Ahmed al-Sharaa has a fan in the White House. Donald Trump has convinced himself that al-Sharaa, a “strong leader,” is the right man to rule in Syria. But there are many reasons to suspect that al-Sharaa is not the moderate he pretends to be, and that his rule will harm all of the many minorities —the Kurds, the Druze, the Alawites, the Christians. The Israelis remain deeply distrustful of al-Sharaa; they have seen other pretend “moderates” before — such as the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. And their long experience of dealing with Muslims suggests they know more than Donald Trump about the telltale signs of an unrepentant jihadist.
More on the future of the Syrian state, and its minorities, can be found here: “Legitimizing Syria’s jihadists threatens Israel and the West – opinion,” by Veysi Dag, Jerusalem Post, December
Despite ISIS’s military defeat in 2019, its members dispersed into numerous splinter groups. In Syria, these include al-Qaeda-linked groups, such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Hurras al-Din, Ahrar al-Sham, and Jaysh al-Islam….
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the rebel group that al-Sharaa commanded and led to victory over Bashar al-Assad when it took Damascus on December 8, 2024.
Kurds have long been their main targets, and attacks on Alawite and Druze populations have become more common recently. These abuses are not one-time events but part of a pattern of ongoing and planned violent behavior.
Each of these minorities, for different reasons, have become the targets of killings now that their protector, Bashar al-Assad, has lost his fourteen-year civil war and is living in Moscow. The Kurds are not Arabs. The Alawites are not Sunni Muslims. The Druze are not Muslims. And so the dominant Sunni Arabs in Syria believe that all three groups deserve to be targeted.
Despite their rebranding efforts, these jihadist groups adhere to a radical Salafist ideology, justify violence by appealing to strict interpretations of Sharia (Islamic) law, reject secular governance, and deny any form of pluralism. Their distinctions between “moderate” and “extremist” jihadi factions are largely cosmetic.
This is what Israeli experts on Islam believe, and it is what they now have to make Donald Trump understand. Once his mind is made up, he rarely lets facts get in his way. There is, however, one high official in Washington who from his lukewarm comments on al-Sharaa appears not to have been taken in. That official is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the most clearheaded member of the Cabinet. Let us hope that he can make his case to the President.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) represent a fundamentally different model. Despite existential threats from forced integration into a new jihadist-dominated Syrian order and from Turkey, which accuses it of affiliation with the now largely defunct Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and conducts targeted assassinations and airstrikes targeting civilians and infrastructure, the SDF has played a unique role in militarily defeating ISIS in Syria. It has also performed the difficult task of rehabilitating and containing former ISIS members.
This Kurdish militia has always been pro-American. It was the only local force that provided critical help to the Americans in their successful effort to defeat ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. It still holds nine thousand ISIS fighters, and tens of thousands of ISIS family members – the wives, widows, and sisters of ISIS fighters, and their children.
While primarily composed of Kurdish forces, the SDF has evolved into a broad multi-ethnic and multi-religious alliance that includes autonomous women’s units, Sunni Arab tribes, Assyrians, Christians, Armenians, Turkmen, and Circassians. In addition to its military success, the SDF has institutionalized pluralism through inclusive governance and local self-administration in the territories it controls.
The Kurdish armed force or SDF, has also welcomed into its ranks assorted groups: an all-female unit, Sunni Arab tribes whose Bedouin members resent the central government’s attempt to assert its power over them, Christians (Catholics and Assyrians), Armenians, Turkmen, and Circassians who have joined to oppose the jihadists who now rule in Damascus. The SDF deliberately tries to give every group representation in the local governments, with a high degree of autonomy — while al-Sharaa’s regime does just the opposite, for the rulers in Damascus consist almost entirely of Sunni Arabs, and al-Sharaa’s government is attempting to force all the militias belonging to the minorities to become part of the national army.
It is not the rebranded jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa whom the Americans should be putting their trust in and promoting, but the one group in Syria that has proved its worth on the battlefield, in helping the Americans defeat ISIS: the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The SDF is also the only group that is determined to recognize the rights of all the minorities, especially the Druze, Alawites, and Christians, as well as the Kurds — all of them the very people whom al-Sharaa’s fighters have been massacring. And finally, Trump’s desire to have a strong central government in Syria would mean forcing the minorities to submit to Sunni Muslim — and jihadist— rule. Instead, a decentralized Syrian state, consisting of a system of cantons, will offer the best protection of those minorities. And Washington’s support for the SDF, rather than for al-Sharaa’s regime in Damascus, would be the surest guarantor of such an outcome.
Wellington says
If this man is successfully playing Trump then he is indeed a very clever and malevolent man. Verdict still out but right now it’s not looking good.
I have suspected at times that Trump. possessed of an absolutely dominant personality (and used for good the vast majority of times), is a fellow admirer of others with a similar personality but he increasingly strikes me as having perhaps a fatal flaw in all this and that is his not fully comprehending that some over-the-top successful personalities like himself have been a force for the forces of civilization and others have been a force for the forces of anti-civilization. The contrast between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin would serve as an example here.
Thus, I am concerned about his sometimes praise of people like Putin, Erdogan and Xi. These men do not deserve any praise. Acknowledgement of their strong personalities, yes, but skip any praise of these bad men. Ditto for Al-Sharaa I would contend.
Perhaps I am deficient in my assessment here and Trump knows exactly what he is doing for what is right to prevail but I can’t conclude this at present, no I cannot.
James Lincoln says
Wellington says
“Perhaps I am deficient in my assessment here and Trump knows exactly what he is doing for what is right to prevail but I can’t conclude this at present, no I cannot.”
Excellent analysis.
I, too, cannot conclude at present that “Trump knows exactly what he was doing” regarding the above discussion.
And the stakes are very high.
Billy says
President Trump and our Western Leaders are falling for Muslim deceit as taught by Allah in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 3:54; 7;99; 8:30, etc.). Islam is a civilization-destroying, totalitarian, and supremacist system of lies and deceit because Allah, the best deceiver, is the actual source of Muslim deceit as taught in Islam’s Qur’an. Muslims under Islam’s system of deceit are more easily controlled because their is no foundation for truth in Islam. Allah in Qur’an 3:54 says, “And they deceived, and Allah deceived. And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 8:30 says, “…And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 13:42 says, “And indeed, those before them deceived, so to Allah all the deception…”
SUPREMACIST ISLAM IS ANTICHRIST, AHISTORICAL, DECEITFUL, MILITARISTIC, AND POLITICAL against the USA Constitution and Western Laws to conquer and to subjugate Non-Muslims using MUSLIM-TERRORIST-CRIMINAL-GANG ENTERPRISES with ISLAMIC LAW(SHARIA) and with CONTINUOUS, TERROR PROPAGANDA from Islam’s Qur’an as evidenced by the continuous Muslim attacks to make Islam supreme(Qur’an 2:191; 3:28, 54; 4:89-91; 7:99; 8:30, 60; 9:5, 29,111; 16:106, etc.). Islam and its Muslims are a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO) as taught in Islam’s Qur’an.
Deceitful Allah affirms Non-Muslims as enemies of Allah while Muslims continuously undermine a society from within using their man-made Qur’an with lies, obfuscation, and deceit(Qur’an 3:54; 7:99; 8:30; 60:4, etc.). Allah in Qur’an 4:101 says, “…Surely the infidels[Non-Muslims] were your clear enemies.” Allah expects all Muslim believers to war against all non-Muslims until the Unbelievers convert to Islam or face Muslim violence. Corrupt Allah in Qur’an 8:39 says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” As a result, Non-Muslims are marked for death by Islam and its Muslims.
Islam is a civilization-destroying, delusional, indoctrinating, cancerous fraud because there is NO MECCA, NO MUHAMMAD, and NO Qur’an in the 7th century AD in Saudi Arabia despite the Muslim Standard Islamic Narrative claims; the Deceitful House of Islam is founded on propaganda, lies, intimidation, and deceit where Islam’s 1400-year traditions are based on fallacy and myth including a more than 300-year gap with no documented history. Hence, NEVER give money to Islamic Countries, Islamic Organizations, Mosques, Islamic Schools, etc. because your are funding your ultimate destruction. Islam must be banned as illegal, and we have the legal right to defend ourselves from Muslim violence.
Islam’s Muslims are to be Seditionist Terrorists for Allah with their MONEY and their LIVES. Allah in Qur’an 49:15 teaches, “Surely the believers[Muslims] are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY and their LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.” Again, Islam is a FACTITIOUS IDEOLOGY and CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION despicably fabricated over time into the 21sth century, and there is NO PEACE only genocidal obliteration with Islam and its deceitful Muslims(Qur’an 7:18; 8:39: 9:5, 29, 111; 11:119; 32:13; 47:4, etc.).
ALLAH claims MUSLIMS are a greater TERROR than serpentine Allah in Islam’s Qur’an. Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.” Allah in Qur’an 9:29 commands, “Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have given the book until they pay the jizyah out of hand and they are subdued.”
Islam, its Mosques, its Schools, its Sharia Courts, its Organizations, etc. are Terrorist-Criminal Enterprises of hatred and enmity against all Non-Muslims as totalitarian Islam, the House of Satan, islamizes the society with impunity(Qur’an 5:14; 9:5, 29, 111, etc.). As taught from Islam’s Qur’an, Islam should be banned for its incitement, funding, and promotion of hybrid warfare, violence, terrorism, criminality, hatred, human trafficking, and discrimination against women, children, and Non-Muslims.
Allah describes Muslim women in Jenna, Allah’s Paradise, as whores of Allah in Qur’an 56:37. Also, Allah stirs hatred against Christians until the resurrection day as Qur’an 5:14 instructs, “And some of those who say, ‘Surely we are Nasara (Christians),’ we took their covenant. So they have forgotten a part of what they were reminded of, so we have stirred up ENMITY and HATRED among them until the resurrection day. And Allah will inform them of what they were doing.” See also Qur’an 60:4; 8:55.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
For once, I disagree w/ Hugh. Not about al-Shara’a, but about supporting the SDF. There is nothing to suggest that the Kurds will be more tolerant of Christians or other non-muslims than the sunni Arabs are
Only thing – if we can recognize the HTS in Syria, why not Field Marshal Haftar’s LNA in Libya? Haftar, unlike al-Shara’a, is secular, has control of most of his country and actually was a CIA asset back in the day. He is the one who ought to be supported openly by the administration
Kepha says
Interesting points, infidel.
I share the dismay of Hugh Fitzgerald and some of Wellington’s pessimism–short term.
But, I also dare to hope. Unlike the Democrats,Trump knows a bit about talking and hitting hard at the same time, can be very hard-headed and clear-eyed rather than eternally optimistic, and seems to have little use for the purely symbolic gesture. As an example, NY businessman Trump shared his erstwhile friend Bill Clinton’s sending aid to North Korea during its famine (Uncle Kepha, if in the WH at the time, would’ve secretly thought “let them eat Communist cadre” while publicly speaking of the need for a completely new approach to the Korean Peninsula). But President Trump, seeing Kim JOn’eun’s nuclear posturing, reminded him, “I have the bigger button”–and even succeeded to drive a wedge between the “lips and teeth” alliance of Beijing and Pyongyang. Hopefully, Trump is also drawing out Al-Sharaa to the point where he can strike, if necessary, and deal if advantageous.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Kepha
On al Shara’a, I do think Trump is forcing him into a situation where he has to pick b/w US and ISIS. Obviously, he’d pick US, if he doesn’t wanna be pummelled, and in the process, it’ll turn ISIS against him. That could end up forcing his future moves, and if he’s fighting ISIS and their allies, that may force him to ease up on the Alawites, Druze and Kurds
On this Beijing-Pyongyang alliance, what I can see Trump did was sending Pyongyang back into Moscow’s sphere of influence, after decades of them being handled by Beijing. I just wish he had a way to split Moscow from Beijing, the converse of what Nixon did
OLD GUY says
Basically I find it hard to trust any muslim/islamic follower.