This
\narticle by Abdullah
\nAmin Al-Hallaq
\nforms
\npart of a special series focused on Oral Culture and Identity in
\nSyria. It
\nis the outcome of an ongoing partnership between SyriaUntold and
\nopenDemocracy\u2019s North Africa West Asia in a bid to untangle the
\nroots of sectarian, ethnic and other divides in Syria.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n For Holding Salamiya The In There While This Furthermore, The In One In I Translated This article by Abdullah Amin Al-Hallaq forms part of a special series focused on Oral Culture and Identity in Syria. It is the outcome of an ongoing partnership between SyriaUntold and openDemocracy\u2019s North Africa West Asia in a bid to untangle the roots of sectarian, ethnic and other divides in Syria. \u00a0 For better or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbetter or for worse, I am not sure which exactly, I was born in the
\ncity of Salamiya, located in the heart of Syria to the east of Hama.
\nI am Ismaili by birth (Ismailism is a branch of Shia Islam). Both my
\nparents belong to the Ismaili faith but I am irreligious by
\nconviction. I follow secular tactics in my day-to-day life and apply
\nsecular \u201cstrategies\u201d to live in the world. I respect the right of
\nany person to believe\u2014as well as not to believe\u2014in any religion
\nor doctrine (although most believers do not respect or recognize our
\nrights to not believe). I respect that right provided they do not see
\ntheir sect or religion as the end of all righteousness, based on
\nsupernatural and shamanistic ideologies firmly rooted in environments
\nstill mired in superstitions.\n<\/p>\n
\none\u2019s own sect in high regard was not shown publically in Syria,
\nperhaps due to the \u201cSyrian mosaic\u201d and \u201ccoexistence\u201d
\npropaganda, which we experienced so clearly after the revolution!
\nHowever, one could notice some of the significant remarks that were
\nflourishing among the least educated in this or that community,
\nremarks denigrating to others. Denigrating others based on their
\nreligion, sect, race or color is to a certain extent a pretension to
\nsuperiority based on one\u2019s own sectarian or religious affiliation.
\nThere
\nis no need to dwell on the obvious here: the need to not label an
\nentire group with one defining feature, and to be careful not to
\nattribute to the \u201cwhole\u201d what only \u201csome\u201d of its members
\nmight gossip about. For the purpose of this article, however, there
\nare some \u201crare\u201d verbal narratives that are rather narrowly
\ncirculated among \u201csectarian activists\u201d in Syria worth mentioning.
\nThese are precisely the type of narratives we need to be looking into
\nand writing about.<\/p>\n
\nis a city in Syria where the Ismaili minority constitutes a majority
\nof its population. Six Shia imams, from Ali down to Ja\u2019far
\nal-Sadiq, are the common denominator between \u201cSevener\u201d Ismailis
\nand the largest branch of Shiite Islam, known as Twelvers. In a
\ncountry like Baathist and Assadist Syria, people were prohibited from
\ndiscussing politics as well as manifesting any sound or healthy
\ninterest in fellow Syrians. Members of majority and minority
\nreligious groups developed their own parochial oral histories
\nvis-a-vis other sects. These were often promoted by unfathomable
\nanecdotes of paranormal events and reinforced by walls or security
\nbarriers which prevented Syrians from getting to know each other.\n<\/p>\n
\nmore educated classes, which regularly encountered other sections of
\nthe Syrian populations, did not care about the \u201cmorning sermons\u201d
\npassed down verbally by some \u201celders\u201d who have long been
\ninsulated within the confines of their sects and regions. But we
\noften heard these elders chatter about the Sunnis, the Alawites and
\nthe Druze in ways that resembled the anecdotes one hears in Arabian
\nNights<\/em>.
\nI remember that the first folk proverb to be invoked in moments of
\ngreat injustice inflicted upon someone is \u201clike a Nusayris<\/em>
\n[an Alawite] beaten down in market.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nfact, I do not yet know the source or the original story of this
\nwidespread saying in the Ismaili community, nor the location of the
\nmarket in which the above-mentioned \u201cNusayri\u201d was dealt that
\n\u201cbeatdown.\u201d Is it the Salamiya market? Hama market? Al-Hamidiyah
\nmarket?! The market is a variable that is open to speculations, but
\nwhat is constant is that an Alawite person was once subjected to a
\nphysical assault so horrible that it became remarkably proverbial, a
\n\u201cspiteful\u201d remembrance that is nevertheless invoked to ease the
\npain of someone being wronged.<\/p>\nMockery
\nand ridicule<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nare additional sayings used by Ismailis, Sunnis and many others to
\nmock and ridicule the Alawites. One such saying is silk
\nbi-laban<\/em>
\n[chard with yogurt], which is a rural dish made even in non-Alawite
\nvillages, but has been associated with the Alawites when poking fun
\nat their lives and traditions. Another is shu\u2019aybiya
\nwa kazuza <\/em>[custard
\nin filo and soft drink], which refers to a poor Alawite descending
\nfrom his village, enjoying a shu\u2019aybiya
\n<\/em>with
\na soft drink and considering that his utmost \u201cmodel of luxury.\u201d
\nThese are only two examples of countless forms of mockery.<\/p>\n
\nthe Ismailis and the Sunnis share a similar view toward the Alawites,
\nthe Ismailis are also viewed as a \u201cone stereotypical whole,\u201d most
\nfamously as \u201cthe sect that worships vaginas.\u201d This is another
\nwidespread conviction among \u201cSunni\u201d marginalized rural groups,
\nwhich rely on communal anecdotes and hereditary myths to learn about
\nthe sectarian or religious other, which is in this case the Ismailis.<\/p>\n
\nallegation of an Ismaili cult serves a twofold purpose. On the one
\nhand, it obscures the fact that Ismailis worship Allah, just like
\nother Muslims. On the other, it is used to vilify the Ismaili faith
\nand reduce it to \u201cvaginas,\u201d at which point infidelity, atheism or
\npaganism become too nice a \u201ccharge\u201d when compared with the
\nabove-mentioned worship. Perhaps the most astute response to this
\ncharge was that of the poet Ali al-Jundi, which is often repeated by
\nactivists and young people from Salamiya. \u201cIs it true that the
\nIsmailis worship vaginas?\u201d the late poet was once asked, rather
\njokingly, on the sidelines of a press interview. \u201cFrankly, I have
\nno clue if the dignified sect worships it, but personally I do,\u201d
\nal-Jundi replied.\n<\/p>\n
\nwithin the Ismaili \u201csphere,\u201d there is another anti-Ismaili
\nslander propagated by Alawites, especially those who have reached
\nextreme old age. This is the term kalb
\nel fayy<\/em>
\n[dog of shadows], which is grounded in the stereotyping notion that
\nIsmailis are too lazy and passive. \u201cAn Ismaili man rests in the
\nshadow, loosens his balls, and watches whoever comes by. If he ever
\nworks a few minutes, he takes a three-hour break, whereas a villager
\nis a hard-working early riser.\u201d It goes without saying that many
\nIsmailis are villagers and peasants as well.<\/p>\nMyth-making
\nand narrative wars<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nsame smear tactic is used by other sects towards the Murshidi
\n[members of a religious community that split from the Alawite
\ntribes], such as the popularized rumor that they meet in a special
\nritualistic evening to have an animalistic orgy between their men and
\nwomen. Indeed, sex has been and remains a primary myth-making tool in
\nthis sectarian \u201cwar or narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe minds of the most ignorant and backward groups, for instance,
\nSunnis are Bakris. Bakrism here is not an affiliation with the tribe
\nof Bakr or any other Arab tribe. It is simply a \u201ccharge\u201d against
\nthe Sunnis who believe in Abu Bakr\u2019s entitlement to the first
\ncaliph coronation, which is in the Alawite and Ismaili tradition an
\nentitlement of [the fourth caliph] Ali. In the same context, another
\nexpression concerning major Sunni figures is Aisha
\nalhamra<\/em>.
\nThis invokes the description by Prophet Muhammad of [his youngest
\nwife] Aisha Bint Abu Bakr as humayraa
\n<\/em>[rosy-complexed],
\nwhich is now used by Aisha\u2019s haters, who are entrenched Ali\u2019s
\ncamp, to describe any \u201cbitchy\u201d woman as Aisha
\nalhamra<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\ncould elaborate and research endlessly into this subject, which is
\nnot the purpose of this article. Such hostile speech remained
\nconfined to very narrow spaces, barely extending beyond its original
\ncommunities. But it bears witness to what might be the case in
\npolitically impoverished environments, where societies invoke their
\ndistant historical heritage to wreak havoc in such historical moments
\nas the breakout of the Syrian revolution \u2013 albeit in a different
\nlanguage from what I have described here.\n<\/p>\n
\nmany aspects, the Syrian conflict today has turned into a military
\nwar and given way to sectarian and national strife. Many have drawn
\non the historical heritage: a Sunni-Shiite divide as Iran intervened
\nin support of the regime, and an over-Islamization and
\nsectarianization of the conflict. If this historical heritage is
\ntransient then it can either be overcome by cumulative political
\naction and under modern or reformist systems; or it can be
\nperpetuated by discriminatory sectarian regimes. A regime such as the
\nAssad regime will only produce hideous outcomes of the sort we are
\nwitnessing nowadays. The \u201cSunni
\nmarket\u201d
\nepitomizes
\nthis hideosity!<\/p>\n
\nsaid at first that I am affiliated with an irreligious minority that
\nis ostracized by whoever defines themselves by their sect, who are
\nindeed so many. However, having read what I wrote above, and
\ncontemplated what I could write and narrate in this file, I think I
\nhave to alter my said affiliation as I conclude this article. It is
\ntoo early to discuss \u201cfreedom to not believe\u201d within the
\nconstitutional framework. So, it suffices to say: \u201cI descend from a
\nrural peasant family. I might not be a good person, but at least I'm
\nnot kalb
\nel fayy<\/em>
\n[dog of shadows].\u201d<\/p>\n
\nby Yaaser Azzayyaat<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"