Acta Via Serica

Academia Via Serica (계명대학교 실크로드연구원)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Political Islam and the War in Syria

  • Received : 2021.05.11
  • Accepted : 2022.05.18
  • Published : 2022.06.15
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This paper argues that the war in Syria is partly the result of a global Islamist wave that contributed to fuelling conflict across large regions of Asia and Africa. Of course, the war that has consumed Syria since 2011 most certainly has multiple interrelated causes and driving forces, and any attempt to isolate one or even two or three runs the risk of advancing an overly simplistic interpretation of history. This essay, therefore, does not aim to offer an appraisal of the multiple variables that contributed to the war in Syria. Instead, it zeroes in on how political Islam came to impact Syria and its people. In doing so, it demonstrates how competing varieties of political Islam represented leading causes of conflict. Indeed, different Islamist movements contributed to the outbreak of the war in 2011, fuelled the conflict for years on end, and to this day represent major obstacles to the achievement of sustainable peace. Four broad Islamist currents are especially relevant to the case of Syria: the Muslim Brotherhood; the Shia revivalist movement at the nexus of the alliance between Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria; Salafi jihadism and its volatile and fractious underworld of competing armed groups, from Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State; and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's market-friendly Islamism, which induced Turkey to intervene in Syria's civil war.

Keywords

References

  1. Ababsa, Myriam. "The End of a World: Drought and Agrarian Transformation in
  2. Northeast Syria (2007-2010). In Syria from Reform to Revolt: Political Economy and International Relations, edited by Raymond A. Hinnebusch and Tina Zintl, 199-222. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2015.
  3. Abd-Allah, Umar F. The Islamic Struggle in Syria. Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1983.
  4. Ajami, Fouad. The Vanished Imam: Musa al Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon. London and Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012.
  5. Al Jazeera. "Turkish PM: Syria Crackdown Inhumane." June 10, 2011. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/6/10/turkish-pm-syria-crackdown-inhumane.
  6. Allawi, Ali. The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
  7. Al-Tamimi, Aymen Jawad. "From Jabhat al-Nusra to Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham: Evolution, Approach and Future." Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung et Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies, June 29, 2018. https://www.kas.de/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=8cfa4cdb-e337-820d-d0bd-4cd998f38612&groupId=252038.
  8. Amnesty International. "Syria: 30 Years On, Hama Survivors Recount the Horror." February 28, 2012. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2012/02/syria-years-hama-survivorsrecount-horror.
  9. Amnesty International. "Torture Was My Punishment: Abductions, Torture and Summary Killings Under Armed Group Rule in Aleppo and Idlib, Syria." July 5, 2016. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/4227/2016/en/.
  10. Balcells, Laia and Stathis Kalyvas. "Revolutionary Rebels and the 'Marxist Paradox." Unpublished paper, 2015. http://cpd.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MarxIns_4_15.pdf.
  11. Barnard, Anne and Karam Shoumali. "U.S. Weaponry is Turning Syria into a Proxy War with Russia." The New York Times, October 12, 2015.
  12. Batatu, Hanna. "Syria's Muslim Brethren." MERIP REPORTS, 12, no. 110 (1982): 12-36. https://doi.org/10.2307/3012279
  13. Batatu, Hanna. Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
  14. Bengio, Ofra. "Game Changers: Kurdish Women in Peace and War." The Middle East Journal 70, no. 1 (2016): 30-46. https://doi.org/10.3751/70.1.12
  15. Blanford, Nicolas. "Hezbollah role in Syria grows more evident." The Daily Star (Lebanon), October 12, 2012.
  16. Bulos, Nabih. "Syrian Rebels Once Supported by U.S. Appear to Behead Child in Video." Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2016.
  17. Chivers, C.J. and Eric Schmitt, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, with Aid from CIA." The New York Times, March 24, 2013.
  18. Cloud, David S. and Raja Abdulrahim. "U.S. Has Secretly Provided Arms Training to Syria Rebels Since 2012." Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2013.
  19. Conduit, Dara. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
  20. Conflict Armament Research. "Weapons of the Islamic State." December 4, 2017. https://www.conflictarm.com/publications/
  21. Consortium Against Terrorist Finance. "Al-Nusra and its Gulf Financiers: The Political Cost of a Long-Running Alliance." June 24, 2016.
  22. Consortium Against Terrorist Finance. "Funding Al Nusra Through Ransom: Qatar and the Myth of Humanitarian Principle." August 18, 2016.
  23. Davutoglu, Ahmet. "The clash of interests: An explanation of the world [dis]order." Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs 2, no. 4 (1997/98): 1-17.
  24. Davutoglu, Ahmet. Strategik Derinlik [Strategic Depth]. Istanbul: Kure Yayinlari, 2001. [In Turkish.]
  25. Devlin, John F. "The Baath Party: rise and metamorphosis." The American Historical Review 96, no. 5 (1991): 1396-1407. https://doi.org/10.2307/2165277
  26. DeYoung, Karen and Liz Sly, "Syrian Rebels Get Influx of Arms with Gulf Neighbors' Money, US Coordination." The Washington Post, May 15, 2012.
  27. Dickinson, Elizabeth. "The Case Against Qatar." Foreign Policy, September 24, 2014.
  28. Duffy Toft, Monica. "Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War." International Security 31, no. 4 (2007): 97-131. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.2007.31.4.97
  29. Duffy Toft, Monica. "Islamists and Nationalists: Rebel Motivation and Counterinsurgency in Russia's North Caucasus." American Political Science Review 109, no. 2 (2015): 222-38. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305541500012X
  30. Enzinna, Wes. "A Dream of Secular Utopia in ISIS' Backyard." New York Times Magazine, November 29, 2015.
  31. Fearon, James D. "Civil War & the Current International System." Daedalus 146 no. 4, (Fall 2017): 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00456
  32. Fouda, Yosri. Fi Tariq Al-Aza [In Harm's Way]. Cairo: Dar El-Shorouk, 2015 [In Arabic].
  33. Fulton, Will, Joseph Holliday, and Sam Wyer. "Iranian Strategy in Syria." Joint Report by AEI's Critical Threats Project and Institute for the Study of War, May 2013.
  34. George, Alan. Syria: Neither Bread nor Freedom. London and New York: Zed Books, 2003.
  35. Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. New York: Random House, 2014.
  36. Hassan, Hassan. "The Army of Islam is Winning in Syria." Foreign Policy, October 1, 2013.
  37. Hinnebusch, Raymond A. "The Islamic Movement in Syria: Sectarian Conflict and Urban Rebellion in an Authoritarian-Populist Regime." In Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World, edited by Ali Hilal Dessouki. New York: Praeger, 1982.
  38. Hinnebusch, Raymond A. "The political economy of economic liberalization in Syria." International Journal of Middle East Studies 27, no. 3 (1995): 307-312.
  39. Holmes, Amy Austin. "Arabs Across Syria Join the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces." Middle East Research and Information Project, July 28, 2020. Online: https://merip.org/2020/07/arabs-across-syria-join-the-kurdish-led-syrian-democratic-forces/.
  40. Hosenball, Mark. "Obama Authorizes Secret Support for Syrian Rebels." Reuters, August 2, 2012.
  41. Hussein, Fuad. Al-Zarqawi: Al-Jeel Al-Thani lil-Qaida [Al-Zarqawi: The Second Generation of al-Qaeda] Beirut: Dar Al-Khayal, 2005. [In Arabic.]
  42. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN). "Syria: Drought pushing millions into poverty." September 10, 2010. https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/syriadrought-pushing-millions-poverty.
  43. Kalyvas, Stathis. "Jihadi Rebels in Civil War." Daedalus 147, no. 1 (Winter 2018): 36-47. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00472
  44. Kepel, Gilles. Le Prophete et le Pharaon. Paris: La Decouverte, 1984.
  45. Kepel, Gilles. Jihad. Expansion et declin de l'islamisme. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
  46. Kepel, Gilles, Jean-Pierre Milelli, and Pascale Ghazaleh. Al Qaeda in Its Own Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008.
  47. Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1955.
  48. Khalaf, Roula and Abigail Fielding Smith. "Qatar Bankrolls Syrian Revolt with Cash and Arms." Financial Times, May 16, 2013.
  49. Khomeini, Ruhollah. Governance of the Jurist: Islamic Government. Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, year of publication unspecified.
  50. Khomeini, Ruhollah. The Ashura Uprising in the Words & Messages of Imam Khomeini. Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works, 1995.
  51. Kozhanov, Nikolai. "Ozhivleniye v rossiysko-iranskikh otnosheniyakh." [Revitalization in Russian-Iranian relations] Carnegie Moscow Center, June 15, 2015. http://carnegie.ru/2015/06/15/ru-60391/ial8.
  52. Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
  53. Lefevre, Raphael. Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  54. Londono, Ernesto and Greg Miller. "CIA Begins Weapons Delivery to Syrian Rebels." Washington Post, September 11, 2013.
  55. Mazzetti, Mark, C. J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt. "Taking Outsize Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels." The New York Times, June 30, 2013.
  56. Mazzetti, Mark, Adam Goldman and Michael S. Schmidt. "Behind the Sudden Death of a $1 Billion Secret CIA War in Syria." The New York Times, August 2, 2017.
  57. Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
  58. Naji, Abu Bakr. Idarat Al-Tawahush [The Management of Savagery] Online, Public Domain, 2004 [In Arabic].
  59. Naji, Abu Bakr. The Management of Savagery. Translated by William McCants. Cambridge: John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, 2006.
  60. Newton-Small, Jay. "Hillary's Little Startup: How the U.S. Is Using Technology to Aid Syria's Rebels." Time, June 13, 2012.
  61. Nilsson, Desiree and Isak Svensson. "Mapping Armed Conflicts over Islamist Claims: Exploring Regional Variations." In Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Yearbook 2017: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. London: Oxford University Press, 2017.
  62. Nilsson, Desiree and Isak Svensson. "The Intractability of Islamist Insurgencies: Islamist Rebels and the Recurrence of Civil War." International Studies Quarterly, 65, no. 3 (2021): 620-632. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqab064
  63. Norton, Augustus Richard. Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
  64. Oweis, Khaled Yacoub. "Insight: Saudi Arabia Boosts Salafist Rivals to Al-Qaeda in Syria." Reuters, October 1, 2013.
  65. Qutb, Sayyid. Ma'alim fi Al-Tariq [Milestones] Cairo: Maktabat Wahbah, 1964 [In Arabic].
  66. Qutb, Sayyid. Milestones. Kuwait: International Federation of Student Organizations, 1978.
  67. Rougier, Bernard. L'Oumma en fragments: Controler le sunnisme au Liban. Presses Universitaires de France, 2011.
  68. Rougier, Bernard. Qu'est-ce que le salafisme? Presses Universitaires de France, 2015.
  69. Sanger, David E. "Rebel Arms Flow is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria." The New York Times, October 14, 2012.
  70. Saracoglu, Cenk. "Akp, Milliyetcilik Ve Dis Politika: Bir Milliyetcilik Doktrini Olarak Stratejik Derinlik." Alternatif Politika 5, no. 1 (2013): 52-68 [In Turkish].
  71. Schanzer, Jonathan. "Saudi Arabia is Arming the Syrian Opposition: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" Foreign Policy, February 27, 2012.
  72. Schmitt, Eric. "CIA Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition." The New York Times, June 21, 2012.
  73. Seale, Patrick. Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
  74. Seale, Patrick. "Interview with Syrian President Hafiz Al-Asad." Journal of Palestine Studies 22, no. 4, (1993): 111-121. https://doi.org/10.2307/2538092
  75. Shear, Michael D., Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt. "Obama Administration Ends Efforts to Train Syrians to Combat ISIS." The New York Times, October 9, 2015.
  76. Sly, Liz. "Syria's Muslim Brotherhood is Gaining in Influence Over Anti-Assad Revolt." The Washington Post, May 12, 2012.
  77. Solomon, Jay and Nour Malas. "US Bolsters Ties to Fighters in Syria." The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2012.
  78. Stack, Liam. "In Slap at Syria, Turkey Shelters Anti-Assad Fighters." The New York Times, October 27, 2011.
  79. Talhamy, Yvette. "The Syrian Muslim Brothers and the Syrian-Iranian Relationship." The Middle East Journal 63, no. 4, (2009): 561-580. https://doi.org/10.3751/63.4.12
  80. Talhamy, Yvette. "The Fatwas and the Nusayri/Alawis of Syria." Middle Eastern Studies 46, no. 2 (March 2010): 175-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263200902940251
  81. Teitelbaum, Joshua. "The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, 1945-1958: Founding, Social Origins, Ideology." The Middle East Journal 65, no. 2 (2011): 213-233. https://doi.org/10.3751/65.2.12
  82. Tibi, Bassam. "War and Peace in Islam." In The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, edited by Terry Nardin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
  83. Trenin, Dimitri. "Rossiya zastryanet v Sirii na dostatochno dlitel'noye vremya." [Russia Will Be Stuck in Syria for Quite a Long Time] Carnegie Moscow Center, 24 February 2018. https://carnegie.ru/2018/02/24/ru-pub-75641.
  84. Tsurkov, Elizabeth. "The Syrian Mercenaries Fighting Foreign Wars for Russia and Turkey." The New York Review of Books, October 16, 2020.
  85. Uberman, Matan and Shaul Shay. "Hijrah According to the Islamic State: An Analysis of Dabiq." Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 8, no. 9 (2016): 16-20.
  86. United Nations General Assembly. Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. A/HRC/45/31, August 14, 2020.
  87. Vohra, Anchal. "Assad's Horrible War Crimes Are Finally Coming to Light Under Oath." Foreign Policy, October 16, 2020.
  88. Weiss, Michael. "Turkey's Hand in the Syrian Opposition." The Atlantic, October 26, 2011.
  89. Worth, Robert F. "Kidnapped Royalty Became Pawns in Iran's Deadly Plot." The New York Times, March 14, 2018.
  90. Yavuz, Hakan M. Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism. Oxford University Press, 2020.
  91. Ziadeh, Radwan. Power and Policy in Syria. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.