Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

by Raphael Lefevre

  In our project, it is society that provides the solid foundation of the state. Hence, we have a clear vision of an integrated network of social relations based on partnership, justice and equality. In such a society, women enjoy equal status with men and have equal rights and full participation in public life at the social, economic and political levels. However, appropriate values must be put in place to ensure that man and woman continue to fulfil the mutually complementary roles God has assigned to them.

  In our project, all individuals enjoy their positions of honour. We emphasise the freedom of belief dimension as well as our cultural identity and affiliation, advocating the need for better information, clearer awareness, mutual tolerance, common achievement and strengthening social values.

  We look at government, its apparatus and institutions, and how to reform it, as well as the policies that we consider to be the best to bring about an end to the prevailing state of tension in our country.

  Corruption, which has taken different shapes and forms, has landed our country in a deplorable state of affairs. No national initiative to eradicate corruption will succeed unless it is carried out by strong and sincere people who are able to undertake reforms and carry them through. The vicious circle of corruption can only be broken by sincere people who are committed to serve the interests of their nation.

  It is our belief that re-building our country and society on a proper moral and constitutional basis, ensuring the eradication of policies of complacency and corrupt practices, is the only practical way to give back to the citizens of Syria their freedom and to liberate the occupied territories of our homeland.

  On 3 May 2001, the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria issued its National Charter of Honour outlining a set of rules and measures of control for political action, which were presented for discussion. Similarly, our political project, which is issued today, is a human effort based on our Islamic viewpoint. It aims for positive and constructive change, and it is certainly open for discussion and revision.

  London

  4 Dhul-Qaadah 1425 H.

  16 December 2004.

  Source: “The political perspective for Syria: the Muslim Brotherhood’s vision of the future” (London, 16 December 2004, copy given to author) (Wording and style retained as in source).

  In the name of God the Merciful

  Covenant and charter

  For a free country, free life for every citizen. In this crucial stage of the history of Syria, where the dawn is born from the womb of suffering and pain, on the hands of the Syrian heros, men and women, children, youth and old men, in a national overwhelming revolution, with the participation of all components of the Syrian people, for all the Syrians. We “the muslim brotherhood in Syria”, from Islam religion true principles, based on freedom, justice, tolerance and openness. We present this covenant and charter, to all of our people, committed to it in the letter and sprit, a covenant which safeguards the rights, and a charter which dispels fears as a source of reassurance and satisfaction.

  This covenant and charter represents a national vision, common denominators, adopted by “the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria”, and introduced as a new social contract, establishing a modern and safe national relationship, among the Syrian society components, with its all religious and ethnic factions, and all current intellectual and political currents.

  “The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria” are committed to Syria in the future to be:

  1. A civil modern state with a civil constitution, coming from the will of the Syrian people, based on national harmony, written by a freely and impartially elected constituent assembly, protecting the fundamental rights of individuals and groups of any abuse or override, ensuring an equitable representation to all components of society.

  2. A democratic pluralistic deliberative country, according to the finest modern thoughts of human, a representative republic, in which people choose those who govern and represent through the ballot box, in an impartial free transparent election.

  3. A state of citizenship and equality, in which all people are equal, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, ideology or orientation, going by citizenship principles which are the basis of rights and duties, in which all citizens are allowed to reach the highest positions, based on the rule of elections and efficiency.

  4. A country that respects human rights—as approved by God laws and international charters—of dignity and equality, freedom of thought and expression, of belief and worship, of media, political participation, equality of opportunities, social justice and providing the basis needed for a decent living. In which no citizen is oppressed in his belief nor worship, or restricted in a private or general matter. A country that refuses discrimination, prevents torture and criminalizes it.

  5. A country based of dialogue and participation, not on exclusivity, exclusion or transcendence, all its people participate equally, in building and protecting it, enjoying its wealth and goods, committing to respecting all its ethnic, religious and sectarian component, and the privacy of those components, with all their civilizational, cultural and social dimensions, and the expression of these components. Considering this diversity an enriching factor, an extension to a long history of co-existence, in a generous frame of human tolerance.

  6. A state in which people govern themselves, choose their way, determine their future, with no guardianship of any autocratic ruler or one party system, and be their own decision-makers.

  7. A country with respect to institutions, based of the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, where the officials are in the service of people, and their permissions and following mechanisms are specified in the constitution, and the military and security departments responsibility is protecting homeland and people not protecting authority and regime, and do not interfere in the political competition between parties and national groups.

  8. A country that renounces terrorism and fights it, and respects international covenants, charters, treaties and conventions. As factor of security and stability in its regional and international perimeter. Establishes the best equal relations with its friends, in the forefront the neighbour Lebanon, for its people suffered—as the Syrian people—from the scourge of the system of corruption and tyranny, and works on achieving its people’s strategic interest and restoring its occupied land in all legal means, and supporting the legal demands of the Palestinian brotherly people.

  9. A state of justice and law, where there is no room for hatred, revenge and retaliation. Even those whose hands are contaminated with people’s blood, of any part, it is their right to have a fair trial, before an impartial and independent tribunal.

  10. A country of intimacy and love, between the sons of the big Syrian family, in the light of a massive reconciliation. Where all false pretexts adopted by the system of corruption and tyranny, to intimidate the citizens of one nation of each, to prolong his rule and to sustain its control on everyone.

  This is our vision and aspiration to our desired future, and this is our covenant in front of God, and our people, and in front of all people. A vision that we assure today, after a history full of national working for decades, since the founding of the brotherhood, by the hands of Dr. Mustafa Assiba’ey God’s mercy be upon him in 1945. We presented its features clearly and ambiguously, in the “national honor charter 2001”, and in our political project in 2004, and in the official papers approved by the brotherhood, on various social and national issues.

  And these are our hearts opened, our hands outstretched to all our brothers and partners in our beloved homeland, for it to take its decent position between the civilized human societies.

  “Help your one another in virtue, righteousness and piety* and do not in sin and aggression.”

  25 March 2012

  Source: Covenant and charter of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Syria, copy given to the author, 25 March 2012 (Wording and style retained as in source).

  NOTES

  PROLOGUE

  1. “Sy
ria: Why is there no Egypt-style Revolution?”, BBC News, 4 March 2011.

  2. Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem (New York: Anchor, 1990), p. 76.

  3. I will use throughout the book the term Islamist to describe those who engage in political activism as articulated through an Islamic frame of reference and discourse. The term does not necessarily refer to those who wish to put forward such vision through political violence.

  4. “American Ambassador to Syria visits focal point in uprising”, New York Times, 7 July 2011.

  5. “Kidnapping, spats on docket of Syria rebel boss”, Wall Street Journal, 17 Aug. 2012.

  6. “No one likes violence…but people know there is no going back”, The Independent, 10 Sept. 2012.

  7. “Assad: Challenge Syria at your peril”, Daily Telegraph, 29 Oct. 2011.

  8. Ibid.

  9. “Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood accuses regime of seeking to implicate it in bombings”, Nahar, 24 Dec. 2011.

  10. See, among others, “Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood claims responsibility for deadly blasts”, Herald Sun, 25 Dec. 2011.

  11. “Concerns about Al-Qaeda in Syria underscore questions about rebels”, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2012.

  12. Itamar Rabinovich, Syria under the Ba‘th, 1963–66: The Army-Party Symbiosis (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press and New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1972) and Raymond Hinnebusch, Authoritarian Power and State Formation in Ba’thist Syria: Army, Party and Peasants (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990).

  13. Hanna Batatu, Syria’s Peasantry, the Descendants of its Lesser Rural Notables, and their Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999) and Michael Van Dusen, “Syria: Downfall of a Traditional Elite” in Frank Tachau (ed.), Political Elites and Political Development in the Middle East (New York: Shenkman Publishing Company Inc., 1975).

  14. Patrick Seale, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, London, 1988) and Eberhard Kienle, Baath vs. Baath (I.B. Tauris, London, 1991).

  15. Michel Seurat, L’Etat de barbarie (Paris: Seuil, 1989) and Martin Kramer, “Syria’s Alawis and Shi’ism” in Martin Kramer (ed.), Shi’ism, Resistance and Revolution (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987).

  16. Umar Faruk Abd-Allah, The Islamic Struggle in Syria (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1983); Raymond Hinnebusch, “The Islamic Movement in Syria: Sectarian Conflict and Urban Rebellion in an Authoritarian-Populist Regime”, in Ali Dessouki (ed.), Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World (Princeton: CIS, 1982); Hana Batatu, “Syria’s Muslim Brethren”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Nov.– Dec. 1982) and Johannes Reissner, Ideologie und Politik der Muslimbrüder Syriens (Freiburg: Klaus Schwarz, 1980).

  17. Eyal Zisser, “Syria, the Baath Regime and the Islamic Movement: Stepping on a New Path?”, The Muslim World (Vol. 95, No. 1, 2005) and Robert G. Rabil, “The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood” in Barry Rubin (ed.), The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Movement (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). It should be noted, however, that Alison Pargeter’s chapter on the Syrian Brotherhood in her book provides an excellent overview of the organization’s evolution throughout history. See Alison Pargeter, The Muslim Brotherhood: The Burden of Tradition (London: Saqi Books, 2010).

  18. There are many works of excellent quality on the Egyptian Brotherhood but three useful references are Richard Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993); and Brynjar Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement (London: Ithaca, 2006).

  1. THE EMERGENCE OF A POLITICIZED ISLAM IN SYRIA (1860–1944)

  1. For a full account of the life and thought of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, see Nikki R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamail al-Din “al-Afghani” (Berkeley: University of Calfornia Press, 1983).

  2. Paul Salem, Bitter Legacy: Ideology and Politics in the Arab World (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994), pp. 91–4.

  3. Ahmed al-Rahim, “Islam and Liberty”, Journal of Democracy (Vol. 17, No. 1, 2006), p. 166.

  4. Paul Salem, op. cit., pp. 94–5.

  5. David D. Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in late Ottoman Syria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 25.

  6. David D. Commins, The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), pp. 132–3.

  7. Ibid., p. 29.

  8. Nazih Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics (New York: Routledge 1991), pp. 125–6.

  9. For a detailed discussion on Damascene Salafists’ views on Sufism, see David D. Commins (1990), op. cit., pp. 80–81. For the minority view held by al-Zahrawi, see David D. Commins (1990), op. cit., pp. 57–9.

  10. For an example representative of the Damascene Salafists’ early rebuttal of the practice of takfir, see Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi quoted in Itzchak Weissmann, Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 292–4.

  11. David D. Commins (1990), op. cit., p. 144.

  12. Ibid., pp. 126–7.

  13. Itzchak Weissmann goes even further by arguing that the “Salafi trend of Damascus constituted a religious response to the political alliance forged between the Ottoman State under the modernizing autocracy of Sultan Abdullhamid II and orthodox sufi sheikhs and ulama who were willing to mobilize the masses in his support.” See Itzchak Weissmann (2011), op. cit., p. 273.

  14. David D. Commins (1990), op. cit., p. 141.

  15. Itzchak Weissmann, Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 285–6.

  16. Elizabeth F. Thompson, Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), p. 103.

  17. Interview with Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, London, 30 Nov. 2011.

  18. UK mission to Syria cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly Political Summary”, No. 15, E1369/207/89, 26 Feb. 1942.

  19. Elizabeth F. Thompson, op. cit., p. 105.

  20. Ibid., p. 153.

  21. Ibid., p. 152.

  22. Philip S. Khoury, Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920–1945 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1987), p. 609.

  23. All of the quotes in this paragraph are drawn from the report of a political officer at the British mission in Damascus who reported on the events of the week. See UK mission to Syria cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary No. 7: Syria and the Lebanon”, E 3231/207/89, 21 May 1942.

  24. UK mission to Syria cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary No. 7: Syria and the Lebanon”, E 3231/207/89, 21 May 1942.

  25. Philip S. Khoury, op. cit., p. 611.

  26. Elizabeth F. Thompson, op. cit., p. 262.

  27. UK mission in Damascus cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary No. 3”, E3208/23/89, 26 May 1944.

  2. ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN POST-INDEPENDENCE SYRIA (1946–1963)

  1. Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 325.

  2. Paul Salem, Bitter Legacy: Ideology and Politics in the Arab World (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994), p. 119.

  3. Interview with Kamal al-Helbawy, London, 2 Sept. 2011.

  4. Richard P. Mitchell, op. cit., p. 326.

  5. Hassan al-Banna quoted in Brynjar Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement, 1928–1942 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998), p. 202.

  6. Paul Salem, op. cit., p. 99.

  7. Richard P. Mitchell, op. cit., p. 13.

  8. Brynjar Lia, op. cit., p. 215.

  9. Although Mohammed al-Hamid played an active part in setting up the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood through publicizing its activities in his home town of Hama and helping to recruit members for the grou
p, he never joined the organization as a full-blown member, as he instead preferred to devote his time to religious teaching at the Hama Sultan mosque. “He was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood but he was very much loved and admired by all the Syrian Brothers,” said Issam al-Attar, the former leader of the Brotherhood. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  10. Umar F. Abd-Allah, The Islamic Struggle in Syria (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1983), pp. 97–8.

  11. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 September 1946.

  12. Interview with Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, London, 30 Nov. 2011. Dar al-Arqam was founded by two local Islamic thinkers, Omar Bhaa Alidine al-Amari and Abd Qadar Asabsabi, who, in the early 1930s, strove to increase the social base for political Islam in their home town of Aleppo by doing more than just preaching or political activism. It was reported, for instance, that they set up night schools to teach Arabic to workers so as to decrease the levels of illiteracy in the northern metropolis—for both men and women. Interview with Zouheir Salem, London, 3 Oct. 2011.

  13. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 Sept. 1946.