From Colin:
"I believe media propagandists in Nazi Germany were convicted of facilitating genocide for sectarian incitement?
"In Homs city, Abu Ahmed, a commander of the FSA-aligned al-Farouq brigade, said: "The regime is encouraging Alawite families in the Homs countryside who have friction with Sunnis to head to Alawite districts in the city. We are pretty sure that the regime wants to take Homs city and countryside and make it just for Alawites."
Hm. I presume the commander of the al-Farouq brigade would tell us up front if these Alawites were facing difficulties living in Sunni rebel dominated areas, right?
So there couldn't be any reason why they would leave such areas to move to "Alawite districts of Homs" other than sectarian cleansing of Sunni Homs residents.Wait...
How does Alawites moving into Alawite districts lead to sectarian cleansing of Sunnis? ...But maybe this guy is on to something big...
If Assad is planning to cleanse Homs of Sunnis... We should be expecting a pullout of all Sunni soldiers in the SAA from Homs, right? That sounds pretty significant.Compare:comments from sources with clear anti-regime agenda are NEVER given any sectarian affiliation at all,
which of course lessens the perception of them as pursuing a sectarian agenda:
"What else could be going on?" asked one resident who refused to be identified. "This is the most secure area of the city and it is the only building that has been burned. A conspiracy is underway."
"There have been obvious examples of denominational cleansing in different areas in Homs," said local activist, Abu Rami. "It is denominational cleansing; part of a major Iranian Shia plan, which is obvious through the involvement of Hezbollah and Iranian militias. And it's also part of Assad's personal Alawite state project."
But Alawites are routinely identified as such, sometimes with NO other information about them other than being an Alawite:
""There was one [supply run] in 2012 and two months ago," one Alawite said. "Now every household in the Alawite villages across the coast receives a government-sponsored package of an AK‑47, two hand grenades and ammunition. If you joined a 'public resistance movement' you'd receive a lot more.""
"Residents of Alawite strongholds in Tartus and Latakia confirmed that arms had been offered to them three times since the uprising began in March 2011."
But Tartus and Latakia are majority Sunni. So how can they be Alawite strongholds? In fact, they are REGIME strongholds, not Alawite strongholds.
(the sentence could be read
differently if it were alawite sectarian strongholds within a divided city, but
that isn't the case, there is no contested control in those regions)
Even within the article it acknowledges that the "Alawite State retreating to ethnically cleansed homeland when Damascus falls" doesn't match up with current reality,
even though they rely on that premise for much of the article as a plausible rationale for much of the commentary and conclusions drawn.
You would be amused that Israel manages to play a special cameo role, supposedly negotiating over the (now revealed to be very unlikely, but don't let that affect your judgement of the reliability of FSA sources) "Alawite retreat from Damascus" scenario: what was the negotiation? Returning or revealing the location of a handful of Israeli military who were captured in Lebanon (ON OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS, obviously). as well as the body of Israeli spy caught and executed in Syria. The article didn't make it clear how hard of a bargain Israel insisted on driving in order to cooperate with a religious minority not being subject to an exterminationist sectarian cleansing."
"I believe media propagandists in Nazi Germany were convicted of facilitating genocide for sectarian incitement?
This is from Guardian, going head over
heals justifying a sectarian hate narrative in some country it's editors hardly
know about.
Promoting sectarian/racist hate when you yourself have no particular beef with (or barely know the existence of)
that particular group has got to be just a step lower than the actual racists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/22/syria-sunnis-fear-alawite-ethnic-cleansing
Syrian Sunnis fear Assad regime wants to 'ethnically cleanse' Alawite heartland
Martin Chulov and Mona Mahmood
The Guardian, Monday 22 July 2013 15.06 EDT
It gives exactly one minor counterexample of Sunni rebel "cleansing" Alawites,
yet every single paragraph leads one to the conclusion that the Syrian state/allied militia are uniquely and intentionally pursuing an 'sectarian cleansing' agenda.
No mentioning of the sectarian cleansing of christians in Qusair (before being retaken) or multitudes of other towns, who were told "convert or die".No mentioning of the replete examples of explicit exterminationist sectarian agenda of the Sunni-sectarian rebels.OF COURSE no mention of Sunnis living in government controlled districts and fighting for regime forces.
It gives a bunch of examples of the regime arming Alawite civilians as proof of sectarian cleansing agenda.
What non-Sunnis are being armed by the rebels? Get real."The general mood among pro-Assad people started to include the possibility of the fall of Damascus, which leaves them under the rule of the FSA [Free Syrian Army rebels] and the Sunnis ... and for the majority of people here it is better to live in an Alawite state, which they feel should include Homs."
Of course nobody is particularly fearing the fall of Damascus now. So all the Sunni-sectarian's theories have been proved to be bullshit.
This whole theory was predicated on their triumphalist strategic thinking which implied the functional sectarian cleansing of Damascus BY Sunnis against Alawites.
"There have been obvious examples of denominational cleansing in different areas in Homs," said local activist, Abu Rami. "It is denominational cleansing; part of a major Iranian Shia plan, which is obvious through the involvement of Hezbollah and Iranian militias. And it's also part of Assad's personal Alawite state project."
"The Syrian regime is using a few military men who served during the civil war in Lebanon as military advisers and they came up with this plan of isolating Alawite villages and Sunni districts. A plan they executed in Lebanon is now history repeating itself."
Oh yes, the Lebanon war experience. SAA fighting Hezbollah.
Involvement of Hezbollah obviously proves a sectarian cleansing agenda. Except Hezbollah has not been implicated in that at all.
I mean, if they were, I'd think FSA/SOHR would mention it. And this is all part of Assad's personal Alawite state "project".
NEWSFLASH: Syria was already Assad's personal state, and he benefitted from including non-Alawite's in it.
No mention of the fact that ALL non-Sunni (and plenty of Sunnis, both Arabs and especially Kurds) are more comfortable with Assad than the "rebels". Some Alawite state.
"Nine months ago, the regime created the National Defence Army, which is Shabiha [loyalist militia of Shia and Alawite] volunteers," he said. "They are the most bloody killers, even more brutal than the army."
I'm pretty sure the Guardian itself has written of NDA/Shabiha including members of others sects, Christians in particular. Are Christians now crypto-Shia along with Alawites?
They quote Jumblatt but never mention the position of Syrian Druze.
(I guess the Druze who go along with the regime must count as Shia as well, only the 'good' Druze like Jumblatt are not amongst the Shia dogs?)
Jumblatt: "The crucial point was when the battle of Homs started and it quickly became clear that the regime wanted to clear the whole route to Damascus and beyond.
Wait: When did the battle of Homs start? When rebels started trying to take it over and shooting regime forces? Or when the regime started winning?
Promoting sectarian/racist hate when you yourself have no particular beef with (or barely know the existence of)
that particular group has got to be just a step lower than the actual racists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/22/syria-sunnis-fear-alawite-ethnic-cleansing
Syrian Sunnis fear Assad regime wants to 'ethnically cleanse' Alawite heartland
Martin Chulov and Mona Mahmood
The Guardian, Monday 22 July 2013 15.06 EDT
It gives exactly one minor counterexample of Sunni rebel "cleansing" Alawites,
yet every single paragraph leads one to the conclusion that the Syrian state/allied militia are uniquely and intentionally pursuing an 'sectarian cleansing' agenda.
No mentioning of the sectarian cleansing of christians in Qusair (before being retaken) or multitudes of other towns, who were told "convert or die".No mentioning of the replete examples of explicit exterminationist sectarian agenda of the Sunni-sectarian rebels.OF COURSE no mention of Sunnis living in government controlled districts and fighting for regime forces.
It gives a bunch of examples of the regime arming Alawite civilians as proof of sectarian cleansing agenda.
What non-Sunnis are being armed by the rebels? Get real."The general mood among pro-Assad people started to include the possibility of the fall of Damascus, which leaves them under the rule of the FSA [Free Syrian Army rebels] and the Sunnis ... and for the majority of people here it is better to live in an Alawite state, which they feel should include Homs."
Of course nobody is particularly fearing the fall of Damascus now. So all the Sunni-sectarian's theories have been proved to be bullshit.
This whole theory was predicated on their triumphalist strategic thinking which implied the functional sectarian cleansing of Damascus BY Sunnis against Alawites.
"There have been obvious examples of denominational cleansing in different areas in Homs," said local activist, Abu Rami. "It is denominational cleansing; part of a major Iranian Shia plan, which is obvious through the involvement of Hezbollah and Iranian militias. And it's also part of Assad's personal Alawite state project."
"The Syrian regime is using a few military men who served during the civil war in Lebanon as military advisers and they came up with this plan of isolating Alawite villages and Sunni districts. A plan they executed in Lebanon is now history repeating itself."
Oh yes, the Lebanon war experience. SAA fighting Hezbollah.
Involvement of Hezbollah obviously proves a sectarian cleansing agenda. Except Hezbollah has not been implicated in that at all.
I mean, if they were, I'd think FSA/SOHR would mention it. And this is all part of Assad's personal Alawite state "project".
NEWSFLASH: Syria was already Assad's personal state, and he benefitted from including non-Alawite's in it.
No mention of the fact that ALL non-Sunni (and plenty of Sunnis, both Arabs and especially Kurds) are more comfortable with Assad than the "rebels". Some Alawite state.
"Nine months ago, the regime created the National Defence Army, which is Shabiha [loyalist militia of Shia and Alawite] volunteers," he said. "They are the most bloody killers, even more brutal than the army."
I'm pretty sure the Guardian itself has written of NDA/Shabiha including members of others sects, Christians in particular. Are Christians now crypto-Shia along with Alawites?
They quote Jumblatt but never mention the position of Syrian Druze.
(I guess the Druze who go along with the regime must count as Shia as well, only the 'good' Druze like Jumblatt are not amongst the Shia dogs?)
Jumblatt: "The crucial point was when the battle of Homs started and it quickly became clear that the regime wanted to clear the whole route to Damascus and beyond.
Wait: When did the battle of Homs start? When rebels started trying to take it over and shooting regime forces? Or when the regime started winning?
I thought before fighting started the regime was in complete control of
Homs, so what would there be to clear?
"In Homs city, Abu Ahmed, a commander of the FSA-aligned al-Farouq brigade, said: "The regime is encouraging Alawite families in the Homs countryside who have friction with Sunnis to head to Alawite districts in the city. We are pretty sure that the regime wants to take Homs city and countryside and make it just for Alawites."
Hm. I presume the commander of the al-Farouq brigade would tell us up front if these Alawites were facing difficulties living in Sunni rebel dominated areas, right?
So there couldn't be any reason why they would leave such areas to move to "Alawite districts of Homs" other than sectarian cleansing of Sunni Homs residents.Wait...
How does Alawites moving into Alawite districts lead to sectarian cleansing of Sunnis? ...But maybe this guy is on to something big...
If Assad is planning to cleanse Homs of Sunnis... We should be expecting a pullout of all Sunni soldiers in the SAA from Homs, right? That sounds pretty significant.Compare:comments from sources with clear anti-regime agenda are NEVER given any sectarian affiliation at all,
which of course lessens the perception of them as pursuing a sectarian agenda:
"What else could be going on?" asked one resident who refused to be identified. "This is the most secure area of the city and it is the only building that has been burned. A conspiracy is underway."
"There have been obvious examples of denominational cleansing in different areas in Homs," said local activist, Abu Rami. "It is denominational cleansing; part of a major Iranian Shia plan, which is obvious through the involvement of Hezbollah and Iranian militias. And it's also part of Assad's personal Alawite state project."
But Alawites are routinely identified as such, sometimes with NO other information about them other than being an Alawite:
""There was one [supply run] in 2012 and two months ago," one Alawite said. "Now every household in the Alawite villages across the coast receives a government-sponsored package of an AK‑47, two hand grenades and ammunition. If you joined a 'public resistance movement' you'd receive a lot more.""
"Residents of Alawite strongholds in Tartus and Latakia confirmed that arms had been offered to them three times since the uprising began in March 2011."
But Tartus and Latakia are majority Sunni. So how can they be Alawite strongholds? In fact, they are REGIME strongholds, not Alawite strongholds.
How is this much different than Nazi propaganda identifying a few Jewish
hate-figures as synonymous with Jewish people at large?
Of course the recent battles of regime and armed rebels indicate rebels ARE
running offensive operations in this area, thus a reason for security.
When rebels like car-bombing in civilian areas, that means regime security
in civilian areas, simple enough.
Even within the article it acknowledges that the "Alawite State retreating to ethnically cleansed homeland when Damascus falls" doesn't match up with current reality,
even though they rely on that premise for much of the article as a plausible rationale for much of the commentary and conclusions drawn.
You would be amused that Israel manages to play a special cameo role, supposedly negotiating over the (now revealed to be very unlikely, but don't let that affect your judgement of the reliability of FSA sources) "Alawite retreat from Damascus" scenario: what was the negotiation? Returning or revealing the location of a handful of Israeli military who were captured in Lebanon (ON OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS, obviously). as well as the body of Israeli spy caught and executed in Syria. The article didn't make it clear how hard of a bargain Israel insisted on driving in order to cooperate with a religious minority not being subject to an exterminationist sectarian cleansing."
