Secularism Appeals to Some as ISIS Withdraws from Kfar Nabel
Hazzaa Adnan al-Hazzaa
(Kfar Nabel, Syria) – Mohammad al-Salim, a French literature student from Kfar Nabel at the University of Aleppo, is critical of much of what the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been doing in the various areas that have been wrested out of Baath regime control.
Salim supports the idea of founding an Islamic state in Syria, but sees ISIS as an extremist intelligence-gathering organization, bent on “pursuing heathens and blasphemers across the world,” as he vehemently wonders: “how long will we chase after blasphemers? How long before we start actually building a state?”
ISIS took control of Kfar Nabel, in northwestern Syria, with its almost 30,000 citizens, in late December 2013, without any overt combat, and without any activism or pre-planned advocacy. Few of the ISIS members were Kfar Nabel residents.
In less than a week, ISIS left the city, also without much bloodshed, after pressure from the Free Syrian Army and the intervention of some intermediaries. Yet the whole episode has stoked fierce debate among residents of the city about the shape of the state and the government they envision.
The city is home to a lot of Salafist preaching activity, led by more than five sheikhs through lessons and lectures in mosques, and sometimes through the distribution of pamphlets.
These activities are tied to Al-Nusra Front and the military coalition Islamic Front, and are supported by advocacy organizations from Arabian Gulf countries.
The presence of other Islamic movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, is somewhat weaker.
Before the revolution, the Sufi movement was most prominent, but in general, the Sufis tend to support the Assad government, which means they cannot operate in those areas under opposition control, and that includes Kfar Nabel.
Salim dreams of “building a civil state with an Islamic flavour,” as he puts it. By his reckoning, it is the people who ought to choose their leaders, from the head of the state to the parliament to the local council, through free and fair elections, even if they are not Muslims, but under condition that Islamic sharia law remains the essential source for all legislation. Salim considers sharia law to be just, flexible and appropriate to all epochs and something that guarantees the rights of all citizens, whether Muslim or not. Just as it guarantees freedom of religion, citing as evidence a verse in Surat Al-Baqarah from the Quran, which reads: “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.”
Rasha, 22, a student at the Faculty of Law at Aleppo University, sees ISIS as a jihadist organization with ties to Al-Qaeda. She doesn’t consider it a state (as is claimed in the name), for it is a state with no real nationality or borders.
“The age of rule by sword is over… the age of conquest is over,” she said. Rasha dreams of building a civil Islamic state, but, not ruled by clerics.
Abdullah, 23, a student at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Aleppo, dreams of the same: a civil Islamic state that protects civil liberties, respects the law, strives for independence of the judiciary and abides by international conventions.
In Kfar Nabel there is no organized secular political activity within the city, with the exception of some articles published in local magazines.
Ahmad, 20, a mechanical engineering student, is a proponent of secularism. He says that sharia law cannot be applied in Syria given the presence of Christians, Alawites, Druze and other minorities. By secular, Ahmad pointed out that he means a separation of state and religion, rather than an anti-religious or expressly atheistic state as many Islamists infer when they hear this word.
“I’m a secular Muslim,” he said.
Ahmad sees secularism as the solution to religiously motivated conflict.
Ali al-Amin, 45, an English teacher, agrees with Ahmad, for he claims that secularism does not conflict with Islam but rather protects it. Amin believes that separating the state from religion will protect the rights of believers and non-believers alike in either practicing their beliefs or choosing to practice nothing at all. He believes in a state that doesn’t concern itself with personal, daily affairs. He also wants a state that maintains freedom for its citizens, who may wear what they like and pray how they choose.
Amin points out that what some Islamists indicate as pressure being placed on Muslims in certain Western countries is “racism, not secularism.”
According to Amin, the “secular agenda does not conflict with the Quranic one, as the foundations of Islam are built on free choice and mutual respect.”
Despite his disagreement with Mohammad al-Salim around the nature of the future state in Syria, Amin cites the same Quranic text to support his view: “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.”
Amin believes that “the Prophet, peace be upon him, was one of the first exemplars of a civil constitution when he wrote the Scroll of Medina, which organized the relationships between Muslims, polytheists, nonbelievers, Jews and Christians.”
But Iman, who holds a law degree, sees secularism as something far removed from religion, something that contradicts Islamic sharia and thought, and as such isn’t compatible with “our Muslim society.”
“Islam is a religion, a creed and a way of life,” she added. “It is for all time, because it comes from the creator of all people, and God knew what would be to the benefit of all.”
The imam at Al-Tawbah Mosque in Kfar Nabel, Sheikh Mohammad al-Sweid, agrees.
“Christianity is a spiritual religion that isn’t concerned with law (neither in jurisprudence nor in practice),” he said. “This is why secularism suits Europe, yet Islam is not confined to spirituality, but exists also to ensure God’s law, which we have been tasked with applying.”
“God is our Lord,” he added. “He knows what is good for us in every place and time.”
This is an opinion shared by Sadeq, 27, a student at the Faculty of Islamic Law in Aleppo. But Sadeq emphasizes the importance of liberating Islam from the historical influence of clerics, because the interpretation and analysis of the Quran stopped at the four Sunni historical schools in the fourth century after the Hijra, that is, the 10th century AD.
Sadeq believes that “we must encourage the growth of a modern Islamic school of thought, keeping pace with modernity but without deviating from the texts of the Quran and the Prophet’s teachings.”
Medical technician Rami Ali al-Sheikh, 37, sees ISIS as an Islamic state desired by the majority of Muslims. He describes it as “the nucleus of an Islamic caliphate built on the Prophet’s own platform.”
“This state doesn’t subscribe to the borders drawn up by Sykes-Picot,” he said.
Ali al-Sheikh thinks that the imposition of this state by force is the only choice Muslims have at this point in time, because “the West and its cronies don’t want such a state to exist.”
“Look at Egypt!” he exhorts. “Didn’t the Islamists come to power democratically? So why did the army turn against them? Look at Palestine! Didn’t Hamas come to power democratically? So why did the whole world stand against them?”
