NYT: Syria’s Solidarity With Islamists Ends at Home

[Turborama]

By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: September 3, 2010


Young Syrians gathered in Damascus. A crackdown on Islamists is an effort to reassert
Syria's secularism, officials say.

DAMASCUS, Syria — This country, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/world/africa/04iht-syria.html?_r=1&scp=10&sq=michael%20slackman%20and%20syria%20and%20university&st=cse">which had sought to show solidarity with Islamist groups and allow religious figures a greater role in public life, has recently reversed course, moving forcefully to curb the influence of Muslim conservatives in its mosques, public universities and charities.

The government has asked imams for recordings of their Friday sermons and started to strictly monitor religious schools. Members of an influential Muslim women’s group have now been told to scale back activities like preaching or teaching Islamic law. And this summer, more than 1,000 teachers who wear the niqab, or the face veil, were transferred to administrative duties.

The crackdown, which began in 2008 but has gathered steam this summer, is an effort by President Bashar al-Assad to reassert Syria’s traditional secularism in the face of rising threats from radical groups in the region, Syrian officials say.

The policy amounts to a sharp reversal for Syria, which for years tolerated the rise of the conservatives. And it sets the government on the seemingly contradictory path of moving against political Islamists at home, while supporting movements like Hamas and Hezbollah abroad.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04syria.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

[Capt_Nemo]

1. Syrians should be careful about mimicking US foreign policy tactics

like this one of unleashing troublemakers on your enemmies,
while cracking down on them at home.

The US has been doing it since the Cold War started and more and more
chickens are comming home to roost every year that passes.

Syrians should have learned from the US example that the only outcome
of such policies will be blowback.