Monday, September 30, 2013

The Army of Islam and the Army of Muhammad in Syria

In the last few days alone, important developments occurred in the landscape of Syrian rebels: but those developments went unnoticed in the Western press although they occupied headlines in the Arabic press.  Three armed groups, Ahrar Ash-Sham and Liwa' Al-Islam and Liwa' At-Tawhid declared a joint army called the Army of Muhammad.  Yesterday, 43 different military organization declared the formation of the Army of Islam: its members are required to be part of Sunnah wa-l-Jama`ah and it aims to combat "the Nusayri [`Alawite] occupatio and its Shi`ite allies and Zoroastrian".  Please, don't take this information as a refutation to the persistent Western media stories to the effect that Syrian rebels are a bunch of secularists, liberals, feminists, and with a touch of Sufis.