Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the abolition of al-Ta’ifiyya (sectarianism) has become the ‘sacred’ dogma of the Syrian state. An ‘Arab identity’ was invented reflecting the local cultures of ‘resistance’ and ‘religious coexistence’. Arabness, however, proved insufficient to instill on the populace a strong sense of citizenship and loyalty to the Syrian Arab Republic. Syrians have not been the citizens of a civil society but rather the members of religious communities destined to abstain from politics for life and praise central authority. Throughout the country’s civil war, sectarianism along with the intervention of regional powers prevented the opposition from convincing the non – Sunni population, of its capacity to maintain a civil state alternative to Baathist rule. On the contrary, sectarianism strengthened Assad’s argument vis-à-vis the West that he is the sole protector of religious pluralism in an ISIS – stricken Middle East. Taking into consideration that the regime has retaken most territories and the demographic shifts and internal displacements in its favor, the main question posed by this paper is whether Assad’s victory should be viewed as a victory for the country’s minorities or not. We argue that the Syrians, who remained under Assad’s control, have been transformed from ‘the citizens of the republic’ to the ‘members of protected groups’ in the narratives of the state regarding Syria’s ‘resurrection’. Therefore, the paper discusses the notion of sectarianism in post-war Syria and its historical dynamics in defining and forging political communities in the Middle East