{"id":11905,"date":"2011-09-07T12:51:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=11905"},"modified":"2011-09-07T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:55:27","slug":"who-is-mohammad-rahhal-the-syrian-revolutionary-who-called-for-armed-resistance-and-attacked-burhan-ghalioun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/who-is-mohammad-rahhal-the-syrian-revolutionary-who-called-for-armed-resistance-and-attacked-burhan-ghalioun\/","title":{"rendered":"“Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"“Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?”<\/strong>
\nBy Christiane Lange <\/strong>
\nfor Syria Comment
\n<\/em>August 7, 2011<\/p>\n

Muhammad Rahhal made a big splash last week<\/a> when he attacked Burhan Ghalioun, the newly appointed head of the Syrian National Council. By raining on the National Council’s parade, he made the Syria opposition look divided, weak, and unprepared to govern.<\/p>\n

In an article published by Asharq Al-Awsat, <\/a>he said<\/a>: \u201cThose who formed the Syrian National Council are ghosts claiming to represent a large part of the Syrian people, while they have no relations whatsoever with the revolution. We are not part of the opposition abroad. The revolution has an internal body that decides its course.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rahhal refused to recognize the National Council set up at a meeting in Turkey. He further called for the Syrian opposition to arm itself, citing the example of the Afghan resistance to the Soviets and suggesting that the US ought to provide weapons: “Therefore, we will follow the Afghan example; when the Afghans were asked: Where will you get the weapons? They answered: As long as the United States is here, there will be weapons.”<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Rahhal has made reference to Afghanistan in public. Back in 2010, in an article posted on the Internet<\/a>, he said: ???? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ????????? ?? ????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ????? ????????? ??????? ???????????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ?????? … – “Everyone in the world is chattering about the resistance movements or conversely about the Taliban Mujaheddin, but the Taliban replaced the chit-chat and fanfare with getting on the Jihad train, leaving behind them the secular, Arab masses, Pakistan and the enemies of our Umma to bark day and night …”<\/p>\n

In spite of his appearances in Arabic media, such as the example provided above, Rahhal seemingly came out of nowhere in the context of the Syrian uprising. He presented himself as the leader of an organization that had no known, central leadership (according to a Syrian friend). It does appear that the establishment of a formal leadership, including Rahhal’s chairmanship, in the Revolutionary Council is recent, judging by the declaration posted here<\/a>: on a blog owned by Rahhal.<\/p>\n

On the blog and elsewhere Rahhal gives himself the title, “Dr.” (of what is not clear) and states that he lives in Sweden. It turns out that Rahhal has a bit of history in Sweden where he has lived for many years, and has been in the Swedish news on several occasions.<\/p>\n

Eva Janzon, a Swedish journalist who interviewed him about his role in the Syrian revolution. Here is her story, translated from Swedish and republished digitally with the consent of the author:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Armed Revolution in Syria Planned Here: Unemployed Father of Nine leads Opposition Network from Sk\u00e4rholmen<\/a>
\nBy Eva Janzon Eva.Janzon@varldenidag.se
\nV\u00e4rlden Idag [The World Today], Aug 7, 2011
\nTranslated by Christiane Lange for Syria Comment<\/p>\n

The Syrian opposition must take up arms. This radical message was recently disseminated to the Arabic- and English-language press from the “Syrian Revolutionary Council of Coordinating Committees,” and was met both with opposition and with agreement from Syrians around the world who are critical of the regime.<\/p>\n

Few people know that the person behind the group is an unemployed father of nine from Sk\u00e4rholmen, who arrived in Sweden 21 years ago. Mohammad Rahhal, 54 years old, spends all his time supporting the popular uprising in Syria, and is a frequent guest on the TV sofas of Arabic-language media networks.<\/p>\n

“In the beginning I was writing articles about the situation in Egypt and Tunisia. Then I formed an organization, in March, for supporting the regime critics in Syria. It won’t do to go on with small demonstrations that are not organized. We kept our work secret for three months while the network was built up, and now we have 130 committees in almost all areas of the country,” he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When V\u00e4rlden Idag<\/em> went to visit Mohammad Rahhal in Sk\u00e4rholmen, a suburb of Stockholm, his wife and the youngest children were at home. In front of the balcony, which is full of toys, a TV whch had the sound turned off showed footage from demonstrations. In the opposite corner of the living room sits the computer that Mohammad Rahhal uses to spread his message through, among other avenues, Facebook and the blog “The Arabic Voice From Sweden<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

On that blog is listed a number of people who are part of the leadership of the “Syrian Revolutionary Council of Coordinating Committees,” but Mohammad Rahhal says that he is the only one of them who lives outside Syria. Neither he nor the others are interested in any cooperation with other opposition groups, he says.<\/p>\n

“We can’t risk getting entangled with the others. The government has formed groups in order to lure people on its side and have infiltrated others with the help of the security police. Thousands of young people have been snared this way, because not everyone understands the political game being played.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is also the reason why Mohammad Rahhal has distanced himself from the National Council, which was formed during a conference in Turkey last month by opposition members from inside and outside Syria.<\/p>\n

“The people on the National Council come from several organizations. Some of them have worked with Turkey, Iran or the US and some have connections to the police in Syria. That is why we decided not to take part,” he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further, he says, that his statement that the Syrian opposition must take up arms to counter the violence of President Bashar Assad against the demonstrators received a great deal of attention in the Syrian media.<\/p>\n

“I never meant that the demonstrators should take up arms from day one. However, if the regime continues to shoot unarmed people, something has to be done. The rest of the world just looks on without lifting a finger.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mohammad Rahhal feels betrayed by the failure of the Swedish government to back him and thereby the Syrian opposition.<\/p>\n

I called the foreign ministry wanting to talk to Carl Bildt. I had to talk to one of the secretaries and left my name and number, but they just write it down on a piece of paper, they don’t do anything about it. That is no way to treat a revolution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mohammad Rahhal relates that he comes from the town Merayan in the north of Syria, whereas his wife is from Aleppo. She had relatives in Sweden, which explains their choice of a new, shared homeland. In Syria, he explains, he attended university and worked “among other things in the military.”<\/p>\n

Last year V\u00e4rlden Idag <\/em>wrote about the fact that Mohammad Rahhal had registered an anti-Zionist party with the election authorities. The party, he said, would combat “discrimination and Zionism,” since Zionism controls the world and drags “the world from one war to another.” At the time, Mohammad Rahhal explained that he was already a frequent contributor to Arabic media and working politically.<\/p>\n

In Sweden, Rahhal was also in the news in 2002 for his attempt to start Muslim charter schools [“free schools” in Swedish, but the concept is similar to that of charter schools in the US, trans.] and was said to have run refugee camps in Sk\u00e4rholmen and V\u00e5rberg. He was also the spokesperson for an Islamic association in Sweden, and fought an uphill battle together with his neighbors in order to buy their apartments on \u00c4spholmsvej from Stockholmshem.<\/p>\n

The dream today is to establish a democracy on the Swedish model in Syria.<\/p>\n

“Sweden has succeeded in creating laws that protect the citizens and that have given us democracy. Why shouldn’t we try to do the same in Syria?” wonders Mohammad Rahhal and takes care to relate that he has taught courses in democracy in Sk\u00e4rholmen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?” By Christiane Lange for Syria Comment August 7, 2011 Muhammad Rahhal made a big splash last week when he attacked Burhan Ghalioun, the newly appointed head of the Syrian National Council. By raining on the National Council’s parade, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opposition","category-syria-revolution-2011"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?" - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/who-is-mohammad-rahhal-the-syrian-revolutionary-who-called-for-armed-resistance-and-attacked-burhan-ghalioun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?" - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Who is Mohammad Rahhal, the Syrian Revolutionary who Called for Armed Resistance and Attacked Burhan Ghalioun?” By Christiane Lange for Syria Comment August 7, 2011 Muhammad Rahhal made a big splash last week when he attacked Burhan Ghalioun, the newly appointed head of the Syrian National Council. 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