Monday, June 03, 2013

Nusrah and other Islamists in Syria

Comrade Amer wrote this in Arabic on his Facebook page (my translation): "To draw a decisive line between the Nusrah Front and other armed groups in Syria is nothing but evidence of confusion of thought and foolish subservience to standards of Western hegemony in politics and culture.  The distinction between Nusrah Front and others is purely a legal matter that concerns the US government alone, and does not concern us one bit...As far as we are concerned, and as far as our reality and future and political alternatives, what is really the difference--in the ideology, outlook vis-a-vis the society, and in practices and deeds--between Nusrah Front and "Ahrar Ash-Sham" or "Suqur Ash-Sham" or "Ansar Ash-Sham" or "Al-Ghuraba'" or or or.  Nothing expresses the poverty of Arab culture and the enslavement  of a large sector of our elites like the attitudes toward Nusrah Front. Many of the intellectuals and politicians in Syria have considered Nusrah Front an essential element of the "Syrian revolution" and swearing that they never saw bad thing from it, until the US placed Nusrah on its terrorism list, so the same elites started making the Nusrah Front the exception, as if it is alone the problem, calling for its isolation and promoting for alternatives to it, mostly creations of the CIA.  It is enough for the US to to draw a line in the sand for them to prostrate behind it, and they expect us to take them seriously.  If only they are committed to the causes of their people and the red lines like their commitment to US laws and the desires of the funders.