Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Syria’s Assad: “The project of political Islam has failed”

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Assad“The project of political Islam has failed, and there should be no mixing between political and religious work.” That sounds reasonable. But of course Assad is a dictatorial oppressor; his U.S.-backed foes, on the other hand, are freedom-loving Jeffersonian democrats who destroy churches and want to institute an Islamic state. In any case, Assad’s confident statement about political Islam is certain to be contradicted by not a few Islamic supremacists, both in Syria and elsewhere.

“Syria’s Assad says political Islam project has failed,” from Agence France Presse, April 7:

DAMASCUS: The “project of political Islam has failed,” Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday, calling for the separation of religion from politics, state television said.

Assad’s regime has been battling an uprising that has come to be dominated by Islamists, ranging from moderates to radicals, who want to see Syria run as an Islamic state.

“The project of political Islam has failed, and there should be no mixing between political and religious work,” he said in comments on the 67th anniversary of the founding of his Baath party.

Assad refers to all those fighting against him as “terrorists” and has said that he is battling extremists with retrograde ideas.

The president has repeatedly stressed the need for all parts of Syrian society to challenge “extremism”….

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Comments

  1. “The project of political Islam has failed”

    Talk such as that might encourage delusional fringe group (non-Extremists) to make an attempt at hijacking Islam with the futile goal of turning it into a religion of peace.

  2. Perfectly reasonable. However, since he criticizes the imposition of strict Sharia, Assad becomes even more secular and ‘unjust’ (a ruler who fails to impose strict Sharia). Therefore, the jihadists are now much MORE motivated to remove him from power.

    There is an unending stream of jihadists which will only end if Assad kills them all or Western governments revoke every jihadist’s passport.

  3. ““The project of political Islam has failed, and there should be no mixing between political and religious work,” he said in comments on the 67th anniversary of the founding of his Baath party.”

    History says that when an islamic system fails it’s replaced by an even stricter islamic system who treat women, religious and ethnic minorities even worse.

  4. There are basically only two stark choices any majority Muslim nation has: 1) secular authoritarian rule, only the degree of dictatorship and amount of Islam applied being variables; 2) direct Islamic rule by Muslim zealots. 1) is preferable to 2) almost without exception, but the fact that these are essentially the only two choices in any Muslim country speaks volumes about Islam——-all of Islam.

    • 2) proves that islam fails as a governing system. Several times in history dhimmis were prevented to convert to islam because it would cause a serious drop in tax income. Meaning that islam is depending on non-islamic people in order to survive. It’s basically a slave-based society.

      Makes one wonder why are muslims so eager to the second coming of isa, who is supposed to convert everyone in the world to islam. So, everyone becomes a muslim, and then what? No more non-muslims to rob or extort jizyia from, no more non-muslims to take as sex slaves, no more assured entrance into paradise since there are no more non-muslims to kill in jihad… Islam is very kuffar-centric, there wouldn’t be much of it left if everyone in the world became a muslim.

      • You are forgetting that when they get their ‘perfect’ world they must then turn on each other because they have to attack anyone not conforming to their version of Islam, thereby creating more sex slaves etc.
        It is the reason the King of Kings and Lord of Lords must return to save the remnants of humanity before they are all destroyed.

      • Your premise is quite precise, and I have often considered writing a full economic explanation of the ultimate consequences of a total and complete caliphate. People (even muslims) cannot comprehend the scale and effect of the total transition from secularism to theological fascism. It would actually destroy islam from within – but the cost in terms of lives lost would be unacceptable. Talk about a dilemma!

  5. He’s Alawite alright, but buffoonish nonetheless coming from a man backed by Muslim supremacists in Tehran.

  6. RObert, I recognize your sarcasm about the Jeffersonian democrats. I guess I’m of the mind that the O’s attempt to engage us in Syria is just one more example of his utter clownishness in foreign policy. Leading from behind means letting Turkey sucker us into their neo-Ottoman plans in Syria, or Italian oil interests sucker us into a Libyan misadventure of the worst kind.

  7. The politics of the region makes very strange bedfellows.

    Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, yet solidly backs the Syrian rebels who are thoroughly infiltrated by al-Qada (Muslim Brotherhood) groups.

    Although Assad declares political Islam dead, his most important ally is the most revolutionary Islamic government in the world, Iran.

    Saudi Arabia sees its worst threat as Iran, so its top priority is to topple Iran’s direct ally in the region. The issue became more urgent once our genius boy President George Bush the second, toppled the Hussein government in Iraq for no good reason, and allowed Iran to become the predominant political influence in Iraq. Iraq no longer serves as the counterweight to Iran. Recall that the King of Saudi Arabia told George Bush the first to leave Saddam Hussein in power after defeating him in Dessert Storm. It turns out the old tyrant was exactly right: the presence of Saddam Hussein helped stabilize the region, although he made it very unpleasant for his people and the US forces who kept watch over him.

    Now, there is only one country in the region able to provide a strong military threat to Iran: Israel. Ordinarily, you would not expect Israel to be sympathetic to Islamist rebels who persecute Christians, but again, Syria’s alliance with Iran is the threat that drives Israel, Saudia Arabia, and perhaps the US. It’s very difficult to know exactly what the US administration sees as being in its vital interests, nowdays.

    It’s tempting to attribute the aggressiveness of the secular Syria towards Israel to Arab nationalism and a desire for vindication for the defeats of the Six-Day War in 1968. On the other hand, the ruling Alewite sect is a minority in Syria, and so is most likely to call for a separation of religion and politics.

    My guess is that Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be de facto allies in the region, with the covert support of Israel, in an alliance against Iran. Unfortunately, both Hamas and Hizbollah in Lebanon are Iranian allies and pose a serious threat to Israel. If the situation becomes critical and active hostilities occur, Israel and Egypt may have to topple the Hamas government in Gaza and transfer most of the population to Syria, assuming Syria is actively supporting Iran at that time.

    The fact that Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be terrorist had less to do with the MB’s sponsorship of jihad, than with the MB’s support of Iran.

  8. So would Assad have us believe Syrian religious minorities (e.g. Christians and Jews) weren’t persecuted under his regime? Or, even more laughably, under his father?

    • Defcon, good point.

      A further subtext about Assad and the jihadis is that 20th century political totalitarianism is also a failed project.

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