I have seen no end of Muslims, almost exclusively Sunni, online and in real life, celebrating the fall of the Syrian Arab Republic. Even where I live, there are Syrians celebrating it. I don’t know if it’s just sectarianism, brainwashing, or ignorance, or some combination of it, but almost all of them I have seen are celebrating this.
Be it in comment sections, social media posts, cheering in the streets of European cities, etc. How have so many of these people consistently sided with Gaza from the start, but celebrate an Israeli backed terrorist takeover of Syria?
The reaction to stories from Al Jazeera revealing the reality in Palestine were unanimously celebrated by these same people as standing up for the truth, meanwhile, when the same Al Jazeera peddles anti-Syrian propaganda, they are happy to welcome it as equally good news.
I don’t want to lose faith in the Muslims and Arabs of the world, but if they’re so mixed up in sectarianism and willing to lap up the propaganda in support of a Jihadist regime, I can’t see how we’ll ever know peace or stability in the Middle east.
The war in Syria has gone on for about 13 years now and a lot of people see this as a possible end to a conflict that killed roughly half a million people and made refugees of about 14 million more. That, and Assad is not a particularly well-liked figure. The geopolitical implications are a little grim to say the least and it is likely that the formation of the new Syrian government will lead to an entirely new set of nightmares but right now the average person probably doesn’t see that.
It’s literally the same emotional reaction that critics of the Iraq War were receiving. If you were against the Iraq War that meant you apparently loved Saddam Hussein and “weren’t listening to Iraqis.” Apparently only Syrians are allowed to have an opinion on Syria because they’re Syrians – irregardless of their ideology.
Bad faith actors on social media are using this as an opportunity to divide the anti-imperialist movement by, once again, appealing to identity politics.
It’s literally the same emotional reaction that critics of the Iraq War were receiving. If you were against the Iraq War that meant you apparently loved Saddam Hussein and “weren’t listening to Iraqis.” Apparently only Syrians are allowed to have an opinion on Syria because they’re Syrians – irregardless of their ideology.
It’s like watching people fail an open book test
online and in real life
where I live
“How come everybody else on the Death Star seems so happy Alderaan got blown up?”
I suppose what astounds me is the lack of ideological or moral consistency. They shed all the tears and show all the outrage that anyone should when it comes to Palestine, or Lebanon. Yet are cheering alongside the very people they were loudly disagreeing with over those same issues when it comes to Syria.
This is in stark contrast to the western liberals, who’s worldview is 100% consistently aligned with western imperialism. They oppose everything they are told to by their leaders, and support everything they are told to.
With these Muslims and Arabs I mentioned, they are somehow capable of seeing through this narrative, but somehow inexplicably susceptible to be blinded by it in this instance. I guess it just shed a light on how hollow the anti-imperialist movement worldwide really is, and that not nearly as much consciousness has been built by the genocide and wars over the past years. It’s disappointing, and sobering.
I use the analogy so often: USians blissfully unaware of being life-long Death Star passengers.
Yeah, it should make you stop and think when Netanyahu celebrates the same thing you do
One man’s toppling a regime and an opportunity to build anew is another man’s civil unrest and opportunity to seize more land.
First off, majority are Sunni, and Sunnis were kinda disenfranchised in Baathist Syria, kinda like how Shias were in Baathist Iraq
2nd, Al Jazeera is funded by Qatar, which itself has funded Syrian rebels
Al jazeera and mid east eye may as well be radio free America. Thwir whole pro palestine feint is a sleight of hand.
I know all about Al-Jazeera, I am well aware that Qatar have funded Syrian rebels, what I cannot wrap my head around is how many Muslims and Arabs have the total lack of political awareness to take what they say at face value. How much of the Palestinian solidarity from them is equally thin and motivated by sectarianism rather than genuine humanitarian outrage? It’s deeply disappointing and reveals that we have all failed as supporters of Palestinian freedom to educate enough people as to why the cause matters.
How much of the Palestinian solidarity from them is equally thin and motivated by sectarianism rather than genuine humanitarian outrage? It’s deeply disappointing and reveals that we have all failed as supporters of Palestinian freedom to educate enough people as to why the cause matters.
Divide and conquer. The Qatari comprador capitalist hegemone have their own interest. The Saudi-UAE-led Khaleej too. The Turks too. Which all align with the interests of the Western American-European clique, in regards to Syria.
Using the cudgel of fighting for Syrian Democracy against Syrian Baathist ‘authoritarianism’, then later “Iranian influence” and Political Shia’ism, they reason and condition with their local populations that they have a stake to behold in such endeavors, and thus in funding them, sending in foreign fighters and guns, sanctioning them and so forth
After all, the Shia and Baathist ideologies are often anti-western imperialism, socialist-oriented, and all revolutionary, threatening the spoils of empire for the following Sunni hegemones.
As you can see, in ‘The Assassination of Julius Caesar, A People’s History of Rome, by Michael Parenti’
But ideology is not merely a promotion of class interest. The function of ideology is precisely to cloak narrowly selfish interests, wedding them to a more lofty and capacious view of society. These might be summarized as follows:
First and foremost, the oligarchic clique represents its own privileged special interests as tantamount to the general interest -
This is a great summary of the forces at play in the gulf states.
Sectarianism. A lot of people in the gulf states are happy too, for the same reason. They are cool with a boot on their neck as long as it’s a sunni foot inside. There is going to be a purge in europe of Syrian refugees but a not insignificant chunk will voluntarily go back now that an alawite isn’t in charge.
It makes sense to me that people who fled Assad’s Syria generally don’t like Assad. Maybe Syrians in Syria think differently?
Maybe Syrians in Syria think differently
based on how little the army and militias fought–theoretically stronger supporters of a government–the mood must’ve been quite sour in Syria itself too
This reminds me of how self professed “leftists” in the West can be supportive od one AES (almost always Cuba) but then still have state department brainworms on PRC, DPRK, and Venezuela
Its really not that hard. As much as the alternatives were worse, the average Syrian still hated Assad. They may regret his departure in time but for now they’re celebrating. Its not like the masses are thinking about international geopolitics at the moment and its absurd to expect this from a country that’s been war torn for over a decade.
I wasn’t rereferring exclusively to Syrians. Sure they may believe this means an end to the war (which is still highly bloody debatable), but I meant specifically diaspora as well as Arabs and Muslims who are not Syrians. I’ve seen, Egyptians, Moroccans, Algerians and all manner of gulf state Arabs celebrating this. I even know Palestinian, Lebanese, Pakistani and Indonesian expats in my own town who were gladly cheering this on. These people should know better, as they’re third parties to the whole thing and should remember that this same pattern has played out in Libya and Iraq within their lifetimes.
Almost all of those groups (sans Palestinians) are under repressive regimes that they too would want to depose. It sounds like your just confused that most of Arabic world aren’t historical materialists.
