By Salam Hindawi | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Every time I scan American news outlets, especially the right-wing ones featuring the latest news on Syria, I get split between laughing or crying because of their outrageous panic about the future of Syria’s minorities.
In the next few paragraphs, I’ll make the case for why Americans need to take a chill pill and calm down regarding the impending political transition in my home country.
For the record, I’m no woke lefty with purple hair and pronouns in his bio. Rather, I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum: a staunch believer in free speech, religious freedom, the Second Amendment, the free market, family values and the fact that we have two genders (i.e. no one is born in the ‘wrong body’.) But the amount of doom I’ve seen in the American media ever since Assad’s statues have met the ground in Syria is only parallel to leftists’ doom about a natural phenomenon called Climate Change.
The American media’s response to Assad’s fall can be summed up in one sentence: “Oh my God, Syria has fallen to a pack of terrorist rebels and now Christians and other religious minorities are going to be mass slaughtered.”
I get it, since the militarization of the Syrian uprising, the country has become a magnet and mecca for Al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists. And I also get that the leader of the opposition, Abo Mohammed Al-Jolani, is a guy who used to be affiliated with those terrorist groups. Those facts lend legitimacy to the fears over the future of Syria’s minorities, which are many. But sometimes, fear can only go so far before it becomes divorced from reality.
Syrian opposition, excluding ISIS, has controlled large swaths of land with religious minorities and, to our knowledge, no one was slaughtered based on their religious affiliation. In fact, what we saw unfold many times is people from minority backgrounds locking arms with opposition forces, and that’s also the case for the civilian part of the opposition. Since 2011, many public figures who come from different minority groups have been in the forefront of our political struggle. Notable figures include Abdulaziz Al-Khayir (Alawite), Michel Kilo (Christian), and Mashaal Tammo (Kurd).
Looking at the modern Syrian history between the fall of the Ottoman Empire and today gives us a glimpse into the future assuaging fears of annihilation.
The Sunni Muslim majority in the country, making up about 70% of population, has always co-existed with Syria’s minorities who assumed positions of power especially after the end of the French mandate system in 1946. Furthermore, minorities in Syria have a long history of fighting alongside their Sunni brothers and sisters. The Druz religious group — mostly occupying southern Syria — had given the country one of its greatest leaders: Sultan Al-Atrash who ignited the Great Syrian Revolution against the French, refusing to secede and establish a Durzi state. Saleh Al-ali was an Alawite local leader who fought the French in his region and formed an alliance with Ibrahim Hanano in Aleppo.
Finally, at the time of writing this article, a few days have passed since Assad was toppled and still no sign of any genocide against any religious or ethnic community in Syria and all the rhetoric coming out of Al-Jolani’s mouth is anything but intimidating.
Granted, history has demonstrated that the fall of a country’s tyrant can mean religious and ethnic cleansing. Look at former Yugoslavia, for instance, and how different religious groups had taken shots at each other following Tito’s fall. However, we also need to have a more nuanced view of civil conflicts and understand the ins and outs of every situation. In the case of Syria, the country has had a long history of religious and ethnic tolerance that should assuage any fears of sectarian violence. American media need to tone down the language of sectarian doom and the Syrian people need to join efforts to Make Syria Great Again.
Salam Hindawi is an ex-Syrian military warrant officer who defected in 2012 and sought safety in Turkiye, then asylum in the U.S. in 2014. He holds a master’s from the University of Colorado, and is now a permanent resident in the U.S.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.