War Math!

Amidst the current chaos in Lebanon, an interesting episode occurs and brings back to mind some of the things that are at stake in this entire tragedy – a foiled prison break involving the four security officers imprisoned on suspicion of involvement in orchestrating the Hariri assassination. While we have no reason to believe the speculations in the report that the entire episode was orchestrated by Syrian intelligence, but, it does indeed stand to reason to believe that Syria would have been at least the preliminary destination of these figures. Their failure must have saved the Syrian regime some undesired attention at this stage. Still, we cannot but wonder as to the sort of other clandestine activities that are currently taken place in Lebanon, benefiting from the current state of affairs. War crimes come in different guises. Continue reading →

Few New Thoughts on an Old Divide!

Ibn Taymiyyah be damned. Not that the Alawite of his time were saints though. Indeed, they, as many mountain peoples have done throughout ancient history and the world, were busy wrecking havoc on the inhabitants of cities and villages, pillaging, looting and killing. Hence this infamous fatwa against them by Ibn Taymiyyah, which was briefly revived in the mid 70s. But even then, its revival was premised on injustice perpetrated in the name of Alawite concerns and rights. Continue reading “Few New Thoughts on an Old Divide!” →

The Case for Regime Change in Syria (4)

A point was raised in the Comments Section below to the effect that for every corrupt Alawite in the regime there is at least five corrupt Sunnis. I don’t dispute the veracity of this statement. For indeed it comes as a natural reflection of two facts: 1) demographics, that is, there are simply much more Sunnis in the country than Alawites, and 2) the politics of appeasement and co-optation, that is, if we you want to keep the Sunnis elite on the quiet side and ignore the abnormal fact of Alawite dominance of the military and the decision-making process, you have to ensure that they are corrupt. Continue reading →

In Search of the Good Alawites!

Regardless of what is happening today on the surface of things, and regardless of how much trouble Bashar & Co. have got themselves into, being able to maneuver the country into and through a peaceful democratic transition requires the aegis of a number of Good Sunnis and Good Alawites. Continue reading →