Vladimir Akhmedov(PhD)
“Muslim Brotherhood” and the Syrian crisis
“Muslim Brotherhood” is one of the oldest Islamic movements Syria and were most fully represented in the modern political history of the country. They attracted the most attention of the West, as many experts believed that it was “brothers” will play a leading role in postaasad Syria. At the same time, their contribution to the Syrian revolution was actually quite modest and limited, and their relationship with other units of the Syrian armed opposition were far from unique.
Difficulty in determining the real power and influence of this organization in the Syrian crisis, due to their long absence in the political life of the country after the suppression of the uprising in Hama famous in 1982. During this period, the movement was in a state of armed confrontation with the ruling regime. In this regard, the Syrian authorities have tried to virtually eliminate the movement in Syria, was jailed and physically destroying tens of thousands of its members and supporters, and the survivors were forced to go abroad. In 1980 a law was passed known №49, according to which only the very affiliation provides for the death penalty. The adoption of this law was the attack “Fight avant-garde” – undercover unit “brothers” in the military barracks in Aleppo in 1979. After the adoption of the law department of Damascene “brothers” actually disbanded, and was engaged in preaching and educational activities, moving away from armed struggle against the regime. Some members of the organization were included in the “militant vanguard”, while others went to Aleppo. However, due to the secrecy many members of the organization and could not be “calculated” by Syrian intelligence services and at the same time continued to remain in Syria.
Since its inception in Syria movement suffers from a number of inconsistencies in management and regulation of their activities grounds of geographical location between Aleppo and Hama, as well as on a number of ideological attitudes, wavering between extremist and moderate direction.
In fact, Mr. akanune revolution in Syria organization suffered from internal divisions, its members scattered in different countries of the world, the lack of explicit and illegal groups in Syria, the lack of appeal to the youth organization in Syria and abroad and weak leadership. This led to the weakening of the organization in Syrian society, especially among young people, the erosion of its organizational structure. The statements and meeting “brothers” to reflect the actual recognition of the unstable state of the organization. They understood the “foreignness” of their movement inside Syria, as the majority of young people (especially those who were born after the 80s) had little idea about the organization, its activities in the 1980s
Indeed, over the last decades before the Syrian Revolution movement torn contradictory trends. So in the 50s XX century movement led an active political work, participated in elected bodies and even been submitted to the government under the leadership of its leader and founder, Mustafa al-Sibai. However baas revolution in 1963 opened a new chapter in the military and political confrontation “brothers” with the regime. This in turn contributed to the creation of a deep chasm between the brothers and the broad conservative layers of Syrian society. Correctional movement in 1970 and the coming to power in Syria, Hafez al-Assad was a turning point in relations with the regime brothers. The former conflict between the brothers and the regime was also a religious color.
For decades, until the end of the 90-ies of XX century in the movement did not stop a sharp struggle between the younger and older generations, members of the organization. At the same time during this period in the movement was created secret unit “militant vanguard”, which conducted a series of military operations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. against the regime, which has strengthened the brothers confrontation with the authorities. A number of members of the “brotherhood” denied belonging to the avant-garde and did not want to have anything to do with him. After the massacres of members of the “brotherhood” in Tadmurskoy prison and a series of armed clashes with the regime of the organization adopted the so-called “Charter of armed Islamic Revolution.” Despite the fact that the Charter provided guidance on the establishment in Syria of a pluralistic and secular state, proclaimed the principles of change of power and respect for minority rights, the document as the main strategy to fight the regime adopted a method of warfare. In 1980, in neighboring Iraq has created a movement fighting training camps, which unites members of the organization.
In spite of this manual “brothers” continued to have differences on the issue of whether it was necessary to join forces with other political forces and secular movement in Syria. However, the difficult position in the leadership of the brothers and attempts to eliminate a number of their leaders abroad have led to the fact that the organization has considered armed way to combat mode as the only alternative.
However, by the end of the 90s in policy statements and actions of some organizations began showing signs that established a transformation within him. Under the leadership of Ali Sadreddine Al-Bayanouni (2006-2011) on the move strengthened the reformist tendencies, and there was some openness in relation to other political forces in Syria. The coming to power in the SAR Bashar al-Assad and his policies in the country dubbed the “Damascus Spring” contributed to the strengthening of such a reform-oriented and openness, which enabled a number of opposition movements to the surface in Syria and some increase their activity and social mobility.
Such a new orientation is reflected in the form of documents, which were adopted by the organization, as well as in the development of several projects, the implementation of which she participated, together with other opposition forces, as was illustrated by the “Damascus Declaration”. “Declaration” is focused on peaceful political reform methods. It contained calls for the continuation of the democratic process, party pluralism, repeal of the state of emergency, to stop the monopoly of the Baath Party, etc. Simultaneously, the “brothers” were to participate in the “Salvation Front”, which was founded in 2005, escaped to the West by the former vice-president of ATS AH Khaddam.
The most important document was adopted “brothers” in 2004. It reflects the views of the organization for the future Syria. The document reflected a gradual shift in the ideology of the “brothers” in the direction of democracy, pluralism, the change of power, freedom, minority rights, respect for human rights and civil liberties organization’s commitment to religious principles.
Along with other groups and organizations acting in Syria, which, one way or another, linked to the “brothers” existed, so-called “Association of Syrian ulama ‘, headed by one of the most respected in the country and beyond religious figures Mohammed Ali al-Sabuni. The Association holds the position of moderate Islam, and was engaged in educational activities, issuing fatwas. She held various kinds of public events in support of the revolution. Another important organization has literary associations al-Sham (which included only male authors), headed by Abdullah al-Tantawi. She led an Internet site, which published materials in support of the revolution.
One of the most important social organizations of Syria, the activities of which has always been a matter of speculation as to its relations with the “brothers”, was the organization of “Al-Watan”. This non-profit civil society groups has been registered in the UK. It also announced its plans to open branches in various parts of Europe, Turkey and the United States. “Al-Watan” denied that engage in political activity. It consisted of several different organizations and committees, such as, for example, “al-Ryan” (which was engaged in the creation of charitable and humanitarian work in Syria) “Jabal al-Hurrayya” (organization of courses teaching the fundamentals of human rights and civil liberties) Syrian Freedom Center “Huriyyat” (humanitarian action) Syrian center of education, business center Syria, the Syrian National Information Center, charity “alHeyr.” “Al-Watan” is one of the most important companies specializing in the organization of charitable and volunteer activities to help Syria.
In 2013, “Watan” led Muazzam al-Sibai. Anas al-Sibai led the charities’ al-Hare. ” Ahmed Muhandis led the General Assembly, “Al-Watan”. There included a large number of Syrian exiles and political activists. “Al-Watan” serves as a link between immigrants and organizations involved in humanitarian assistance in Syria. At the same time, some observers have considered “Al-Watan”, as a center for recruiting in the “brotherhood”.
That remarkable role “brothers” played in the political sphere abroad was be compared with the modest and limited the role they played in Syria and armed insurrection in particular. Experts did not see this is nothing surprising as “brothers” after the events of 1980 very long absent from the political arena, Syria. Moreover, sheikhs, leaders who stood at the head of the movement refused to recognize the serious changes that have occurred in the country and society over the past decade. In the third to the fore the struggle in Syria as mentioned above came representatives of the movement of the provinces and peripheral areas due to urban centers.
It should be borne in mind that, historically, in the Syrian city has always served as a stronghold of major popular movements. Assessment and recognition of the former member of the Board of “brotherhood” and an active member of Al-Sayyid Muhammaeda, an armed rebellion has achieved major success was in the countryside, where it began, first in Daraa, spreading later to Homs, Jisr ash-Shugur and Idleb. This fact to some extent difficult to determine the true role of the “brothers” in the armed struggle.
At the beginning of the revolution “brothers” hesitated before announce their participation in the Syrian protest movement. However, when the “brothers” to see that the situation is slipping towards a confrontation between society and government, and the protest movement did not subside, despite its violent suppression of power, the organization began to gradually move away from peaceful means of struggle against the regime and its involvement in the Syrian crisis has become more apparent . The above-mentioned differences between the various units of the “brothers” continued until the beginning of the revolutionary events in Syria, when the head of the brothers instead Sadreddina Ali al-Bayanuni stood Mohammed Al-Riyadh Shakfa. In 2011, the number of representatives of a foreign affiliate “brothers” won seats on the executive committee of the SNA, which later in 2012 included several members as a response to the challenges of the Syrian revolution.
Protest activities “brothers”, which in the initial period of the uprising, wearing the overall peaceful, began among its youth groups operating in the Syrian diaspora abroad. Most clearly it manifests itself in the information field. At the beginning of the conflict a number of young members of the organization have created a special website dedicated to the revolution. After their page on the Internet has become an important forum to discuss the latest news from Syria. One such youth groups, which played an important role in highlighting the Syrian uprising, was the group, which included Obadia en-Nahass (director of «Orient Center in London») and Ahmad Ramadan, who left the organization after 2010 when the “brothers” took control of the department in the city of Hama. In 2011, they created the so-called Forum “National action” on which pages the reformist ideas were discussed and democratic content. They actively participated in the creation of SNC in October 2011. Ramadan Ahmed and Muhammad Tayfur were elected members of the Executive Committee of the SNA. A number of foreign and Syrian opposition groups accused “Brothers” in an attempt to control the SNC that “brothers” has consistently denied. Indeed at that time “brothers” had one seat on the Board and 6-7 seats in the General Assembly of the SNC.
Later in Doha 2012 was created National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. This was the initiative of a number of “Friends of Syria” who sought a way to create a wider format for the organization, merge several trends in the Syrian opposition movement, which reduced the representation of the “brothers” in the structures of the Syrian opposition, which eventually became quite prominent in the SNA. Despite the fact that the “brothers” did their best to reduce their participation in the ranks of the Syrian opposition abroad, they are constantly accused of seeking to dominate in these groups. “Brothers” is also accused of supporting a number of opposition leaders who had the reputation of secular leaders such as Burgan Latrine, George Sabra and al-Khatib Moaz.
In July 2012, the post of chairman NKSRO was elected Ahmed Jabr, who was considered a person close to Saudi Arabia. His election reflects the changing balance competing forces at the regional and inter-Arab level in their influence on National Coalition. It also meant undoubted victory CSA, which was basically against the “brothers”. This decision went against Saudi Arvii aspirations of Qatar and Turkey, which have been the largest regional sponsor “brothers” in the revolutionary movement in the political, financial, advocacy relations.
From the outset, the Syrian revolution movement in his work and statements made emphasis on the fact that it does not own in the Syrian armed cells. The organization’s representatives strongly emphasized that its members are engaged exclusively in the provision of financial and logichtisekoy support to armed opposition groups, it employs more reconstruction and reorganization of its movement and tends to focus on the provision of charitable and humanitarian aid.
However, regarding the participation of the “brothers” in the armed struggle and their links with other armed groups have always been some doubt. Such doubts intensified when one of the prominent representatives of the movement M. Tayfur spoke about the relations with the organization Committee to Protect revolution. This paramilitary organization was established in late 2012. At the same time the leader of the “brothers” Mohammad Riyad al-Shakva , said that the organization is not an official sponsor of the Committees, and they do not play a leading role in the Syrian armed resistance.
In order to compensate for their low participation in armed Syrian uprising and the lack of ownership of the largest armed groups, “brothers” wanted to operate under the auspices of such militias known as “al-Faruq Brigades” and other Islamist groups, united under the banner of Front for the Liberation of Syria, who were ideologically most moderate wing close to the orientation of the “brothers” At the same time united front of various groups, some of which were close to his political guidelines for the type of Salafi Islamic Front, “Al-Nusra” and ISIL.
Despite the limited participation (financial and logichsticheskoe) in an armed uprising “brothers” constantly under attack from other fronts and movements. They accused them of that by providing financial support and logichsticheskoy detachments of armed resistance “brothers”, thus seeking to take them under their control or to impose its ideology, as well as secure their loyalty.
Given emerged in Syria ideological vacuum, it was really difficult to determine the true extent of the influence of the “brothers” in the course of an armed uprising, the more their quantitative participation. Last (the size of the fighting members) is a constant subject of dispute different experts. Thus, a number of them believed that the closest to the brothers and their detachment stronghold served committees to defend the revolution. Committees really had a big conference in Istanbul in 2012 with the participation of many prominent members of one of the main of which was al-Bayanuni. It is composed of units that were called “shields”. They have offices in various parts of Syria. Their emblem was depicted swords, dove and branches. This symbol resembled the logo of “brothers”, which depicts two swords separated Koran. Committee (“Boards”) declared the goal of coordination among different groups and the establishment of the Syrian army cells professional future. They also advocated the creation of a democratic secular state based on the principles of citizenship. These Are setting really sets them apart from other Islamist organizations that supported the creation of an Islamist state in Syria.
According to the Syrian researcher member SNA A. Al-Hajj “brothers” in October 2012 created the “Assembly of the battalions of the world”, which included “Army Abdulfattaha Abu Ghuda” who fought in the old quarters of Aleppo. They also support other armed groups such as “The Shield al-Shahba” operating in Idleb, Aleppo and al-Raka. Partially “brothers” to support other teams in particular, “Battalion of Faith”, which operated in other parts of Syria, including the suburbs of Hama. Other experts believed that a number of members of the “brotherhood” were involved in the creation of group “Muaataz billahi” in Daraa in early 2013, some members of which had previously been abroad.
By the end of 2012, leaders of the “Muslim Brotherhood” began to seriously think about in order to resume work organization in Syria, as well as working to resume the call (“ad-Dawa”) to charity and volunteering, but on a new basis.
As already mentioned the leaders of “brotherhood” of his leading members within Syria were divided into several groups and on several levels. Some members of the organization were the ones who in 1992 was released from prison under the regime of written commitments out of engaging in political activities in Syria. The organization sought to reorganize the group of persons by updating the organization’s mission and its activities. A second group of older members of the organization, which has not been disclosed by the Syrian security services to operate deep underground and kept secret contacts with members of the organization. The third group consisted mainly of those who have lived abroad. At the same time, not all of the above members of the organization have an equal commitment to the organization and the same degree of willingness to work with her. In fact, many of them went to the privacy and engaged in their families and businesses.
Since the beginning of the revolutionary movement, its development, escalating into armed struggle, the transition of the territory under the control of the rebels, “brothers” have adopted a new strategy to return to Syria, in order to revive the movement and adapt it to the new conditions. So at the management level was established two offices one in Ham, the other in Aleppo, and was created by the Board. The composition of the Board includes 22 people (including 2 women), most of whom were between 40 and 60 years.
In early 2013 “brothers” decided to rebuild the organization from the inside. In this case, reliance was made on the old proven members, who were in hiding, and as a method of action were elected covert operations. They were asked to renew membership in the organization, and to initiate activities to spread the call. Begin to work, it was decided among those who have relatives were killed or missing in prisons. On the foreign level, it was decided to intensify work among the members and their families and relatives. As a result, many managed to return to the organization, and its strength has increased markedly. At the same time, “brothers” attentive to the selection of new personnel in accordance with their views, political activities, with respect to the “brotherhood”, its internal statutes and rules of operation. In August 2013 the first official branch of “Muslim Brotherhood” was opened in Aleppo in the presence of its leading members.
In the period of 2013- beginning of 2014 movement worked to build his new political party. The new name of the party “Waad” acronym, which means homeland, justice, democracy. In August 2013 in Istanbul hosted the first organizational congress of the party. Some believed that “Waad” was supposed to be more liberal than the Egyptian party “Justice and Freedom”. The composition of the new leadership of the party included some members of the left-wing movement and a few Christians. One of the most prominent founders Party Hikmat was Muhammad Waleed, who was considered one of the prominent members of the organization. Perhaps one of the general ideas about the role of the “brothers” in Syria was a collective image of them, which consisted of their historical past, today’s activities in Syria, ideas formed about them in the foreign media, relations with Qatar and Turkey, to their weak position in the armed movement within Syrian society, their limited participation in the armed uprising and a very difficult relationship with the warring factions and troops of the Syrian political opposition. The main task today is to “brothers” is the restoration of unity between its internal and external branches. That’s what today is actively engaged in the organization, both inside Syria and abroad through recruitment and other methods.
Indeed, the movement is experiencing a chronic threat to internal split, on the one hand, and the split between domestic and foreign subsidiaries, on the other. This was clearly demonstrated by the example of the relationship of its two branches in Hama and Aleppo. Thus, the leadership in Aleppo is doing everything possible to restore its activities in the city and to expand its presence in the executive committee by bringing back women and youth. However, it is on the way “brothers” face the greatest challenges. Along with this, there is a hidden power struggle and disagreement within the leadership of the branches and the difficulties that its leaders are experiencing with the involvement of young people in the organization that has behind combat experience and is well represented in the political and information sphere. Number of active young members prefer to engage in individual work. Therefore, one of the most difficult problems of movement is not only to attract young people, but also her upbringing.
Despite these challenges, a number of aspects in the organization inside Syria are still very strong. This, above all, with respect to their positions in the foreign media and the ability to attract overseas on his side of new members. Evidence for this was obtained by the example of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. They were able to quickly gain a position in society and strengthen the grass-roots level. They also were able to successfully restructure from within. Several members of the organization, despite the fact that they were acting on a personal basis, have been able to achieve in these areas with some success, and continue to regard themselves as members of the organization. This primarily refers to such prominent figures as the organization Al-Shakfa, Zuhair Salem, Muhammad Tayfur, Ali Sadraddi al_Bayanuni, Issam al-Attar, Obadiah en-Nahas, Ahmed Ramadan.
Ideological platform “brothers” fairly extensive. In the preview, “brothers” seek to overthrow the Assad regime and the restructuring of state institutions while strengthening their political participation and management in the state. They also want to strengthen their position in the Syrian society. Support military operations and want to create their own armed units. Seek to increase their political influence both inside the country and abroad.
At present, the “brothers” in close contact with Turkey and Qatar. They are supported by the two countries in the information and logichsticheskom plan. They also receive support from other organizations “brothers” operating around the world.
Many units supported or created “brothers” involved in armed operations SAA and coordinate their activities with other units in matters of security and military operations.
At the heart of the ideological and political systems is the desire to return to the political life of the country. Since its inception in Syria in 1946, representatives of the “brothers” were actively involved in politics, in parliament and formed a political coalition with other political movements, including the secular. In this regard, s and the last few years, the movement systematically worked hard to strengthen the democratic aspects in its ideological platform, which was reflected in their public statements and literature. At the same time, the organization also sent encouraging signals minorities Syria, promising them his support and protection, respect for their rights. “Brothers” openly talked about establishing a democratic regime in Syria Islamic orientation, emphasizing the peaceful nature of the change of power, political, religious and cultural pluralism. However, part of the society, especially among religious minorities persist doubts about the sincerity of the “brothers” in the event of coming to power in Syria.
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