Sunday, December 11, 2016

On the sectarianism of the Syrian regime: can someone help us in deciphering this sentence?

""Syria has suffered such wounds that there will always be, in my expectation, a day of reckoning," said Nikolaos Van Dam, a former Dutch diplomat and author of a book about Syrian history and politics, speaking about the future of Assad's state.  "In a certain way, still the regime is secular but the composition is not secular," said Van Dam, who added that any hopes for future reconciliation between Syria's sects would be hard to achieve "for many, many, many years". " Not sure what he is trying to say here.  (thanks Basim)

PS If you ask me, the only truly secular Ba`thist regime was that of Salah Jadid. It was even a secular atheist regime.  Saddam, Hafidh, and Bashshal all played games with region and with sect whenever it suited their interests.