Friday, April 29, 2011

Syria Again

I realize I have already blogged on this, but I can't help myself.  I spent too many hours learning to understand Syrian politics and social structure to not follow the events of the last few weeks.

Finally today there is an article that points out the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood and the desire of fundamentalist Islam to overthrow the Alawi dominated regime.

"Syria's exiled Muslim Brotherhood, which has been largely on the sidelines of the protests so far, called on Syrians to take to the streets on Friday in support of Deraa, where a rights group said civilian deaths from the army attack rose to 50.
It was the first time that the Brotherhood, ruthlessly crushed along with secular leftist movements under the rule of late President Hafez al-Assad, had called directly for protests.
The group said accusations by Syrian authorities that militant Islamists were behind the unrest were wrong and aimed at fomenting civil war and undermining nationwide demands for political freedoms and an end to corruption.
But a Jordanian Islamist, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, said that Muslims were obliged to join the protest and that the overthrow of Assad's minority Alawite rule would be a step toward implementing Sharia law in the mainly Sunni Muslim state."

What is highlighted by these comments is one, the Muslim Brotherhood is still around despite Hafez Al-Assad's attempt to eradicate the group; and two, interest in removing the Alawi regime comes from within and without the country.  Syria sits in the middle of the region and is a crossroads for movement of arms and people involved in terrorism and actions against the state of Israel and its primarily Jewish population.  These facts make it necessary for us to closely watch Syria as a real precursor of the type of change that protestors across the region really want.  Do these protestors want democracy?  All I have heard is that they want the existing regime to be gone.  And now, someone is actually saying we want a Sharia law state in Syria.  Let the good times roll... 

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