothing to Damscus? Wasn’t it you who want them all to get out of Damscus?

You are a Syrian by accident. Therefore, I will never expect from you to believe in the Syrian identity. I am not an Arab so do not try and sell me the Arab World lie. You believe in it not me.

As for your claim that you left your Sunni creed: I say: you are a liar here because what is in between the lines in all of your texts is pure hatred to the Alawites repeating the lies the Sunnis always spread about the Alawites: the article is a pure example.

You believe that there are Alawite elders running matters: hahhaahhhaaa do you drink a lot these days? Where are these elders? in your dreams? Can you name them?

You believe in the conspiracy theory like no other dr. Observer. No wonder since you do not believe that real research do present real results..

When you say:

“No one gives a rat’s ass about the sects of the ME these days.”

All I have to ask you is where do you live? The sectarian war in the Middle East is raging these days. Unless you live under a rock, you could see how sectarian things are.

Also do not equal the Alawite creed with the Sunni creed…please….You guys have at least 10000000 Fatwas to kill other people….Do the Alawites have ONE?

Note: Your hatred to the Alawites makes you miss any fruitful discussion with them.
Your attitude is like most Sunnis and that is why you never were able to gain more Alawites to your side.

May 15th, 2014, 8:34 pm

 

Juergen said:

incredible video footage of the recent attacks by the rebels on army bases

Syrian rebels obliterate army base with ‘tunnel bomb’

http://nypost.com/2014/05/15/syrian-rebels-obliterate-army-base-with-tunnel-bomb/

May 16th, 2014, 1:46 am

 

apple_mini said:

Now America decided to boost military supports for the rebels. It will simply prolong this ugly war.

This iniquitous war crime by US government compared to the recent pictures of Syrians eagerly swelling Old City of Homs fills us with angst.

US and its west allies, Saudi and Israel all have different agenda, none of them is remotely about welfare of Syrians. After enormity of their unduly crimes against Syrians, there is not even a veneer of moral decency left.

Poor Syrians fighting each other with vindictive fever while dodgy Syrian exiles having sold the country. And now more modern high tech weaponry are descending.

If there was an Allah, why this war is allowed to continue unabated?

May 16th, 2014, 4:22 am

 

Observer said:

All I know and see is that the Alawite community is 99% with the mafia regime and its very identity and raison d’être is tied to the regime that created a security house of cards based on the Alawi sect and its collaborators.

Elders, mafiosi, captains, sector leaders, security points, bases, and networks for one purpose to keep a mafia regime and a sect in power over other people.

You do not need a fatwa the sect is a hate fatwa from the start based on exclusion of the other.

Ernest Renan was right.

As for a Syrian identity, what is that?

These are sects and tribes and clans and families with flags and security services.

These are not countries and no matter how many flags and embassies they have, they are nothing more than an abomination on humanity.

ISIS=HA=Aboul Fadl=Khomeini=Assad=Ghadafi=Bashir=Abdallah=Abdallah+Netenyahu=abomination.

Cheers I watched today huge destruction the only export of Thouria Alathad of Alawistan

May 16th, 2014, 8:15 am

 

Observer said:

Observer the Fabricator
Observer the lying Sunni
Observer the Accidental Syrian
Observer the Ignorant

Thank you Jabali for making my point: you claim you are Syrian not Arab. How is that possible?

What is this Syrian Nation? Where did it come from? Where is this Syria? Does it have real boundaries and is it made of people that consider themselves as Syrian? What is the Syrian language and the Syrian culture?

Imam Bayeldi is Syrian dish?

As for the Alawi community in support of the regime: all the officers of the fourth division and the Palestine branch and the Airforce Security branch and the students and scholarship recipients and faculty at the universities and the positions of the government have either an Alawi or a shadow Alawi “so called second in command”

You live in lala land if you do not know that the regime is Alawi based and that does not mean that the regime is sparing them; I wrote before, it has enslaved them with fear and nightime stories of persecution and Sunni fatwas. As a matter of fact you are not Syrian you are an Alawi persecuted eternally fearful and resentful and vindictive person.

You have labeled the other the accidental Syrian and therefore you have decided on who is indigenous and who is not and there is a difference between indigenous and newly arrived or transplanted or migrated or displaced people. Armenians in Syria are not Syrian of course and Cherkess are neither as well. How about the Bosnians that came over time? How about the Sefarad jews that came from Spain a long time ago?
All of these groups are not Syrian as if there is such a thing as a historical Syria or Syrian National Identity.

This is great delusional imagination at work.

So since I abandoned the Sunni creed I would like to conver to the Alawi one. Can you please tell me how to do it, how I can study under your guidance how to convert to Alawism and to become a member of this ever so superior and sublime mystical faith of transcendence. I will join the community of the Alawi creed and become intoxicated with the power of ruling over my emotions and become liberated from the hateful Sunni influence.

As for now I have yet to see an ALawi demonstration in favor of freedom and justice and the rule of law.

Oh before I forget: please direct me to the rich culture of the Alawi: their masters of art, science, philosophy, mystism, political theory, poetry, music, dress habits, fashion, sophistication, cuisine and martial arts.

May 16th, 2014, 1:33 pm

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

1- Your grandfather was appointed in Damascus by the occupying Ottomans 150 years ago, so therefore, it is expected from you to deny our Syrian identity and rich history.

2- The Ottomans could have appointed your grandfather in any other area under their influence: so with the emergence of the modern states, you could have been a Yemeni, a Jordanian, or a Turk. So you being Syrian is accidental. Let us be real here.

3- The Ottomans were known to appoint people for a year and then kill them, I wonder how your grandfather was spared?

4- Your grandfather was engaged in sectarian cleansing in Syria and of course he brought people from his ethnic background to come changing the demographics and altering our Syrian identity in the process, so when you have all of these newly arrived Turks and Kurds, the Syrian identity will suffer.

5- If you want to be an Alawite go ahead: you may learn about them a little instead of fabricating matters about them. How many times I caught you fabricating major claims about the Alawites, or talking about topics you have no knowledge about? The thread here is full of your dismal attempts to recycle the racism and bigotry the Alawites had always been subjected to.

6- If you want to go and spend a summer amongst the Alawites you could learn a lot about them. I will get you a nice house (for free, so you learn for free) and people to chat with you. You could ask them whatever you want about the Alawite faith. Apparently you are a blabbing mouth insulting millions because he still think they are maids in his farm house.

7- If al-Assad had appointed Alawis in many positions, al-Assad is behaving like anyone who ruled before him. Do not be an amateur and tell me you expect al-Assad to be democratic. Even my dog knows that al-Assad relied on Alawites from his own tribal affiliation. Go see for yourself how some Alawite villages has almost no one died in this war because they were never in al-Assad structure. I know one village where only ONE person died in the war. He was a reservist. So your 99 percent of Alawite support is a fabrication of course.

8- Alawite rose against al-Assad. There was even a small demo against al-Assad in London in March 2011, the first week of events. You could see it on You Tube. IT was small, but there was Alawites in the first demos in Homs and Lattakia. Do you know this?

General Ali Habib, the Alawite defense minister, refused to bomb cities and kill other Syrians, look on You Tube and search for Alawites Army defectors, you will see for yourself how Alawites were streaming steadily against al-Assad.. You are a liar Observer…You, and many Sunnis did not help these Alawites become a larger group..you did not even know they exist and still fabricate lies….

9- You denying any Alawites against al-Assad is an insult to the men and women who are doing so.

10- AS for the educated and creative Alawites: I tell you this: in one generation Alawites produced world class writers like Haydar Haydar, Sa’ad Allah Wannus (his daughter is a famous anti Assad activist) and many others…World CLASS Film makers…:Usama Muhammad (His anti Assad film screened in Cannes film Festival Yesterday), and thousands of DOCTORS amongst many other things. To list them all to a hater like you is not my job. It is your loss if you do not know these GIANTS…..In one generation the Alawites educated themselves, something the system that brought you to Syria had deprived from… The Alawites are learning and entering all fields…..good for them…more power….

May 16th, 2014, 4:01 pm

 

Badr said:

: ياسين الحاج صالح
بشار”عروس” لإيران لا يملك العصمة والتخلص منه ليس خيارا بل شرطًا.. وداعش وباء وإهانة لسوريا

محمد الشوادفي – بوابة الأهرام

وأكد أن الأمر يحتاج إلى بناء حركة تحرر وطني حقيقية تستقطب القوى القادرة من جهة الثورة على منازعة الدواعش وأشباههم، وتحرير المناطق المحتلة منهم، ومن جهة على استقطاب قوى أقرب اليوم إلى النظام إلى هذه الحركة، بحيث تسهم في نزع الشرعية عن النظام من جهة قاعدته نفسها، فالكلام على تحرر وطني لا يعني فقط العمل على طرد المستعمرين المختلفين، بل التركيز على الجوامع الوطنية وتعزيز روح الاعتدال والتسامح بين السوريين المختلفين. هذا جهد سنوات، مع ذلك ليس متأخرا في تصوري البدء فيه الآن. المسألة السورية طويلة الأمد، والمهم أن نبدأ

May 16th, 2014, 5:08 pm

 
 

Observer said:

My grand father this and my grand father that.

Who gives a hoot about that.

I am terribly impressed.

Let us see in the upcoming “elections” how many Alawites will either not vote or vote for someone else.

As for dissenters, we can count them on the fingers of one hand from this last post.

I am sorry in this sectarian war, the Alawite community has taken sides massively with the regime

Syrian by accident therefore I am a second citizen and not genuine. You still did not tell me what is this Syria and what is a Syrian identity. An idea nation it is not. It is nothing more than a sect/clan/family/tribe with flag.

As for your invitation about becoming an Alawite; why do I need to live with them to know. Can you not tell me how I can convert? What do I have to do?

As for a summer in Syria, I must decline for I am 100% certain that the Alawite cannot guarantee my safety let alone have permission to go to the toilet without the security services telling them to do it.

For compliance they have shown that they do not have a mind of their own, they follow orders for the leader of the community as I understand it is Ali incarnate and you cannot disobey God.

They just do what they are told.

As for the writers I will try to find out about them but as for numbers and impact I must say it is minuscule

Go ahead and continue to live circa -1400 from the modern world.

One last question: how am I responsible for whatever my ancestors did?

That is the hate based victimhood mentality of the barbarians of the ME.

Pox on all your houses: the fingernail of an American GI is worth more than this entire region.

Continue killing each other and hating each other and going back to what your ancestors did to each other.

no wonder in Dante’s inferno Muhammad and Ali are both split daily and reconstituted for the schism that was created.

They are in the seventh hell of Dante and they get split in half during the day and reformed at night. The actually do it to each other.

May 17th, 2014, 8:53 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer:

1- You and your grandfather speak the same sectarian cleansing of the Alawites. This link should be noted.

2- Do not lie please. There are more thean5 Alawites in the Revolution against al-Assad. You do not read what I write. Your discussion abilities are showing here to be really limited. You are interested in listening to yourself. Notice I argue exactly against what you write.

3- The number of the Alawites against al-Assad dwindled due to violence. You do not need a genius to tell you this. My chair know this fact.

4- Anti Alawite attitude like yours is not suited to bring more Alawites against al-Assad or against anything.

5- Any Syrian by Accident is going to deny the existence of the rich Syrian History, and of course the Syrian identity.

6- If you can not see something called the Syrian Identity, that is your position. I am not here to educate you.

7- The Alawites in the villages are not going to snoop on you. Do not be paranoid. They will teach you something to base your judgment upon them instead of you spreading these fabrications and lies about them based on other people’s lies. please learn the importance of the research to tell the truth.

8- Your claim that the leader of the Alawites declared that Bashar al-Assad is the personification of Ali/God is not only childish but shows how much entangled in your brain in the webs of conspiracy. Gonna tell my dog this claim of yours….

9- You lack of knowledge about Alawite literary figures is clear. One of them happen to be mentioned year after year to win Noble for Literature,,,and you are denying their existence….this shows what Alawites has to go up against… stay Jahel it is not my job to teach you about them. From the quotes you bring one could tell how many books you have read…Not that many .

May 17th, 2014, 12:23 pm

 

Observer said:

So are you Syrian or Alawite? It seems to me that you are mostly Alawite as for the rich Syrian history there is no such thing. For Syria did not exist until Mr Sykes and Mr Picot having a Pernaud drew the lines and Churchill during breakfast created Joran and Iraq.

I have learned that the leader is not God this is good. As for the violence it was mainly delivered from day one by the regime and the Alawite dominated security services.

There is no Syria and there is nothing coming out or came out of this place but misery.

By the way you educate me tremendously each you post about your supposed wonderful religious sect.

There are no dissenters against Assad amongst Alawites except Khayer who is in jail

There are thousands upon thousands of Shia militia fighting on his behalf in a Sunni Shia sectarian war.

There is no such thing as Syrian or Iraqi nationality there are clans and families and tribes with flags and torture chambers and no amount of music or pseudo literature or Nobel Prizes is going to change the fact that the country is inhabited by barbarians trying to prevent freedom and dignity.

Guilt by association? No you are not guilty only those that continue to support this abomination.

Cheers to your dog.

May 17th, 2014, 5:43 pm

 

Observer said:

Well well, here is a testimony to the regime’s savagery and brutality and to the heroic siege of Homs and the fact that not a single Alawi lamented this siege and as a matter of fact the interviewee on Syrian TV’s slip of the tongue said she was happy to see Homs free of Su….nnis

The sect has cast its fate to that of the mafia too bad.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Film/2014/May-17/256810-syrian-womans-film-gets-standing-ovation-at-cannes.ashx#axzz320s1hQIo

May 17th, 2014, 10:06 pm

 

mjabali said:

1- Observer said:

“For Syria did not exist until Mr Sykes and Mr Picot having a Pernaud drew the lines and Churchill during breakfast created Joran and Iraq.”

Even my dog knows that the Romans used the name before the British and French of the 20th C.

Even my dog knows that before the Romans the name Syria to denote to a people and a land was used by the likes of Herodotus and other Greeks.

Even my dog knows that the French and British in modern times are influenced by what the Greeks and Romans wrote and considered it the source of knowledge and copied many things from those sources including the name SYRIA. You need to have read some books to know this. What to expect from a شبه أمي

Did Observer lie here on purpose or simply he is ignorant with the FACTS? Is he busy reading about Henry Ford instead of reading about the origin of the place where he was born?

Again, I do not expect from a Syrian by Accident to know a lot about SYRIA.

2- This guy Observer thinks that people do not read what he scribbles here… There are many jokes in Syria starring a man who lies a lot and forget a lot….let me give an example:

in comment # 144 Observer said about the Alawites : “they follow orders for the leader of the community as I understand it is Ali incarnate and you cannot disobey God.”

This means that Observer thinks that the Alawites have a leader of the sect who said that there is a reincarnation of Ali/God, and of course, Observer means Bashar al-Assad. What can I say here? I am speechless..

When Observer was faced with the outlandishness of this claim…Observer said in comment # 146
“I have learned that the leader is not God this is good.”

Hold on here…the time difference between comment 144 and 146 is few hours, so how did Observer “learned that the leader is not God?”

In 144 he claims Bashar al-Assad is the reincarnation of God and in 146 he said that he is not God….What happened in the hours between?

Anyone, other than me, can see this split personality? حيرتينا ياقرعة من وين نمسكك

May 17th, 2014, 11:01 pm

 

Austin Bodetti said:

Even during the current offensive in Greater Latakia, the Free Syrian Army is doing little.

May 17th, 2014, 11:12 pm

 

mjabali said:

I could see that Observer is conspiring against himself

Look: he claimed (of course a fabrication) that an Alawite girl said on TV she want Homs empty of Sunnis…Instead he linked to an article about how An Alawite International film maker made an anti Assad film….

Remember: I mentioned this anti Assad international film maker, and this “observer” refused to even notice him…

The Alawites, through their history had to deal with many bigots of this type.

May 17th, 2014, 11:24 pm

 

ghufran said:

ISIS may be planning to attack Rastan, Talbiseh and other towns around Homs:
أصدر تنظيم “الدولة الإسلامية بالشام والعراق” (داعش) بيانا أمهل من خلاله أهالي مدن “تلبيسة”، “الرستن”، “الغنطو” و”الزعفرانة” بريف حمص ٧٢ ساعة لإخلائها، وحذر من أنه لايتحمل مسؤولية أية قطرة دم تهدر بسبب الكفرة، حسب تعبير البيان.
وعزا تنظيم “داعش” في البيان هذا التحذير الى تمادي عناصر الجماعات المسلحة الاخرى المنضوية تحت راية الجيش الحر والنصرة والجبهة الإسلامية واصفا بالخائن كل من يساندهم في تعدياتهم وتحركاتهم وملوحا بمعاملتهم معاملة الملحدين الكافرين.
ISIS is now trying to control Dayr Azour after taking Raqqa

May 18th, 2014, 12:56 am

 

Observer said:

I am learning at the hands of professor Jabali.

Having read the History of the Arabs by both Hitti and Hourani I find that the professor knows more about Syria than I do.

Syria was a province of the Roman empire and one of its emperors was from Homs by the way. As such these people were Romans not Syrians.

There is no such thing as Syria.
As for the film maker, he is Alawite making a film about the regime. It absolves him of course of collusion but it does not absolve the thousands of officers and troops and security services that are collaborating passively and actively with him.

The people of Damascus are in for a shock once the reckoning happens. They think that by just staying low they can avoid both protagonists.

It is slowly and surely grinding down the country to rubble. In the meantime there is no dissent amongst the Alawites against the regime to speak of. Here and there but the majority are in with it. Like the people of Damascus they are going to be shocked when the reckoning arrives.

The Syrian delegate at the KSA Iran talks walked out in fury at what he heard the Iranian ally is proposing or so I heard.

The Baath could not come up with an identity of the Arab nation without going back to Islam as the “eternal message”

Now Jabali here are my list of readings over the last year:

1. Why Nations Fail
2. The Road to Serfdom
3. The New Road to Serfdom
4. Inventing Freedom
5. Realizing Freedom
6. The Origins of Political Order

At night I read Tabari. I have discovered great many things reading the history of Tabari the most important of which is that Muhammad by establishing a city state has immersed Islam in politics and by doing so has actually doomed the religion to its demise for the faithful cannot get out of the trap of developing a political system that is viable without betraying the faith.

Hence, I would think that the only way to unlock this prison is to make the religion 100% democratic;
1. Every person has a direct relation to God
2. Reason should guide the reading of the scriptures and neither mystical nor authoritarian interpretation
3. The Koran is a historical entity and not an eternal sacred text that transcends all time and all places and as such can be re interpreted constantly.

Last but not least

Please tell me about Alawi religion so that I can convert I do not need to go and live anywhere you are Professor Jabali a great source. Why do I have a huge reluctance to tell me what the creed is:

Ali is God, and the Spirit of God is Muhammad and Salman is the Door to the mystery of this relation.

It sounds like the trinity and I am 100% certain that it is infinitely more liberal than the stupid rigid fossilized dinosaur called Shia and Sunni Islam.

May 18th, 2014, 8:52 am

 

mjabali said:

Observer claimed that he had read Hitti…and also claimed there is nothing called Syria and it was invented by the French and the British….

Of course, Observer, is fabricating because Philip Hitti wrote a book called : Syria: a Short History.

The first sentence of the book is:

“PLACE IN HISTORY :Syria, using the term in its old, geographical sense, occupies a unique place in the annals of the world.”

Then Hitti goes on to talk about SYRIA and what it is and what it means…etc According to Hitti Syria existed …According to Hitti observer is fabricating

Poof…. here is another one of the fabrications of Observer vanishes….

May 18th, 2014, 3:35 pm

 

Ghufran said:

غفران

May 18th, 2014, 9:33 pm

 

observer said:

I still do not think that there is such a thing as Syria and certainly not in its present state and boundaries.

Bilad al Sham yes it existed for centuries but a nation state called Syria exists only in your imagination.

The idea of a nation state has not taken root in the ME. The Lebanese think of themselves as different only in the Christian areas.

Read Shibli Telhami seminal book The World Through Arab Eyes another book that I read recently and forgot to mention you will find some very interesting answers on how much more pervasive is the Arab identity over the local one.

Why don’t you read Hitti and Hourani as well and tell me where is this Syria of wonders exists.

The current Syria is a failed mafia state and has been since 1963 when the archaic socialist Baath party took over and started dismantling the institutions of a modern civil society. Even the rudimentary civil institutions existing before were already made obsolete by Nasser’s introduction of a police torture state.

The knock on the door at 3 am is the hallmark of this mythical Syria.

And for argument’s sake let us assume that there is such a thing as Syria: it no longer exists today. It is utterly destroyed and made into rubble.

Very good indeed.

Poof and Syria is now Thouria Alathad just as Poof it is another family and not a country like KSA.

There are three nation states only in the ME Iran, Turkey and Egypt and in North Africa Tunis. The rest are mafia states.

Now how come Professor Jabali that you are outraged at the destruction of your famous precious Syria by the mafia regime is beyond me.

Cheers.

May 18th, 2014, 10:20 pm

 

Observer said:

By the way Jabali Hitti in Arabic was the history curriculum in the high school in 10th, 11th and 12th grades. I did not realize it until I read the English version and realized that is was the same but in Arabic

May 18th, 2014, 10:22 pm

 
 

Juergen said:

Syrian women turns 100 as an refugee in Lebanon

May 18th, 2014, 11:52 pm

 

SyrienMonitor said:

While quoting Hitti and Hourani might impress some people, these books don’t necessarily provide a sufficient framework for a nationalism debate.

May 19th, 2014, 5:41 am