Episodes of persecution were frequently misread by Europeans as sectarian, rather than economic, in nature. But as with the current war, it only exacerbated the root cause of the grievances, deepening foreign interference. In the wake of French troops educational and philanthropic agencies began to arrive, often run by Catholic missionaries, founding orphanages, boarding schools, and dispensaries in which their own religion was privileged.
But their attempts were resisted in the Great Revolt of , which began in the southern Druze region. The Syrian people showed their innate pluralism by refusing to identify themselves by sect. After the end of the Crimean War, the Russians, needing to create a Christian majority, brought in Christians and by had pushed over half a million Muslims out into the Ottoman heartlands.
In the French separated the Sanjak of Alexandretta from Syria and ceded it to Turkey, triggering the exodus of thousands of Armenians and Arabic-speaking Alawi, Sunni, and Christian refugees into northern Syria. In after capturing the Golan Heights in the Six Day War, Israel began almost immediately to settle Israeli Jews there, before illegally annexing the territory in Israeli maps show it as Israeli territory, not as Syrian territory occupied by Israel.
Future maps of Syria will no doubt vary depending on who publishes them. You are either with us or against us. Before the Assads, religious identities were pluralistic, and were only relevant at the social level. This will have repercussions on the entire region. Hezbollah consider this a security zone and a natural extension of their territory in Lebanon. They have had very direct orders from the spiritual leadership of Iran to protect them at any cost. Iran has been especially active around all four towns through its Hezbollah proxies.
Wadi Barada to the north-west, where ongoing fighting is in breach of the Russian-brokered ceasefire, is also part of the calculations, sources within the Lebanon-based movement have confirmed. Elsewhere in Syria, demographic swaps are also reshaping the geopolitical fabric of communities that, before the war, had coexisted for centuries. In Darayya, south-west of Damascus, more than Iraqi Shia families moved into neighbourhoods abandoned by rebels last August as part of a surrender deal.
Up to rebel fighters were relocated to Idlib province and state media announced within days that the Iraqis had arrived. Tehran has also bought large numbers of homes near the Zainab mosque, and a tract of land, which it is using to create a security buffer — a microcosm of its grander project.
It is a Sunni area but they plan for it to be secured by Shias, then surrounded by them. Senior officials in neighbouring Lebanon have been monitoring what they believe has been a systematic torching of Land Registry offices in areas of Syria recaptured on behalf of the regime. Egypt in Search of Balance. Sada Feature. Syria in Crisis. Tunisia in Transition. Militias and the Future of the Iraqi State. Multimedia Series. Rodger Shanahan. Regional Shia support for the Assad regime is more geopolitical than religious in nature.
January 07, Related analysis from Carnegie The Politics of Perdition. Follow Us. All rights reserved. They realized too late when Daesh attacked Erbil [August ]. Obama and the international community woke up. This is a war against terrorism. Daesh does not represent Sunnis. We are doing Sunnis an injustice if we claim that Daesh represents them. Religious symbolism and significance was a key driver for much of the Shia recruitment. The Sayyida Zainab shrine in Damascus is one of several sacred sites for Shia Muslims and the threat of its destruction played a central role in motivating fighters to travel to Syria to defend it.
In February , jihadists demolished the Askari shrine in Samarra, Iraq, which led to a sectarian backlash in the country. Therefore, Iraqi Shias deployed in and around the Sayyida Zainab neighbourhood, determined to prevent a repeat of the Samarra attack. In addition to the specific threat to one of the symbols of Shiism, Syria plays an important role in Islamic eschatology, in both Sunni and Shia scripture, as the setting for the final battle in the prelude to Armageddon.
Both Sunni and Shia militias believe they are fighting in a crucial campaign in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Lebanese Hezbollah also played a key role in advising and organizing the Iraqi Shia recruits to fight Syrian rebels, followed by a much more active and assertive military role. If we had fighters in Syria, now they will be If we had 1,, they will be 2, If we had 5, they will be 10,
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