Among Syria’s Islamist Fighters
The men were openly disdainful of the Free Syrian Army units, saying they were engaged in “tourism” well behind the front, and were also openly hostile to the Alawites, or Nusayris, as they called them
. “Even the Shiites have declared them kuffar [nonbelievers],” said one. “They are all the same. They view us Sunnis as the enemy; they are all involved in the war against us,” said another.
“They won’t want to stay here after this,” said a third, meaning after they’d swept through the villages. The men also mocked the Muslim Brotherhood as inadequately committed to its faith.
“We call the Muslim Brotherhood ‘whatever the audience wants,’ ” said Mohammad, the Syrian Islamist fighter.
He wore green military camouflage pants and a black T-shirt bearing the Islamic shahada in white script.
“If the people say they want Sharia, they say they want it. If the people say they want democracy, they say they want it. They just want power.”
The
very concept of moderate Islam was false, Omar claimed.
“There’s no such thing—it is a modern expression,” he said. “A moderate Islamist means an Islamist who walks with them, who agrees with them, with the Americans, the Europeans, and Iran.”
As Omar spoke, there was an explosion nearby. It was one of nine within the span of an hour, but only twice did the men in the courtyard move: once when an artillery shell whizzed past and crashed into a field near the house, and once when a MIG jet flew very low before bombing a position nearby.
There was robust outgoing fire, too, from a rocket launcher and other artillery.
“The decision-makers in this country will be those with military power,” Mohammad said. “If they”—the F.S.A. and Syrian political opposition—“want a secular state and have the military power to create one, let them.
If they are going to confront us because of our project, we will confront them. We are fighting for religion, what are they fighting for?”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/09/among-syria-islamist-fighters.html
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