Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

by Raphael Lefevre

  65. Fred H. Lawson (1984), op. cit., p. 466.

  66. Ibid., p. 24

  67. Itzchak Weismann, “The Politics of Popular Religion: Sufis, Salafis and Muslim Brothers in 20th Century Hamah”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 37, No. 1, 2005), p. 52.

  68. Michel Seurat, L’Etat de barbarie (Paris: Seuil, 1989), p. 73.

  69. Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud (1982), op. cit., p. 31.

  70. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  71. Interview with Ahmed al-Uthman, Paris, 2 June 2011.

  72. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  73. Fred H. Lawson (1982), op. cit., p. 27.

  74. Philippe Droz-Vincent, Pouvoirs autoritaires, sociétés bloquées (Paris: PUF, 2004), p. 266.

  75. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  76. See Table 3 in Nikolaos Van Dam (1978), op. cit., p. 206.

  77. Michel Seurat (1989), op. cit., p. 73.

  4. “A MINORITY CANNOT FOREVER RULE A MAJORITY”

  1. Michel Seurat, “Vague d’agitation confessionnelle en Syrie”, Le Monde Diplomatique, Oct. 1979.

  2. Hanna Batatu, “Some Observations on the Social Roots of Syria’s Ruling Military Group and the Causes for its Dominance”, Middle East Journal (Vol. 35, No. 3, 1981), p. 334.

  3. Yaron Friedman, The Nusayri-Alawi: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2010), pp. 223–35.

  4. Mahmud Faksh, “The Alawi Community in Syria: A New Dominant Political Force”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 20, No. 2, 1984), p. 135.

  5. See, for instance, Pierre May, L’Alaouite: ses croyances, ses mœurs, les cheikhs, les lois de la tribu et les chefs (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1931), pp. 42–3 as well as Jehan Cendrieux, Al Ghadir ou le sexe-Dieu (Paris: Bibliothèque Charpentier, 1926), p. 11.

  6. For a complete English translation of Ibn Taymiyya’s fatwa, see Yaron Friedman, op. cit., pp. 303–9. For a politico-theological analysis of the fatwa, see Yaron Friedman, “Ibn Taymiyya’s Fatwa against the Nusayri-Alawi Sect”, Der Islam (Vol. 82, No. 2, 2005), pp. 349–63.

  7. Although the “State of the Alawis” was formally reintegrated into Syria in 1936, it continued to enjoy a particular dose of autonomy from Damascus until 1946. In 1939 and 1942, laws were enacted to grant the Alawi territory and the Jebel Druze administrative and financial autonomy. Upon Syria’s independence from France, one of the first acts of the newly elected Chamber of Deputies was to revoke such laws and fully reintegrate these two territories into the Syrian state.

  8. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Capture and trial of Suleiman Murshid”, No. 26, E12530/0204/80, 19 Dec. 1946.

  9. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret), No. 218, E6193/213/89, 11 June 1946.

  10. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 99, E1487/23/89, 7 March 1944.

  11. Michael Van Dusen, op. cit., p. 128.

  12. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 99, E 1487/23/89, 7 March 1944.

  13. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Mr. Shone to Mr. Bevin”, No. 18, E1872 Feb. 89, 1 March 1946.

  14. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria: weekly political summary”, No. 5, E 1511/171/89, 19 Feb. 1947.

  15. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 218, 11 June 1946.

  16. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Weekly political summary (secret)”, No. 212, E4471/213/89, 30 Apr. 1946.

  17. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Capture and trial of Suleiman Murshid”, No. 26, E12530/0204/80, 19 Dec. 1946.

  18. Martin Kramer, “Syria’s Alawis and Shi’ism” in Martin Kramer (ed.), Shi’ism, Resistance and Revolution (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), p. 245.

  19. See Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988), p. 297.

  20. See Annie Laurent, “Syrie-Liban: les faux-frères jumeaux”, Politique Etrangère (Vol. 48, No. 3, 1983), pp. 597–8.

  21. See Daniel Pipes, Greater Syria, the History of an Ambition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 166–80.

  22. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Syria: weekly summary”, E 7787/171/89, No. 33, 25 Aug. 1947.

  23. Hanna Batatu (1999), op. cit., p. 142.

  24. UK Embassy cable to Foreign Office, “Capture and trial of Suleiman Murshid”, No. 26, E12530/0204/80, 19 Dec. 1946.

  25. See 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. 136 and also Hanna Batatu (1999), op. cit., pp. 157–60.

  26. Hanna Batatu (1999), op. cit., pp. 144–61.

  27. See Table 5 and 6 in Nikolaos Van Dam (1978), op. cit., pp. 208–210.

  28. Fabrice Balanche, La région alaouite et le pouvoir syrien (Paris: Editions Karthala, 2006), pp. 52–64.

  29. Michel Seurat (1989), op. cit., p. 67.

  30. Michel Seurat, “Vague d’agitation confessionnelle en Syrie”, Le Monde Diplomatique (Oct. 1979).

  31. Interview with Ahmed al-Uthman, Paris, 2 June 2011.

  32. Jacques Weulersse, Le pays des Alaouites (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1940), p. 77.

  33. These figures are drawn from an analysis of Tables 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Nikolaos Van Dam, The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society under Asad and the Ba’th Party (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996), pp. 82–6.

  34. Interview with a former senior Syrian diplomat, London, 14 June 2011.

  35. Martin Kramer, op. cit., pp. 246–9.

  36. 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.

  37. Al-Nadhir, No. 1, 6 Sept. 1979 and No. 6, 8 Nov. 1979, quoted in Niko-laos Van Dam (2011, 4th Edition of 1996), p. 90.

  38. “The Manifesto of the Islamic Revolution in Syria” quoted in Umar F. Abd-Allah, op. cit., p. 211.

  39. Interview with a former senior Syrian diplomat, London, 14 June 2011.

  40. Patrick Seale, op. cit., pp. 316–17.

  41. Gérard Michaud and Jim Paul, “The Importance of Bodyguards”, MERIP Reports (No. 110, Nov.-Dec. 1982), p. 30.

  42. Hanna Batatu (1982), op. cit., p. 336.

  43. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  44. Interview with a deputy-leader of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, Radio Damascus, 7 Sept. 1979, quoted in Nikolaos Van Dam (2011), op. cit., p. 91.

  45. James A. Paul, Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), p. 10.

  46. Michel Seurat (1989), op. cit., p. 73.

  47. Michel Seurat, “Vague d’agitation confessionnelle en Syrie”, Le Monde Diplomatique, Oct. 1979.

  48. Interview with Walid Safour, London, 22 Sept. 2011.

  49. Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 327.

  50. Tishrin, 9 March 1980 quoted in James A. Paul, op. cit., p. 12.

  51. James A. Paul, op. cit., p. 13.

  52. General Shafiq Fayadh quoted in Patrick Seale, op. cit., p. 328.

  53. James A. Paul, op. cit., p. 15.

  54. Ibid., p. 20.

  55. Syrian Human Rights Committee, “The Massacre of Hama (1982): Law Application Requires Accountability”, (London, 1999). The report is available online at: http://www.shrc.org/data/aspx/d1/1121.aspx

  56. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  5. THE RADICALIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT (1963–1980)

  1. Interview with Mohammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  2. Itzchak Weismann, Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus (Leiden: Brill, 2
001), p. 223.

  3. For more on the Damascene Salafis’ early advocacy of ideas stemming from political liberalism, see David D. Commins, op. cit., pp. 124–31.

  4. For more on the thought of al-Tamaddun al-Islami, see Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib (translation by Thomas Pierret), “Al-Tamaddun al-Islami: passé et présent d’une association réformiste damascène”, Maghreb-Machrek (No. 198, Winter 2008–2009), pp. 2–5.

  5. Itzchak Weismann, “Democratic Fundamentalism? The Practice and Discourse of the Muslim Brothers movement in Syria”, The Muslim World (Vol. 100, No. 1, 2010), p. 8.

  6. Nazih Ayoubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 89.

  7. Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib, op. cit., p. 8.

  8. Interview with Mohammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  9. From an expression coined by Henri Laoust and quoted in Stéphane Lacroix, “L’apport de Muhammed Nasir al-Din al-Albani au salafisme contemporain”, in Bernard Rougier (ed.), Qu’est ce que le salafisme? (Paris: PUF, 2008), p. 49.

  10. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Umar F. Abd Allah, op. cit., pp. 102–3.

  14. Interview with Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, London, 30 Nov. 2011 and interview with Zouheir Salem, London, 3 Oct. 2011.

  15. Interview with Muhammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Nov. 2011.

  16. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  17. Interview with Muhammed Riyad al-Shuqfah, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  18. Interview with Muhammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Nov. 2011.

  19. Umar F. Abd Allah, op. cit., p. 102.

  20. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

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

  22. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  23. Interview with Muhammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Nov. 2011.

  24. Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, 19 Dec. 2011.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Interview with Muhammed Riyad al-Shuqfah, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  27. Umar F. Abd Allah, op. cit., pp. 107–8.

  28. Interview with Muhammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Nov. 2011.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Hassan al-Houeidi was one of the rare Damascene Brothers who was formally reintegrated into the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood after the split of the early 1970s. He was to leave Issam al-Attar for good in 1981 after the “Damascus wing” split from a short-lived union between Ikhwani and jihadist forces. Houeidi remained an important voice in the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, becoming one of the organization’s leaders in the early 1990s.

  31. Although Muhammed Surur Zein al-Abideen belonged to the “Damascus wing”, he was originally from Dar’a.

  32. Interview with Malik al-Abdeh, London, 6 Dec. 2011.

  33. Interview with Muhammed Hawari, Aachen, 19 Nov. 2011.

  34. Thomas Pierret, Baas et Islam en Syrie: la dynastie Assad face aux oulémas (Paris: PUF, 2011), pp. 241–5.

  35. 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.

  36. Itzchak Weismann, “Sa’id Hawwa and Islamic Revivalism in Ba’thist Syria”, Studia Islamica (No. 85, 1997), p. 152.

  37. Sayyid Qutb quoted in Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and the Pharaoh (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985), p. 53.

  38. Sayyid Qutb in Nazih Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 140.

  39. Sayyid Qutb quoted in Gilles Kepel, op. cit., p. 54.

  40. Gilles Kepel, op. cit., p. 56.

  41. Umar F. Abd Allah, op. cit., pp. 104–5.

  42. Ibid., p. 105.

  43. While most Hamawite members of the Ikhwan assert, until today, that Marwan Hadid had been part of the organization throughout his life, other members, most often from Aleppo or Damascus, claim that his membership was revoked following the April 1964 uprising in Hama.

  44. Unknown author, document found in Usama Bin Laden’s home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, referenced by West Point’s Center for Counter Terrorism as [SOCOM-2012–0000017], available online at: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letters-from-abbottabad-bin-ladin-sidelined

  45. Ayman al-Shorbaji, The diary of Ayman al-Shorbaji, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Vanguard fighters in Damascus in the 1980s which formed the height of the conflict between the Vanguards and the Syrian regime (Date and place of publication unknown, copy given to the author, translation by Emira Bahri).

  46. Interview with Muhammed Riyad al-Shuqfah, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  47. Dr. Manna, “Histoire des Frères Musulmans en Syria”, Sou’al (Vol. 5, 1985), p. 76.

  48. Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud, op. cit., p. 152.

  49. Interview with Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, London, 21 July 2011.

  50. Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, “Lessons learned from the armed Jihad ordeal in Syria” (Document captured by US troops in Afghanistan in 2002, referenced as AFGP-2002–600080, full translation), p. 29. The document was accessed on the US Department of Defence’s Harmony Database website of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

  51. Ayman al-Shorbaji, op. cit., p. 10.

  52. Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, op. cit., p. 18.

  53. Ayman al-Shorbaji, op. cit., pp. 27–9.

  54. Interview, name withheld on request, Nov. 2011.

  55. Even though, within al-Tali’a, power formally lay in the hands of Abd us-Sattar az-Za’im and, upon his death, of his successors Hisham Jumbaz, Tamim al-Shuqraqi and Umar Jawad, it is widely reported that it was Adnan Uqlah who in fact exercised the most influence and authority inside the jihadist organization from the late 1970s, to the extent that he is often referred to as the actual leader of al-Tali’a in media reports and intelligence dispatches. See, for instance, US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), “Syria: Muslim Brotherhood pressure intensifies” (Secret), DDB-2630–34-B2, 22 Apr. 1982.

  56. Gérard Michaud, “The Importance of Bodyguards”, Merip Reports (Dec. 1982), p. 29.

  57. Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, op. cit., p. 21.

  58. Ibid., p. 45.

  59. Interview with Obeida Nahas, London, 30 June 2011.

  60. Hanna Batatu (1999), op. cit., p. 270.

  61. Interview with Muhammed Riyad al-Shuqfah, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  62. Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, op. cit., p. 41.

  63. Ibid., pp. 39–40.

  64. Abu Mus’ab al-Suri, op. cit., p. 13 and p. 40.

  6. ENDORSING JIHAD AGAINST THE BA’ATH (1980–1982)

  1. Interview with Muhammed Riyadh al-Shuqfah, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  2. See The Political Perspective for Syria: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Vision of the Future (London, Dec. 2004, copy given to the author), pp. 3–4.

  3. Umar F. Abd-Allah, op. cit., p. 109.

  4. Interview with Abdel Halim Khaddam, Paris, 23 June 2011.

  5. Interview with Yahya Bedir, Istanbul, 9 Sept. 2011.

  6. Unknown author, document found in Usama Bin Laden’s home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, referenced by West Point’s Center for Counter Terrorism as [SOCOM-2012–0000017], available online at: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letters-from-abbottabad-bin-ladin-sidelined

  7. See, for instance, Barry Rubin, The Truth About Syria (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007), p. 57 and Daniel Pipes, Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (New York; Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 182. Other authors who studied the period in detail, such as Itzchak Weissmann, have also not questioned the Brotherhood’s involvement in the massacre: see Itzchak Weis-mann, “Sa’id Hawwa: The Making of a Radical Muslim Thinker in Modern Syria”, Middle Eastern Studies (Vol. 29, No. 4, 1993), p. 618. Works published in English disputing the regime’s thesis in details are rare. See Hanna Batatu (1999), op. cit., pp. 266–8 and Alison Pargeter, The Muslim Brotherhood: The Burden of
Tradition (London: Saqi Books, 2010), pp. 78–9.

  8. Interview with Zouheir Salem, London, 3 Oct. 2011.

  9. James A. Paul, op. cit., p. 10.

  10. Interview with Walid Safour, London, 22 Sept. 2011.