14. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in “Muslim Brothers faithful to chief: an interview with Mustapha al-Sibai”, New York Times, 27 Feb. 1955.
15. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 Sept. 1946.
16. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 Sept. 1946.
17. Ibid.
18. Joshua Teitelbaum, “The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, 1945–1958: Founding, Social Origins, Ideology”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 65, No. 2, 2011), p. 222.
19. Arnaud Lenfant, “L’évolution du salafisme dans la Syrie contemporaine”, in Bernard Rougier (ed.), Qu’est ce que le salafisme? (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2008), p. 166.
20. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in Umar F. Abd-Allah, op. cit., p. 95.
21. Said Hawwa quoted in Itzchak Weismann, “The Politics of Popular Religion: Sufis, Salafis and Muslim Brothers in 20th Century Hamah”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 37, 2005), p. 52.
22. Ibid.
23. For more on Abdel Qadir al-Jazairi’s plea for good Christian-Muslim relations, see David D. Commins, op. cit., p. 27.
24. See Brynjar Lia on the refusal to form a political party. For the Egyptian Ikhwan’s vision of democracy, see Richard P. Mitchell, op. cit., pp. 246–8.
25. Itzchak Weissmann, “Democratic Fundamentalism? The Practice and Discourse of the Muslim Brothers Movement in Syria”, The Muslim World (Vol. 100, No. 1, 2010), p. 8.
26. Umar F. Abd-Allah, op. cit., p. 95.
27. Stephen Humphreys, “Islam and Political Values in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 33, No. 1, 1979), p. 6.
28. Philip S. Khoury, op. cit., p. 604.
29. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Mr. Weld-Foster to Mr. Eyres (enclosure in No. 38)”, E 111 31 Feb. 89; 25 Oct. 1946.
30. For more on the “Union of Ulama”, see Thomas Pierret, Baas et Islam en Syrie: la dynastie Assad face aux oulémas (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France/Collection Proche Orient, 2011), pp. 225–36.
31. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria: weekly political summary”, No. 5, E7787/171/89; 25 Aug. 1947.
32. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 Sept. 1946.
33. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in Joshua Teitelbaum, “The Muslim Brotherhood and the ‘Struggle for Syria’, 1947–1958: Between Accommodation and Ideology”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 40, No. 3, 2004), pp. 137–8.
34. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Events leading to the formation of the Khalid al-Azm Cabinet”, No. 158, EY 1015/4; 7 Jan. 1950.
35. See, for example, the description in a cable from the British Embassy in Damascus of the Brotherhood’s programme in August 1947 as “highly reactionary”. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary/secret”, E7787/171/89, 25 Aug. 1947.
36. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in Joshua Teitelbaum (2004), op. cit., p. 143.
37. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Events leading up to the formation of Khalid al-Azm’s Cabinet”; EY 1015/4, No. 158, 7 Jan. 1950.
38. Joshua Teitelbaum (2004), op. cit., p. 144.
39. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in Radwan Ziadeh, Power and Policy in Syria: the Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011), p. 136.
40. Thomas Pierret (2011), op. cit., pp. 232–3.
41. “Sheikh Mustafa Sibai” in UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
42. Interview with Nawal al-Sibai, email correspondence, 12 Dec. 2011.
43. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 234, E 10682/213/89, 30 Oct. 1946.
44. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary”, No. 7, E 2101/171/89, 11 Feb. 1947.
45. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 225, E8688/213/89, 6 Aug. 1946.
46. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary”, No. 7, E 10404/171/89, 7 Nov. 1947. See also UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 225, E 8688/213/89, 6 Aug. 1946 and UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria and the Palestine Question”, No. 143, E 11851/11283/89, 15 Dec. 1947.
47. For more on the pro-Palestinian activism of the Ba’ath Party in the late 1940s see UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Disturbances in Syria”, No. 136, E 15809/2603/89, 13 Dec. 1947.
48. Interview with Zouheir Salem, London, 3 Oct. 2011.
49. Mustapha al-Sibai, “Islamic Socialism”, in Kemal H. Karpat (ed.), Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (London: Pall Mall, 1968), p. 124.
50. Mustapha al-Sibai quoted in Joshua Teitelbaum (2011), op. cit., p. 224.
51. This led, among other things, to mass demonstrations by the Ikhwan in front of the Communist Party headquarters in Damascus and the Friends of Soviet Russia building. See “Syria and the Palestine Question”, No. 143, E 11851/11283/89, 15 Dec. 1947.
52. UK cable to Foreign Office, “Observations on Communism in Syria (secret)”, No. 75, PR 57/17/6, 6 May 1952.
53. “Ma’ruf Dawalibi” in UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria (secret)”, No. 103, EY 1012/1, 9 July 1951.
54. “Muhammed Mubarak”, in UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
55. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary”, No. 3, E 3208/23/89, 26 May 1944.
56. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Briefing on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, dispatch No. 123”, E 9414/1211/89, 23 Sept. 1946.
57. Mustapha al-Sibai, “Islamic Socialism”, Chapter 19 in Kemal H. Karpat (ed.), Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (London: Pall Mall, 1968), p. 126.
58. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary”, No. 241, E12267/213/89, 3 Dec. 1946.
59. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Trade union activities in Syria”, No. 20, E 1349/1349/89, 13 Feb. 1947.
60. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 234, E 10682/213/89, 30 Oct. 1946.
61. Umar F. Abd Allah, op. cit., p. 94.
62. Ibid., p. 93.
63. Mustapha al-Sibai, “Islamic Socialism”, in Kemal H. Karpat (1968) Ibid., p. 126.
64. Muhammed al-Mubarak quoted in Joshua Teitelbaum (2011), op. cit., p. 223. It should be noted that Muhammed al-Mubarak joined the People’s Party in 1951 even though he remained close to the Ikhwan. See “Muhammed Mubarak”, UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
65. “Muhammed Mubarak”, UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
66. “Sheikh Mustafa al-Sibai”, UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Ledaing personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY 1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
67. Besides being a prominent sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ma’aruf al-Dawalibi was also a member of the People’s Party in which he wielded great influence—most notably thanks to his good relations with Rushdi Kekbis who became the party’s leader in August 1948. See “Ma’ruf Dawalibi”, UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria (secret)”, No. 103, EY 1012/1, 9 July 1951. Muhamad al-Mubarak, another prominent member of the Ikhwan, joined the People’s Party in 1951 and contributed to reinforcing the links between the two platforms. See “Muhammed Mubarak”, UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Leading personalities in Syria”, No. 132 Confidential, UY1012/1, 24 Aug. 1956.
68. Interview with Obeida Nahas, London,
30 June 2011.
69. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Political situation in Syria”, Confidential No. 4, EY 1016/1, 10 January 1952.
70. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria: annual review for 1953”, Confidential No. 31, VY 1011/1, 22 Feb. 1954.
71. Joshua Teitelbaum (2004), op. cit., p. 151.
72. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Her Majesty’s Ambassador’s analysis of the events in Syria which brought about the resignation of President Shishakli and his suggestions as to what the character of the new regime may prove to be”, Confidential No. 46, UY1016/85, 13 March 1954.
73. Joshua Teitelbaum (2004), op. cit., p. 139.
74. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Work of the new government”, No. 11, EY 1015/9, 16 July 1952.
75. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Legislative decree issued by the new Syrian government”, Confidential No. 47, EY 1017/1, 29 March 1952.
76. “Muslim Brothers Faithful to Chief: An Interview with Mustapha al-Sibai”, New York Times, 27 Feb. 1955.
77. In 1955, the assassination of the Ba’athist-affiliated Colonel Malki by Colonel Ghassan al-Jadid, himself affiliated with the Parti Populaire Syrien, had enabled Ba’athist commanders to carry out a first purge inside the Syrian armed forces. See UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “The assassination of Colonel Malki”, Confidential No. 61, VY 1015/3, 2 May 1955. For more on the “small but powerful group of Syrian officers who supports the Ba’ath Socialist Party”, see UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria, annual review for 1954”, Confidential No. 19, VY 1011/1, 14 Feb. 1955.
78. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Political situation”, Confidential No. 135, V1054/4, 9 March 1954.
3. THE ISLAMIC REACTION TO THE BA’ATHIST REVOLUTION
1. Muhammad al-Mubarak quoted in Nazih Ayoubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 89.
2. Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud, Les Frères Musulmans (1928–1982) (Paris: Gallimard, 1983), p. 134.
3. Michel Aflaq quoted in Philip S. Khoury, op. cit., pp. 605–6.
4. Michel Aflaq, “The Socialist Ideology of the Ba’th”, in Kemal H. Karpat (ed.), Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (London: Pall Mall, 1968), p. 193.
5. Stephen Humphreys, “Islam and Political Values in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 33, No. 1, 1979), p. 13.
6. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.
7. Patrick Seale, Asad of Syria: The struggle for the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris, 1988), pp. 92–4.
8. Interview with Muhammed Riyad al-Shuqfeh, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.
9. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.
10. Thomas Pierret, Baas et Islam en Syrie: la dynastie Assad face aux oulémas (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France/Collection Proche Orient, 2011), pp. 237–9.
11. For more on the advent of the “neo-Ba’ath” and its policies, see Gordon Torrey, “The Neo-Ba’ath—ideology and practice”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 23, No. 4, 1969), pp. 445–4.
12. Eyal Zisser, “Syria, the Ba’th Regime and the Islamic Movement: Stepping on a New Path?”, The Muslim World (Vol. 85, No. 1, 2005), p. 45.
13. Ibrahim Khlass, “The path towards the creation of our new Arab man”, Jaysh al-Sha’b (Apr. 1967), quoted in Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud, op. cit., pp. 132–3.
14. Ibrahim Khlass, “The path towards the creation of our new Arab man”, Jaysh al-Sha’b (Apr. 1967), quoted in Mordechai Kedar, “In Search of Legitimacy: Asad’s Islamic Image in the Syrian Official Press”, in Moshe Ma’oz, Joseph Ginat and Onn Winckler (eds), Modern Syria: From Ottoman Rule to Pivotal Role in the Middle East (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), p. 19.
15. Thomas Pierret, op. cit., p. 241.
16. Eyal Zisser, op. cit., p. 44.
17. Moshe Ma’oz, Asad: The Sphinx of Damascus (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988), pp. 150–51.
18. Mordechai Kedar, op. cit., p. 23.
19. Thomas Pierret, “Sunni Clergy Politics in the Cities of Ba’thi Syria”, in Fred H. Lawson (ed.), Demystifying Syria (London: Saqi Books and the Middle East Institute at SOAS, 2009), pp. 70–83.
20. Hafiz al-Assad quoted in Thomas Pierret (2011), op. cit., p. 242.
21. John Donohue, “The new Syrian Constitution and the religious opposition”, CEMAM Reports (No. 1, 1972), pp. 81–3.
22. Itzchak Weismann, “Sa’id Hawwa: the Making of a Radical Muslim Thinker in Modern Syria”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 29, No. 4, 1993), p. 618.
23. Thomas Pierret (2011), op. cit., pp. 241–6.
24. Hafiz al-Assad quoted in Radwan Ziadeh, op. cit., p. 140.
25. Interview with a former senior Syrian diplomat, London, 14 June 2011.
26. Philip S. Khoury, op. cit., p. 50.
27. 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), p. 159.
28. Michael Van Dusen, op. cit., p. 153.
29. Alasdair Drysdale, “The Asad Regime and its Troubles”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Nov.-Dec. 1982), pp. 5–25.
30. Raymond Hinnebusch, “Rural Politics in Ba’thist Syria: a Case Study in the Role of the Countryside in the Political Development of Arab Societies”, The Review of Politics (Vol. 44, No. 1, 1982), p. 117.
31. Ziad Keilany, “Land Reform in Syria”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 16, No. 3, 1980), p. 210.
32. Raymond Hinnebusch (1982), op. cit., p. 117.
33. Syed Aziz al Ahsan, “Economic Policy and Class Structure in Syria: 1958–1980”, International Journal of Middle East Studies (Vol. 16, No. 3, 1984), p. 307.
34. Robert Springborg, “Baathism in Practice: Agriculture, Politics and Political Culture in Syria and Iraq”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 17, No. 2, 1981), p. 197.
35. Elizabeth Longuenesse, “The Class Nature of the State in Syria”, MERIP Reports (May 1979), p. 4.
36. Fred H. Lawson, “The Social Basis for the Hamah Revolt”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Dec. 1982), p. 24.
37. Hanna Batatu, “Syria’s Muslim Brethren”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Nov.-Dec. 1982), p. 15.
38. Michel Aflaq (1968), op. cit., p. 195.
39. Raymond Hinnebusch, Authoritarian Power and State Formation in Ba’thist Syria: Army, Party and Peasants (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990), p. 291.
40. Hanna Batatu (1982), op. cit., p. 16.
41. Ibid., p. 19.
42. Umar F. Abd-Allah, op. cit., p. 162.
43. Ibid., p. 162.
44. Raymond Hinnebusch (1990), op. cit., p. 284.
45. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Political Situation—confidential”, EY 1015/32, No. 232, 1950.
46. Interview with Obeida Nahas, London, 30 June 2011.
47. Fred H. Lawson (1984), op. cit., pp. 465–7.
48. Ibid., op. cit., p. 469.
49. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 320.
50. Michael Van Dusen, op. cit., p. 144.
51. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 321.
52. George Joffé, “Arab Nationalism and Palestine”, Journal of Peace Research (Vol. 20, No. 2, 1983), pp. 164–7.
53. Daniel Pipes, Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 151.
54. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 282.
55. Alasdair Drysdale, “The Asad regime and its troubles”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Nov.-Dec. 1982), p. 4.
56. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 285.
57. Salah Eddine al-Bitar, Le Monde, 21 Sept. 1976 quoted in Patrick Seale, op. cit., pp. 286–7.
58. Hanna Batatu, Syria’s Peasantry, the Descendants of its Lesser Rural Notables and their Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 259.
59. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 319.
63. See Table 2 and 3 in Nikolaos Van Dam, “Sectarian and Regional Factionalism in the Syrian Political Elite”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 32, No. 2, 1978), pp. 204–6.
64. Raymond Hinnebusch, “State and Islamism in Syria”, in Abdul Salam Sidahmed and Anoushiravan Ehteshami (eds), Islamic Fundamentalism (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), p. 205.
Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria Page 29
