Druze militias are suspicious of Syria’s new leaders — and are able to go to battle

SWEIDA, Syria — The highway from Damascus to Sweida winds by way of outcrops of black volcanic rock, previous rainfed vineyards and olive groves and as much as the Mountain of the Druze — a pure fortress the place the small indigenous group is making ready for battle.

The Druze are a key spiritual minority in Syria. They comprise solely 3% of the nation’s inhabitants, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim, however their fierce independence and militia management of their area give them disproportionate energy.

Syria’s new president pledged to disband all militias on this multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian nation after the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime final December. To this point, with the Druze, these efforts have been unsuccessful. The dearth of settlement, together with rising sectarian violence, is undermining efforts to construct a brand new, united Syria.

“There is no consensus between us and the Damascus government,” Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the Druze non secular chief in Syria, informed NPR from his village residence in Sweida, a predominantly Druze province within the nation’s south.

He stated talks proceed — however his characterization of the brand new interim authorities made clear that settlement can be tough: “Armed terrorist factions now consider themselves in charge of the administration in Damascus. This is neither acceptable on the Syrian level nor internationally,” Hijri stated.

Hijri, the chief Druze authority on political and safety issues, was referring to the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which led the coalition of opposition fighters that toppled Assad. HTS is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former member of al-Qaida, has struggled to persuade the West and lots of Syrians that he now not adheres to that group’s ideology of combating for an Islamic caliphate. He has stated minority rights can be totally revered within the new Syria.

Hijri insisted the Druze militias which have maintained safety in Sweida, Syria’s southernmost province, would stay intact and proceed to manage the province’s borders with Syrian government-controlled territory. Within the absence of an settlement with Damascus, Druze militias in Sweida, most of which defer to Hijri, say they’re gathering fighters and planning to repel authorities forces if wanted.

“We do not want anyone to enter from outside because this is a transitional phase and a dangerous phase,” Hijri stated.

On most days, Hijri holds court docket from a stone home within the village of Qanawat. On a current day, village elders, the province’s Roman Catholic bishop and political figures crammed the benches of a reception corridor, ready to fulfill with the person who will seemingly chart the way forward for Syrian Druze.

Who’re the Druze?

The Druze have an extended historical past of taking on arms from their mountain stronghold. A century in the past, Sultan al-Atrash led the Nice Syrian Revolt in opposition to French colonial rule, which ultimately led to the institution of a central Syrian authorities. The nation received independence 11 years later.

Dozens of Druze militias, grouped into 4 principal coalitions, now safe Sweida, together with manning checkpoints that hold authorities safety forces from coming into the province.

They’re sure by their religion, a monotheistic offshoot of Shia Islam which developed within the tenth and eleventh centuries. Non secular leaders say whereas the Muslim holy e book, the Quran, is a principal reference, their religion incorporates sure beliefs present in different religions, corresponding to reincarnation.

Exterior Hijri’s reception corridor, a stone plaque depicts St. George slaying a dragon; Druze officers say the saint is extensively believed by members of their religion to be a reincarnation of St. John the Baptist.

The Druze are also called al-Muwahhidun — a time period that comes from the Arabic phrase “union,” reflecting a mystical oneness with God. Persecution over the centuries by Muslim empires left a lot of the inhabitants in mountain strongholds in Syria and Lebanon, with smaller populations in Israel and Jordan.

The faith doesn’t settle for converts or enable marriage outdoors the religion. Druze assume a continuing closeness to God that doesn’t require particular prayers or homes of worship. It values philosophy and reasoning over rote worship.

“As long as you have reached mental maturity, I am not responsible for you and you are not responsible for me,” Sheikh Yasser Abu Fakhr, a senior non secular chief, defined in an interview with NPR. “You cannot take me to heaven, and I cannot take you to hell.”

Neglect by the Syrian regime

After anti-Assad protests in Sweida in 2023, the regime consolidated an financial blockade.

In some of the fertile areas within the nation, well-known for its apples and different produce, farmers may now not promote their items to different areas. Factories shut down. Smuggling throughout the Jordanian border boomed.

Protesters, a lot of them girls, known as for al-Assad to step down and implement reforms, together with releasing Druze detainees, combating corruption and revitalizing the economic system.

Sectarian risks

In March, lots of of members of Syria’s Alawite minority — one other offshoot from Shia Islam — had been killed in a spate of revenge assaults by Sunni Arab fighters in Latakia, on the nation’s Mediterranean coast. Syria’s deposed president was Alawite.

President Sharaa stated the Sunni Arab attackers weren’t underneath his authorities’s management. However the authorities’s failure to guard minorities despatched shock waves by way of the Druze neighborhood.

Three days after the killings in Latakia, as quickly as a curfew was lifted, Druze leaders evacuated each Druze pupil from universities on the coast — greater than 1,200 of them. Some had been simply months away from acquiring their levels.

Arriving late at night time on the checkpoint to Sweida in a convoy of greater than 30 buses, lots of the college students danced within the aisles in celebration at lastly reaching security.

The younger individuals, together with future engineers and physicians, spoke of their fears in three days of being confined to dorms after the federal government lower electrical energy, operating water and cellphone alerts to attempt to quell the anti-Alawite violence.

In one of many growing alliances between minority teams distrustful of the central authorities, Druze leaders stated additionally they evacuated dozens of Alawite households from the world and introduced them to Sweida for refuge.

“Bloodshed always results in more bloodshed,” stated Hijri. “We reject this sectarianism. We want to build a civil state.”

“We can’t kid ourselves,” stated Bassim Abu Fakhr, a commander and spokesman for the Males of Dignity motion, probably the most highly effective Druze militia. “After what happened on the coast, we have reached the conclusion that if the situation continues like this, we are not capable of living together” with different sects, he stated — particularly Islamist Sunni Arabs.

Israeli safety, Druze suspicion

Roughly 150,000 Druze dwell in neighboring Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967. In contrast to different Arabs, Israeli Druze are required to serve within the Israeli Military.

“We are always loyal to the land where we are,” stated Hijri, the non secular chief in Syria.

Israel has been working to shore up assist in Syria’s Druze neighborhood, although some Druze see its efforts as divisive. In March it allowed Druze clerics from the Syrian aspect of the Golan Heights to enter Israel for the primary time for the reason that creation of the Jewish state in 1948. The group’s go to to a serious shrine, overseen by the Israeli army, was opposed by Druze leaders in the remainder of Syria.

Israel has elevated airstrikes in opposition to authorities army installations in southern Syria and has warned the brand new Syrian authorities to not deploy forces south of Damascus — a big menace to Syrian sovereignty. In March, after a conflict within the Damascus suburb of Jaramana between a Druze militia and Syrian authorities forces, the Israeli protection ministry stated Israel would intervene militarily to guard the Druze.

“We will not allow the extreme Islamic regime in Syria to harm the Druze. If the regime harms the Druze, it will be struck by us,” stated Israeli protection minister Israel Katz.

Druze in Sweida and Jaramana stated they neither requested for nor wished that safety.

“When Netanyahu says he wants to protect the Druze, it is to achieve his own interests,” stated Bassim Abu Fakhr, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The 35-year-old stated his motion had males in 100 villages, armed with rifles, machine weapons, rockets and mortars, however declined to present the variety of fighters.

“Of course we have concerns” concerning the new Syrian authorities, he stated, citing the 2015 bloodbath of greater than 20 Druze villagers in northwest Idlib province by an al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.

Sharaa, the brand new Syrian president — who then led Jabhat al-Nusra and glided by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — dissolved Jabhat al-Nusra in 2016, ultimately to create HTS.

Though now, as Syria’s chief, he has advocated for full safety and rights for the nation’s minorities, the Druze should not satisfied.

“They consider us infidels, that they must kill us and rape our women and steal our money,” stated Bassim Abu Fakhr. “So yes, there is concern. But we are ready, we have weapons and refuse to let them in and out of the mountain.”

He stated the Druze should not in search of independence: “We are not loyal to the government but we are keen to unite Syria, with Damascus as our capital. Because a person has no dignity unless he is in his country.”

New Druze militias

Within the face of perceived threats, new Druze militias are forming. The most recent, the Sweida Army Council, has a seemingly softer view on accepting assist from different international locations, together with Israel and the USA.

“We are ready to cooperate with anyone who preserves the dignity of the land and the mountains, while preserving the integrity of our land,” stated Tariq al-Shoufi, an officer who defected from the Assad regime’s army forces and now instructions the paramilitary group. “We ask the free world, led by the United States, and we ask Israel to defend the entire Druze region against any extremist attack.”

Shoufi stated he had not held talks with U.S. officers and stated the militia was at first phases of recruitment, counting on weapons seized from regime military bases deserted in December.

At a historic stone home in one in all Sweida’s southern villages, Shoufi and different commanders held a recruitment rally, gathering males and older youngsters to ask them to combat with them.

Among the villagers raised considerations about the place weapons will come from. One stated persons are having hassle feeding their households.

In the long run, the a number of dozen males gathered within the centuries-old home to pledge their allegiance to Shoufi’s militia, whooping and singing whereas performing a battle model of a celebratory dance.

A number of launched right into a music concerning the thrill of blood flowing and swords on their enemies’ necks.

“If you are a man,” they sang, “come to the Druze Mountain and we will see what you are made of.”

Sangar Khaleel contributed reporting from Sweida.