In the wake of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) takeover of Syria and the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime, Syria’s Druze community is seeking protection from Islamists who seek its destruction. In addition, tens of thousands of Christians live in southern Syria, and their lives are threatened as well.
It is possible that we may see in the near future the emergence of a new country in the Middle East dominated by Druze and Christians. If so, the south Syrian region of Sweida would become the first overwhelmingly non-Muslim state established in the Middle East since Israel in 1948. In fact, in 1922, the original mandate for Syria and Lebanon included a separate regional state called Jabal al-Druze with Sweida as its capital.
Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS’s precursor organization, was formed in Syria in 2011 as al-Qaeda’s affiliate within the opposition to the Assad regime. Nusra’s leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, today known as Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, stands at the helm of HTS and has taken the role as Syria’s new ruler.
HTS, which threatens the Druze and Christians living in Sweida, can be thought of as a relatively localized Syrian terrorist organization, which retains a Salafi-jihadist ideology despite its public split from al-Qaeda in 2017, as explained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Druze reject Islamic rule and prefer a decentralized government in Syria, as noted in a report in Rudaw. “Religious and Islamic rule has only led the country and its people to war and conflict. This is completely rejected by us,” said Sheikh Marwan al-Rizq, a commander in the Sweida operations room.
The region’s Druze communities, split between Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, have expressed concern numerous times over the decades. For example, in 2013, Israeli Druze spiritual leader Muwafaq Tarif expressed concern about the fate of his Syrian coreligionists during a meeting with then-President Shimon Peres.
Today, Tarif’s concern may be addressed as Israel moves to protect Syria’s 800,000 Druze from HTS forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces to prepare to defend the Druze in the Sweida province.
The Druze community was established in Egypt in the 11th century and incorporates elements of Islam, Hinduism and even classical Greek philosophy.
As noted by Pew, “Like a number of other ethnic groups in the Middle East, such as the Kurds, the Druze live in several different countries, separated by borders drawn after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. But unlike the Kurds, who are largely Muslim, the Druze are a unique religious and ethnic group.”
According to Pew, “Today, 1 million-plus members of this community live primarily in Syria and Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, in Israel and Jordan. In Israel, the Druze are a close-knit community active in public life, according to a new Pew Research Center study of Israel. They make up roughly 2% of the country’s population and most live in the northern regions of the Galilee, Carmel and the Golan Heights.”
In yet another possible turn of events, Syria’s Druze, who live in the south, could potentially establish a protected contiguous swath of territory together with the Syrian Kurds, who live in eastern and northern Syria. There are maps that show a possible geographical continuity between the two groups. This Druze-Kurdish Federation could become a reality if both groups manage to stave off HTS and other groups bent on preventing their autonomy.
Naturally, Turkey is against the idea, being sworn enemies of the Kurds, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened against establishing such a state.
It remains to be seen what will emerge from this new and unfolding world order but it is likely to resemble nothing of the past.
