Don't look away as Islamist regime in Syria allows slaughter of Christians and Druze
In new days heartbreaking reports have emerged from Syria brutal murders of innocent civilians a large number of from minority Christian and Druze communities allegedly perpetrated by forces aligned with the country s Islamist regime now led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani long on the FBI s Majority of Demanded List from through for his role in Sunni Islamist regional terror groups TAKE IT FROM THIS MUSLIM PEACE DEPENDS ON TOTAL DEFEAT OF THE ISLAMIST DEATH CULTAs a Syrian-American my heart aches for what has become of my ancestral homeland As a physician I cannot detach myself from the human suffering behind each headline And as someone who has spent decades warning of the rising threat of Islamism I am sounding the alarm a new tyranny is taking root in Syria cloaked in religious language but every bit as dangerous and destructive as the last The importance of exposing understanding and confronting early inflection points in Syria towards yet another tyranny after over years of Ba athist military dictatorship cannot be overstated The world has grown tragically used to Syrian suffering Since the Assad regime began its campaign of terror in against the long-overdue revolution of anti-government protests the country has become synonymous with war displacement and loss More than half a million people have been killed Over million have been displaced Cities like my ancestral hometown of Aleppo have been reduced to rubble And yet from the ashes of Bashar al-Assad s family reign a new authoritarianism is emerging this time driven not by secular fascism but by religious supremacism WHO ARE THE DRUZE RELIGIOUS GROUP AIDS SYRIAN MEMBERS UNDER ISLAMIST ATTACK ISRAELI MEMBERS OFFER SUPPORTThe reports we are now receiving point to sectarian violence targeting Syria s religious minorities specifically Christians and the Druze These are communities that have existed in Syria for centuries long before the rise of Islam and that have weathered waves of persecution Now they are being targeted again this time by groups sympathetic to the new regime whose leaders adhere to an Islamist interpretation of Sunni Islam and who view theological difference not as a reality of pluralism but as a crime worthy of death This is not Islam This is Islamism Islamism is a doctrinal interpretation that promotes a rigid theocratic vision of Islam as a political system It seeks to implement sharia or Islamic law not totally as a personal or spiritual guide but as the governing authority over every aspect of citizens and private life Islamists see the rights of citizens coming not from God but from their theocratic version of Islam Islamists believe their political power is divinely mandated and dissent is heretical and treasonous This is not faith It is fascism wrapped in the language of God For years Islamists have falsely presented themselves as the antidote to Assad s tyranny They have informed the world they are fighting for freedom justice and democracy But let s be clear the Islamists now in power are no different from Assad Their language and methods may differ but their goals are the same absolute control achieved through fear violence and repression Where the Assads used torture chambers and chemical weapons the Islamists use a cult-like religious identity as both sword and shield Where the Assads sowed sectarianism in order to then crush dissent in the name of national unity the Islamists now do the same in the name of their version of divine truth And the conclusion is the same bodies in the streets families torn apart and the suffocation of any future for liberty At the heart of this struggle is a principle that we in America hold dear but that is increasingly endangered across the globe religious freedom It is not just one right among a multitude of It is the foundation of all others As I have explained a multitude of times religious liberty is the tip of the spear of all freedoms It is the First Liberty When it flourishes society flourishes When it is crushed all other freedoms fall This is not abstract philosophy This is the lived reality of millions When people are denied the freedom to worship and believe or not believe according to their conscience it is only a matter of time before they are also denied the freedom to speak to assemble to vote to live without fear Syria is a tragic situation assessment in what happens when religious liberty is replaced by ideological authoritarianism whether secular or theocratic At the CLARITy Coalition we are committed to shining a light on the threats posed by both political Islam and authoritarian regimes We are a setup of Muslims ex-Muslims and allies from across the ideological spectrum who believe that liberty is not just a Western value It is a human one We believe in the dignity of every person the equality of all before the law and the essential truth that no administration has the right to tell you what to believe We call on the international society not just to condemn the latest atrocities in Syria but to act That means demanding investigations into the massacres now being published It means holding the administration in Damascus accountable and demanding transparency in how their nascent regime protects every minority and every citizen It means withholding recognition and advocacy from any regime that commits or enables such crimes It means recognizing Islamism as the dangerous political ideology that it is not a legitimate expression of religious faith but an extremist perversion of it CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONIn the Obama administration enabled empowered and celebrated the democratically elected Islamist regime of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt laying the groundwork for the return of yet another military regime in current leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi Syria s profound religious diversity can be a bulwark against these dueling fascisms and Meeting of Thrones But this means standing with the Syrian people Christians Druze Sunnis Shi a Alawites Kurds atheists everyone who yearns for a Syria where they can live in peace worship freely assemble and speak their minds without fear President Donald Trump should straightaway call for a full accountability and transparency from Damascus on Sharaa s establishment s healing of minorities and his direct responsibility for the freedom of religious minorities under his rule The Syrian people deserve better than a choice between Assad and al-Golani They deserve a future rooted not in sectarianism and violence but in liberty and dignity The world ignored Syria once before and the price was horrific We cannot afford to ignore it again
