New Syrian President Signals Renewed Cycle of Death
By Majed El Shafie
After spending years fighting against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the same people driven by the same hateful extremist Islamic ideology are back and forming the new government in Syria. The US and EU have already started easing sanctions on Syria with exemptions and are enabling President Ahmed al-Sharaa to consolidate power without any guarantees for democratic reform or human rights.
Rev. Shafie on the Israeli-Syrian border (April 2025).
The overthrow of the Assad regime created a mistaken sense of optimism that the idealistic democratic goals of the Arab Spring could take root in a new, rebuilding Syria. One can wish it were so, but to react responsibly the international community must be clear eyed about the on-the-ground realities of Syria today. The facts do not support this view.
While Sharaa has been moving to consolidate his political power and take the reins of what’s left of the Syrian state, revenge killings of the Alawite minority have been taking place, leaving thousands dead. Women are being raped and lawlessness in the streets has led to violence, extortion kiddnappings, and what is left of the Christian minority community enduring killings, violent confrontations, and threats.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the new self-appointed President of Syria, is an Islamic extremist. Since leading the military campaign to overthrow the Assad regime, he has appointed himself as President. A sectarian bloodletting of ethnic minorities and his early moves to empower his power brokers have put the pieces in place to fuel another cycle of death through an intra-religious war between Shias and Sunnis and repression of other minorities.
It’s renewing the cycle of death experienced by the enduring Sunni-Shia conflict throughout the region. Bahrain’s Sunni rulers persecute the Shias. Iran’s Shia rulers persecute Sunnis. Saudi Arabia’s Sunnis persecute the Sunnis. . Government Sunni, persecuting Shia. This cycle has fueled wars and targeting of minorities for additional persecution has been a constant throughout.
@ofwidotorg Syria's new President is an Islamic extremist and his allies have moved fast to exact revenge and persecute Christian and other minorities struggling to survive. Rev. El Shafie speaks from the Syrian border with a call to action.
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Several denominations of Christian churches in Syria in recent weeks have expressed fear given what the violence they have witnessed and signals they are seeing of intent for Islamic rule. Christian persecution and the killings of them alongside other minorities is already happening. Much of this is being perpetrated by factions allied to the extremist Islamist President. Claims of “transitionary challenges” and the need to train new security forces ring hollow when their leader will not even condemn these heinous acts or call off his allies from perpetrating such acts.
The past two months in Syria are a sour and painful reminder of Afghanistan, another country we fought to defeat a hateful ideology, only to give up and welcome the Taliban back to full control of their tyrannical rule.
The politics of our time suggests people do not care. The only reason Yemen makes the news is because their Islamist extremists are blocking a trade corridor. Our governments have warranted targeted intervention. The energy and ocean shipping corridor moves so many goods, valued more than our purported shared values and principles.
Make no mistake, the forces of darkness are on the march across much of the Middle East. A hate-fueled ideology that grows like a cancer. Their goals and tactics are the same as Hitler’s, differing only in their preference for beards. This death cycle of persecution and prejudice will mean more loss of life, increased security threats to our way of life, and make the world a more dangerous place.
These dark forces cannot simply be a game of whack-a-mole for when they become an inconvenience to our shared economic interests. If we remain silent on this cancer in our society, today in one part of the body, it will kill the whole body at some point. So, removing the cancer now, confronting the cancer now, is the only solution before the whole body dies.
Our society has a choice. ISIS in a western business suit should not trick us into believing they have changed. It is time we stand up for our values and demand our political leaders do the same.