Know the history
On June 15th, 1926, after fighting between French troops and Druze rebels in Damascus’s Meidan and Ghouta, a group of Alawite leaders, among them current Syrian President,Bashar Assad's grandfather Suleiman Assad, sent a memorandum to French Prime Minister Leon Blum.
Sunnis are a threat to the existence of Alawites, Assad and his colleagues write. “The spirit of hatred and intolerance plants its roots in the heart of Muslim Arabs toward everything that is non-Muslim, and is forever fueled by the spirit of the Islamic religion.”
Alawites, they say, “are people of different religious beliefs, traditions and history than the Sunni Muslim people,” adding that “in the Islamic religion, the Alawite people are considered infidels.”
In the memorandum, Suleiman Assad asks the French to protect minority groups in Syria and tells the dangers of Sunni Muslim rule, stating that ending the French Mandate would mean the annihilation of the Alawite people.
Excerpts from the memorandum written by Suleiman Assad:
Leon Blum, Prime Minister of France
June 15, 1926
On the occasion of the ongoing negotiations between France and Syria, it is an honor for us, we the Alawite leaders in Syria, to draw your attention to the following points:
The Alawite people who have kept their independence year after year, with jealousy and large sacrifices from their souls, are people of different religious beliefs, traditions, and history than the Sunni Muslim people.
The Alawite people refuse to be attached to the Muslim Syria, because Islam is considered the country’s official religion. In the Islamic religion, the Alawite people are considered infidels. So we draw your attention to what awaits the Alawites of a scary and horrible fate, if they are forced to be a part of Syria when the Mandate ends, and when [Islamic] laws derived from religion will be in a position to be applied.
Do the French leaders want to empower Muslims against the Alawite people to throw them [the Alawites] into the arms of misery?
The spirit of hatred and intolerance plants its roots in the heart of Muslim Arabs toward everything that is non-Muslim, and is forever fueled by the spirit of the Islamic religion. There is no hope that the situation will change. If the Mandate is canceled, therefore, the minorities in Syria will become exposed to a risk of death and annihilation.
We see today how the Muslims of Damascus forced the Jews living among them to sign a document pledging not to send food to their fellow, ill-fated Jews in Palestine. The Jewish situation in Palestine is clear, tangible evidence of the importance of the religious issue to Arab Muslims toward all who do not belong to Islam.
Those good Jews who came to Arab Muslims with peace and civilization, and spread on the land of Palestine gold and positive well-being, have left no sign of harm on anyone and did not take anything by force. However, Muslims have declared a ‘Holy War’ against them, and did not hesitate to slaughter their children and wives, despite the French and English presence in Palestine and Syria.
Therefore, a black fate awaits Jews and other minorities if the Mandate is cancelled, and the unification of Syrian Muslims with Palestinian ones. This unification is the supreme goal of Arab Muslims.
You might see that it is possible to secure the rights of the Alawite minority with provisions of a treaty, but we assure you that treaties have no value in the Islamic mentality. As such, we saw this previously in the treaty between England and Iraq, which prevented Iraqis from massacring the Assyrians and the Yazidi.
So, the Alawite people are gathered as signatories to this memorandum. They are crying out and asking the French government to ensure their rights and independence within their small sphere, and putting this between the hands of the French and Socialist leaders. The Alawites are loyal friends who have given great services to the French, threatened by death and annihilation.
That was 1926, let's now bounce forward to 1946:
The following is taken from Syria: A Historical Appreciation (1947, pp.221-222) and speaks of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood controlled area of Hama, Syria:
There can be few places outside the Holy Cities of Arabia where the Faith has remained so aggressive and fanatic. As in the eighteenth century, the Muslim is ipso facto the master and the Christian dog exists on sufferance. As for Jews, not one is allowed in the town.
[Islamic] faith prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks in hotels and public places … All the women are veiled with the greatest strictness … Even the Syrian Christians adopt a protective mimicry, veiling their women and assuming a Muslim pose whenever they can, while the sisters of the Sacré Coeur are obliged to tuck their crucifixes out of sight when they go abroad. The mosques are always crowded at prayer time and the movement of the suks seems to overflow into them spontaneously. Faith intrudes even on merchandising. There are times when the intensity of the town’s belief seems to excuse all that it involves of intolerance and prejudice.
The Great Mosque is the focus of Hama’s life. It is built upon the site of an earlier Byzantine church. The carved lintel and capitals of what was once presumably the west door of the church are particularly fine. That even such stone reminiscences should remain is recognizably fortuitous where the tide of Islam runs so strongly and so deep. These stones are merely debris, incorporated into a now Muslim wall, and its at Hama that the stranger understands better than elsewhere in the country what must have been the initial force which overspread half the Byzantine Empire and submerged all ancient Syria.
In such a setting of faith and feudalism it is not surprising that the population should be notoriously farouche [sullen; recalcitrant], hostile not only to the European, but even to the neighboring inhabitants of Homs. Their mood is expressed in sudden violence and rash riots. Prior to 1932 disturbances closed the Hama suks twenty-one times in three years, and the same sporadic unpredictable outbreaks still occur. It is a place of [Islamic] fanatical certainties and uncertain passions which it is difficult for the western mind to comprehend.
Because of the violence conducted by Islamist factions, and its hindering of normalcy of minority groups in Syria, Islam was removed from the Syrian Constitution in 1946 in an attempt to end the prejudice and hatred towards the many various minority groups in Syria.
Now let's jump forward from 1963-1982:
The Muslim Brotherhood formed opposition to secular and socialist Baath party in 1963.
The Muslim Brotherhood rejected the presidency of Hafez Assad (1971).
Hama was the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters and Brotherhood's opposition towards President Hafez Assad intensified during the second half of the 1970s.
From 1979-1982, the Muslim Brotherhood began organizing an uprising and stockpiled weapons in the mosques in Hama. Their first target was a gathering of army cadets in which the Muslim Brotherhood massacred more than 50 cadets. The Brotherhood then bombed the prime minister’s office, the Air Force headquarters, a military recruitment center, a Damascus newspaper building (which killed 76 people and injured many others).
On February 1982, a group of 150-200 armed Muslim Brotherhood, called the "secret apparatus" moved into Hama. Added to the about 200 "secret apparatus" members running the militant operations, there was a total of at least 10,000 armed Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood proceeded to attack members of the government, senior administrators and military heads. Several members of the Baath party were assassinated in their homes along with their wives and children. Several Christian clerics who had condemned the crimes of the Syrian Muslim Brothers in Syria were also targeted. At least 90 people were killed in these various attacks.
The battles that ensued to stop the Muslim Brotherhood resulted in the death of 3,412 Syrian Army members and more than 5,000 injured.
The result was that the Brotherhood were crushed, the insurgency ended. The Muslim Brotherhood had been declared a terrorist group. For 30 years there had been full peace in Syria. Until the "Arab Spring", which began as a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria.
References
Fedden, Robin. Syria: A Historical Appreciation. London: 1947, pp.221-222.
Syria Direct. Suleiman's Memorandum.
On June 15th, 1926, after fighting between French troops and Druze rebels in Damascus’s Meidan and Ghouta, a group of Alawite leaders, among them current Syrian President,Bashar Assad's grandfather Suleiman Assad, sent a memorandum to French Prime Minister Leon Blum.
Sunnis are a threat to the existence of Alawites, Assad and his colleagues write. “The spirit of hatred and intolerance plants its roots in the heart of Muslim Arabs toward everything that is non-Muslim, and is forever fueled by the spirit of the Islamic religion.”
Alawites, they say, “are people of different religious beliefs, traditions and history than the Sunni Muslim people,” adding that “in the Islamic religion, the Alawite people are considered infidels.”
In the memorandum, Suleiman Assad asks the French to protect minority groups in Syria and tells the dangers of Sunni Muslim rule, stating that ending the French Mandate would mean the annihilation of the Alawite people.
Excerpts from the memorandum written by Suleiman Assad:
Leon Blum, Prime Minister of France
June 15, 1926
On the occasion of the ongoing negotiations between France and Syria, it is an honor for us, we the Alawite leaders in Syria, to draw your attention to the following points:
The Alawite people who have kept their independence year after year, with jealousy and large sacrifices from their souls, are people of different religious beliefs, traditions, and history than the Sunni Muslim people.
The Alawite people refuse to be attached to the Muslim Syria, because Islam is considered the country’s official religion. In the Islamic religion, the Alawite people are considered infidels. So we draw your attention to what awaits the Alawites of a scary and horrible fate, if they are forced to be a part of Syria when the Mandate ends, and when [Islamic] laws derived from religion will be in a position to be applied.
Do the French leaders want to empower Muslims against the Alawite people to throw them [the Alawites] into the arms of misery?
The spirit of hatred and intolerance plants its roots in the heart of Muslim Arabs toward everything that is non-Muslim, and is forever fueled by the spirit of the Islamic religion. There is no hope that the situation will change. If the Mandate is canceled, therefore, the minorities in Syria will become exposed to a risk of death and annihilation.
We see today how the Muslims of Damascus forced the Jews living among them to sign a document pledging not to send food to their fellow, ill-fated Jews in Palestine. The Jewish situation in Palestine is clear, tangible evidence of the importance of the religious issue to Arab Muslims toward all who do not belong to Islam.
Those good Jews who came to Arab Muslims with peace and civilization, and spread on the land of Palestine gold and positive well-being, have left no sign of harm on anyone and did not take anything by force. However, Muslims have declared a ‘Holy War’ against them, and did not hesitate to slaughter their children and wives, despite the French and English presence in Palestine and Syria.
Therefore, a black fate awaits Jews and other minorities if the Mandate is cancelled, and the unification of Syrian Muslims with Palestinian ones. This unification is the supreme goal of Arab Muslims.
You might see that it is possible to secure the rights of the Alawite minority with provisions of a treaty, but we assure you that treaties have no value in the Islamic mentality. As such, we saw this previously in the treaty between England and Iraq, which prevented Iraqis from massacring the Assyrians and the Yazidi.
So, the Alawite people are gathered as signatories to this memorandum. They are crying out and asking the French government to ensure their rights and independence within their small sphere, and putting this between the hands of the French and Socialist leaders. The Alawites are loyal friends who have given great services to the French, threatened by death and annihilation.
That was 1926, let's now bounce forward to 1946:
The following is taken from Syria: A Historical Appreciation (1947, pp.221-222) and speaks of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood controlled area of Hama, Syria:
There can be few places outside the Holy Cities of Arabia where the Faith has remained so aggressive and fanatic. As in the eighteenth century, the Muslim is ipso facto the master and the Christian dog exists on sufferance. As for Jews, not one is allowed in the town.
[Islamic] faith prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks in hotels and public places … All the women are veiled with the greatest strictness … Even the Syrian Christians adopt a protective mimicry, veiling their women and assuming a Muslim pose whenever they can, while the sisters of the Sacré Coeur are obliged to tuck their crucifixes out of sight when they go abroad. The mosques are always crowded at prayer time and the movement of the suks seems to overflow into them spontaneously. Faith intrudes even on merchandising. There are times when the intensity of the town’s belief seems to excuse all that it involves of intolerance and prejudice.
The Great Mosque is the focus of Hama’s life. It is built upon the site of an earlier Byzantine church. The carved lintel and capitals of what was once presumably the west door of the church are particularly fine. That even such stone reminiscences should remain is recognizably fortuitous where the tide of Islam runs so strongly and so deep. These stones are merely debris, incorporated into a now Muslim wall, and its at Hama that the stranger understands better than elsewhere in the country what must have been the initial force which overspread half the Byzantine Empire and submerged all ancient Syria.
In such a setting of faith and feudalism it is not surprising that the population should be notoriously farouche [sullen; recalcitrant], hostile not only to the European, but even to the neighboring inhabitants of Homs. Their mood is expressed in sudden violence and rash riots. Prior to 1932 disturbances closed the Hama suks twenty-one times in three years, and the same sporadic unpredictable outbreaks still occur. It is a place of [Islamic] fanatical certainties and uncertain passions which it is difficult for the western mind to comprehend.
Because of the violence conducted by Islamist factions, and its hindering of normalcy of minority groups in Syria, Islam was removed from the Syrian Constitution in 1946 in an attempt to end the prejudice and hatred towards the many various minority groups in Syria.
Now let's jump forward from 1963-1982:
The Muslim Brotherhood formed opposition to secular and socialist Baath party in 1963.
The Muslim Brotherhood rejected the presidency of Hafez Assad (1971).
Hama was the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters and Brotherhood's opposition towards President Hafez Assad intensified during the second half of the 1970s.
From 1979-1982, the Muslim Brotherhood began organizing an uprising and stockpiled weapons in the mosques in Hama. Their first target was a gathering of army cadets in which the Muslim Brotherhood massacred more than 50 cadets. The Brotherhood then bombed the prime minister’s office, the Air Force headquarters, a military recruitment center, a Damascus newspaper building (which killed 76 people and injured many others).
On February 1982, a group of 150-200 armed Muslim Brotherhood, called the "secret apparatus" moved into Hama. Added to the about 200 "secret apparatus" members running the militant operations, there was a total of at least 10,000 armed Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood proceeded to attack members of the government, senior administrators and military heads. Several members of the Baath party were assassinated in their homes along with their wives and children. Several Christian clerics who had condemned the crimes of the Syrian Muslim Brothers in Syria were also targeted. At least 90 people were killed in these various attacks.
The battles that ensued to stop the Muslim Brotherhood resulted in the death of 3,412 Syrian Army members and more than 5,000 injured.
The result was that the Brotherhood were crushed, the insurgency ended. The Muslim Brotherhood had been declared a terrorist group. For 30 years there had been full peace in Syria. Until the "Arab Spring", which began as a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria.
References
Fedden, Robin. Syria: A Historical Appreciation. London: 1947, pp.221-222.
Syria Direct. Suleiman's Memorandum.