On November 14, 2013, Abd
al-Kader al-Saleh, commander of the powerful Tawhid Brigades, died. He was
injured in an earlier airstrike that killed several of his group’s top leaders.
In a matter of days, al-Tawhid Brigades—one of the armed wings of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Syria—descended into chaos. Its surviving leaders claimed that
the Syrian army could not have carried out the deadly strike without inside
help. They promised to avenge their leaders and purge the rebels of
anti-revolution elements. At that moment, the seed of dissent among Islamist
groups sprouted.
A week later, more rebels, previously affiliated with the Free
Syrian Army (FSA), formed new alliances. A month later, two new entities were
formally announced: al-Jabhah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Front) and Jaysh al-Islam
(the Army of Islam). Before the end of December, a third coalition, Jabhat
al-Thuwwar (the Rebels’ Front), was born. The other two dominant groups in
Syria, Jabhat al-Nusrah (Nusra) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(ISIS; Da`ish), remained intact and separate. By this time, the FSA was in free
fall.
The new rebel
formations are a recast of old players in new roles dictated by political and
diplomatic developments involving regional and global powers. The Islamic
Front, for instance, was an alliance that brought together ideologically
disparate groups: Ahrar al-Shaam (Jihadi Salafi inclination), Suqur al-Shaam
and Liwa’ al-Tawhid (Muslim Brotherhood), Jaysh al-Islam (Salafi and former
Muslim Brotherhood members with Saudi connections), and Liwa’ al-Haqq, to name
a few.
Similarly, Jabhat al-Thuwwar
consisted of former FSA fighters, secular groups, and local rebels groups,
aimed to provide a counter-weight to Islamists.
Without doubt, the
reshuffle among rebel groups was triggered in part by the prospect of the
January 22 international meeting known as Geneva-2 proposed by the U.S. and Russia
and sponsored by the UN. The meeting is intended to bring together
representatives of the Syrian government and opposition as well as top
diplomats from about thirty countries to develop a road map that could lead to
a political solution to the bloody conflict in Syria. The majority of the
powerful armed groups inside Syria refuse to authorize politicians from the
Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and
Opposition Forces (the Syrian Coalition; Etilaf) and the National Coordination
Body for Democratic Change (NCB), to represent them or even participate. In
fact, leaders from Nusra and ISIS have declared anyone participating in
Geneva-2 “a legitimate target.” This context explains the mass resignation from
the Syrian Coalition and the failure of the remaining members to make any
decision about attendance and composition of the negotiating team.
On January 3, the
Islamic Front and several other rebel groups launched armed strikes against
ISIS. As of this writing, according to even pro-rebel Arab media, about 340 rebels have been killed and
the inter-rebel clashes have spread to central and southern Syria. The Syrian
Coalition has declared its support for the Islamic Front, accusing ISIS of
carrying out an agenda that serves the regime. Al-Nusra, the official
representative of al-Qaeda in Syria, proposed a truce among the rebels and
blamed ISIS for creating an untimely distraction from the fight against the “Shi`i
and Nusayri infidels.”
ISIS spokesperson Abu Muhammad
al-Adnani accused FSA and other Islamist fighters of conspiracy and
collaboration with foreign intelligence. He specifically accused ISIS’s opponents
of being “tools
in the hands of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to prevent the creation of
the Islamic state in Syria.” He threatened to track and kill all those who
oppose ISIS, calling such persons “apostates and infidels.” A day earlier,
al-Nusra’s Abu
Muhammad al-Joulani had accused ISIS of murder, kidnapping, and theft. In
the days to come, more infighting will take place and each of the rebel groups
will release images and videos depicting the brutality of their opponents,
validating earlier findings of war
crimes and human rights abuses.
This turn of events is
a preview of what could happen on a larger scale should the Syrian military and
government collapse before strong substitute institutions are in place. Rebel
groups may be fighting one another, but they remain united in promoting a
vision of exclusion and a path to power by cruel force. The infighting among
Syrian rebels substantiates the absurdity of the idea that military
interventions and armed rebellions can produce stable, representative
governments. Once violence is legitimized as a tool for political change, the
rule of law and civil discourse are the first, but not last, victims.
It has been only seven
days since the start of the infighting among Syria’s rebels, but the number of reports
of summary executions,
murder, and abuse of civilians at the hands of rebel fighters is troublingly
high. One can only expect more images of horror and brutality in the next few
days and weeks. The use of religion to justify killing people who belong to the
rebels’ own sect (in this case Sunnis) proves their unlimited willingness to
make war on others and, fundamentally, the moral failing of sectarian actors. This
infighting justifies the fear people belonging to other sects, religions, and
ethnicities experience when faced with an entity that sees a religious
imperative to eliminate another. It has become evident that many of the rebels
are not fighting the Syrian regime because it is authoritarian and undemocratic, but because it is
religiously different. A war on difference is a war on diversity, and a war on
diversity is genocidal.
____________
* Prof. SOUAIAIA teaches at the University
of Iowa. His most recent book, Anatomy
of Dissent in Islamic Societies, provides a historical and theoretical
treatment of rebellious movements and ideas since the rise of Islam. Opinions
are the author’s, speaking on matters of public interest; not speaking for the
university or any other organization with which he is affiliated.
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