| Islamist uprising in Syria | |||||||
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| Part of theArab Cold War andAssadist–Saddamist conflict | |||||||
 Militants of theFighting Vanguard (a breakaway faction of the Muslim Brotherhood) in Syria, 1979. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Fighting Vanguard[1][2] Muslim Brotherhood (after mid-1979)[3][4] Pro-Iraqi Ba'athists[5]Supported by:  Iraq (1980–1982) Jordan[6][7] West Germany[8] |  SyriaSupported by:  Soviet Union[9][10] | ||||||
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TheIslamist uprising in Syria comprised a series of protests, assassinations, bombings, and armed revolts led bySunniIslamists, mainly members of theFighting Vanguard and, after 1979, theMuslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. The uprising aimed to establish anIslamic republic in Syria by overthrowing theneo-Ba'athist government, in what was described by theBa'ath Party as a "long campaign of terror".[12]
After 1980, the popularresistance to Ba'athist rule expanded, with a coalition of Islamist opposition groups coordinating nation-wide strikes, protests and revolts throughout Syria.[13] During the violent events, resistance militias attackedSyrian Arab Army bases and carried out political assassinations of Ba'ath party cadres, army officials,Soviet military advisors, and bureaucrats linked toAssad family.[14][15][10] Civilians were also killed in retaliatory strikes conducted by security forces.[16] The uprising reached its climax in the1982 Hama massacre, during which the Syrian government killed between 5,000[17]-40,000 civilians.[18][19]
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In context, the insurgency traces its origins to multiple factors. Historical ideological friction is a result of the Ba'ath Party's ultra-secularist foundation versus the Muslim Brotherhood's religious foundation. Muslim Brotherhood believed thatIslamic religion had the central role in directing the laws of the state.[20] On the other hand, secular Ba'athist ideology emphasizedArab nationalism and advocated the replacement of religion withsocialism.[21]
This friction became heated following the1963 Ba'ath Party coup which saw the Party claiming sole power in the country and subsequentlyoutlawing all other organised opposition. In response, the Muslim Brotherhood encouraged generalprotests across the country. These protests were most acute in the city ofHama, long considered "a stronghold of landed conservatism".[22] During the1964 Hama uprising, Ba'ath Party responded violently, crushing the revolt with brutal force.[23]
Muslim Brotherhood was forced to continue its activitiesclandestinely. In the party, the ideological dispute began widening towards a sectarian one; as dominance ofAlawite elites in the Ba'athist military, bureaucracy and politics became visible after the Old Guard was overthrown by theneo-Ba'athistmilitary wing of Alawite GeneralSalah Jadid in the1966 coup.[20] The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood fractured over disputes of the best course of action. Much of the party leadership was afraid to directly oppose the Syrian government, fearing that a violent confrontation could cause more harm than good. In contrast, several of the most radical members of the party split off to form the "Fighting Vanguard", led byMarwan Hadid. The Fighting Vanguard was willing to challenge the government by conducting assassinations and sabotage actions.[1][2]
On 13 November 1970, Hafez Al Assad launched a coup which saw him gain sole power. To cement his power, on 31 January 1973, Assad implemented a newconstitution which led to a national crisis. Unlike previous constitutions, this one did not require that the president of Syria must be a Muslim, leading to fierce demonstrations inHama,Homs andAleppo organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and theulama. They labelled Assad as the "enemy of Allah" and called for ajihad against his rule.[24] Under pressure, Assad returned the requirement and convinced Lebanese clericMusa al-Sadr to issue a fatwa proclaiming the Alawite minority to be part ofShia Islam.[25] The 1973 constitution greatly increased the support for Hadid's Fighting Vanguard, and many Muslim Brotherhood members defected to his faction or at least began to support it. He subsequently reorganized his group to increase the number of attacks, hoping to provoke the Syrian government into a crackdown that would force the Muslim Brotherhood into open rebellion.[26][27]
Robert D. Kaplan has compared Assad's coming to power to
"anuntouchable becomingmaharajah in India or a Jew becomingtsar in Russia—an unprecedented development shocking to the Sunni majority population which had monopolized power for so many centuries."[28]
According to historianPatrick Seale, the "economic boom following theOctober War had run out of steam, and new inequalities were created".[29] Raphael Lefevre adds that the emergence of secular ideology had led to the "overturning of traditional structures of political and socioeconomic power".[30] Additionally, a decrease inGulf countries' economic support, the cost of Syria'smilitary campaign in Lebanon, and the take-in of severalrefugees from the conflict all further exacerbated Syria's economic livelihood.[31]
Economic impact ofstate socialism adopted by the Ba'athist government as well as rising assertiveness of Alawites in the new socio-political system resulted in the alienation of the traditional elites,landowners,industrialists and thebourgeoisie. Their support shifted in favour of the Islamic opposition which positioned itself as ideological defenders ofprivate property and free trade.[20]
1976 marked the Syrian army'sintervention in the Lebanese Civil War, initially against thePalestinian guerrillas (PLO). This was received with surprise across the Arab world and contributed to pre-existing reasons for discontent with the Syrian government. HistorianPatrick Seale described this attack as "slaughtering Arabism's sacred cow".[32]
In the same year, Syria experienced sporadicterror attacks, mostly explosions and assassinations.[33] The killings were largely aimed at prominent military officers, bureaucrats and government officials, including doctors and teachers. Most of the victims wereAlawites, which led some to suggest "that the assassins had targeted the community" but "no one could be sure who was behind" the killings.[34]
TheIraqi government ofSaddam Hussein had supported the insurgents with a steady flow of arms and supplies.[35] GeneralRifa'at al-Assad, younger brother of Hafez al-Assad, became a powerful figure in the Ba'ath party and Syrian politics, as a result of his activities in theLebanese Civil War. Rifa'at's corruption as well as the sectarian excesses of his increasingly autonomous Alawite loyalist private militias provoked widespread resentment across the Syrian population. As a result, internal situation in Syria became further destabilized and protests spread further across the cities.[36]
16 June 1979 marked the day of theAleppo artillery school massacre. Member of school staff, Captain Ibrahim Yusuf, called cadets to an urgent meeting at the dining hall. Once assembled, gunmen fired indiscriminately at the cadets with automatic weapons andgrenades.[33] The massacre was masterminded by'Adnan 'Uqla, a Fighting Vanguard commander.[37][38] 'Uqla committed the mass murder without the permission of the Fighting Vanguard's formal leader, Hisham Jumbaz, or its field commando in Aleppo.[39][40][3]
This massacre signalled a turn in the insurgency as it was now more than just a series of sporadic attacks, but a campaign of "large-scale urban warfare".[41] By August, the Brotherhood had declared ajihad against the Syrian government, effectively claiming responsibility for the insurgency.[42]
In the days leading up to 8 March 1980 (the 17th anniversary of the 1963 Ba'athist coup), nearly all Syrian cities were paralysed by strikes and protests, which sometimes developed into pitched battles with security forces.[43] The events escalated into awidescale crackdown inAleppo, where the government responded with overwhelming military force, sending in tens of thousands of troops, supported by tanks and helicopters. In and around Aleppo, hundreds of demonstrators were killed, and eight thousand were arrested. By April, theuprising in the area had been crushed.[44]
Between 1979 and 1981, Brotherhood insurgents continued to target Ba'ath party officials, party offices, police stations, military vehicles, barracks, factories, and even Russian officials.[41] Insurgents would form 'hit teams' to kill Ba'ath party members in their sleep, such as 'Abd al 'Aziz al 'Adi, who was murdered in front of his wife and children and had his body thrown into the street.[45] On occasion, individuals who had denounced the killings were also targeted, including Sheikh al-Shami,Imam of the Suleymaniamosque of Aleppo.[46]
Other instances of terrorism include attacks in August, September and November 1981, where the Brotherhood carried out three car-bomb attacks against government and military targets in Damascus, killing hundreds of people, according to the official press.[47] Among the victims were Soviet officials, experts, and their families serving with the United Nations as part of theUnited Nations Disengagement Observer Force.[48]
Losing control over the streets, the government decided on apolicy of all-out-war on the insurgents after a Ba'athparty congress concluded in January 1980.[49] The Party's first step was to arm Party loyalists and sympathizers, effectively creating a 'citizen militia'.[49] By March and April, the cities ofJisr al-Shughur and Aleppo were brought into line with thousands of troops in garrison and tanks on the streets. Hundreds were rounded up insearch-and-destroy operations.
In another case, in retaliation to a failed terror attack on an Alawite village nearHama, the army executed about 400 of Hama's Sunni inhabitants, chosen randomly among the male population of over the age of 14.[50]
On 27 June 1980, Hafez Al Assad himself narrowly escaped death after a failed assassination attempt. The assailant fired a burst of rounds and threw two grenades, the first being kicked away by Assad and the second being covered by his personal bodyguard, Khalid al-Husayn, who died instantly. In retaliation, the very next day,Rifaat Al Assad's defence company flew into the infamousTadmor prison in helicopters andkilled hundreds of prisoners who had been Brotherhood-affiliates. By 8 July, membership of the Muslim Brotherhood became acapital offence altogether,[51] with a month-long grace period for those who wished to turn themselves in and avoid a death sentence. Some couple thousand individuals turned themselves in, hoping to escape the death penalty; mostly urban, educated, young men.[52]
The insurgency is generally considered to have been crushed by the bloodyHama massacre of 1982, in which thousands of insurgents, soldiers and residents were killed, according to some claims "the vast majority innocent civilians".[53][54] On 2 February 1982, the Brotherhood led amajor insurrection in Hama, rapidly taking control of the city; the military responded by bombing Hama (whose population was about 250,000) throughout the rest of the month, killing between 2,000 and 25,000 people. The Hama events marked the defeat of the Brotherhood, and the militant Islamic movement in general, as a political force in Syria.[55]
US Intelligence conducted an intelligence analysis with regards to possible outcomes of the conflict.[56]
Having suppressed all opposition, Hafez al-Assad released some imprisoned members of the Brotherhood in the mid-1990s.
Although its leadership is in exile, the Brotherhood continues to enjoy considerable sympathy among Syrians.Riyad al-Turk, a secular opposition leader, considers it "the most credible" Syrian opposition group[citation needed]. The Brotherhood has continued to advocate a democratic political system; it has abandoned its calls for violent resistance and for the application ofshari'a law. The Brotherhood also maintains that it condemns sectarianism against Alawites and is only against the Baathist dictatorship. Al-Turk and others in the secular opposition are inclined to take this evolution seriously, as a sign of the Brotherhood's greater political maturity, and believe that the Brotherhood would now be willing to participate in a democratic system of government.[citation needed]
In a January 2006 interview, the Brotherhood's leader,Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni, "said the Muslim Brotherhood wants a peaceful change of government in Damascus and the establishment of a 'civil, democratic state', not an Islamic republic."[57] According to Bayanouni, the Syrian government admits having detained 30,000 people, giving a fair representation of the Brotherhood's strength.[53]
The Muslim Brotherhood would have no physical presence in Syria again until 2011 which played in the role in theSyrian revolution against the Ba'athist government ofBashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father after his death in 2000. The Syrian revolution would eventually be achieved asrebel offensives had swept the country in December 2024 which culminated with thecollapse of the Assad regime over Syria, with rebel leaders saying in regards to the Hama massacre of 1982 that they have came "to cleanse the wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years".[58]
While the involvement of the Syrian government "was not proved" in these killings, it "was widely suspected."
Another reason for West Germany to oppose Asad [sic] was his involvement in international terrorism, such as the RAF (Baader Meinhof Gang) clique and the "Movement 2nd of June – Tupamaros West Berlin"... West Germany, as an ally in the anti-Soviet camp, had a reason to support the Brotherhood in Syria and to provide them a safe exile in Germany as a place from where they could continue their attempts to overthrow Asad [sic], in order to weaken the Soviet bloc... Three ways how West Germany supported the Syrian Brotherhood.. It provided asylum and a save haven from where the exile-brotherhood could organise its struggle against Asad [sic], it protected them against attacks of Syrian intelligence, and West German newspapers reported about the Hama incident in a way that supported the aims of the Brotherhood.
Media related toIslamic uprising in Syria at Wikimedia Commons
