In Syria, the great return of senior Sunni dignitaries after exile

The video made the rounds on Syrian networks: carried by a jubilant crowd, Ahmad Al Sayaneh enters after thirteen years of exile into the Al-Omari mosque in the city of Daraa, epicenter of the “Syrian spring”. In 2011, this Sunni scholar was one of the voices of the uprising against deposed President Bashar Al Assad. He was even nicknamed the “sheikh of the revolution” as his sermons called on the faithful to revolt against the tyrant. In 2012, the government forced him to flee to Türkiye.

In the interview he gave upon his arrival in Daraa, the cleric said he still dreams of a liberated Syria: “We have spent almost sixty years under oppression and tyranny. Today we want to be free. » Like him, many Sunni religious dignitaries have returned to Syria since the fall of the regime on December 8. Most are opponents of the old regime, forced to flee repression. Among the most renowned personalities are the great ulema Osama Al Rifaï, 81, and the preacher Rateb Al Nabulsi, 86. Both returned to Damascus at the beginning of January.

A fragmented Sunni landscape

In a country where 80% of the inhabitants are Sunni and where religious authority often takes precedence over that of the State, many hope that their return can serve as a counterweight to the Salafist currents which today dominate the rebel factions, allowing expression pacified “of greater ideological variety within the Sunni community”as noted in the newsletter, Levantine Press.

In reality, however, the end of their exile should not change much. Syria’s Sunni religious scene has fragmented during the 14 years of civil war. If Damascus and Aleppo have long remained important centers of learning, their religious elite, acquired by the precepts of traditional Islam and of which Al Rifaï or Nabulsi are today the great representatives, has for several years seen its influence undermined in benefit of young provincial clerics with speeches marked by radical ideology.

A “struggle for influence”

“Between these two currents, the struggle for influence, which has existed for several years, should sharpen: the new Syrian leader Ahmad Al Chareh needs to thank those who supported him by granting them important positions. What the ulama of Damascus or Aleppo dispute: for them, these sheikhs remain minor figures from a theological point of view, who ultimately only owe their position to the support of an armed group. », Explains Thomas Pierret, research fellow at the CNRS, specialist in Islamist movements and the Syrian conflict.

It was also because they sensed the danger that many rushed to Damascus. “The new power will probably seek to keep things as they are. I think that he will keep the law on the organization of waqfs unchanged in substance. (religious foundations, Editor’s note)who had abolished the function of mufti. This would allow Ahmad Al Chareh not to have to confirm Osama Al Rifaï (elected head of the Syrian Islamic Council (CIS) in 2021, when this function was abolished, Editor’s note) or start a war by appointing someone else », adds the researcher.

In the Umayyad mosque, the new power took care to alternate preachers and currents. Despite everything, the latest was an ally of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC), Sheikh Anas Ayrut, dean of the faculty of Muslim law at the University of Idlib, affiliated with the government of salvation of the rebels in this region and governor of the province of Tartus. This antagonism could further exacerbate. The majority of religious people who are joining Syria today are fierce opponents of HTC. This is the case for the members of the CIS, this religious organization still chaired by Osama Al Rifaï and marked, since its founding in 2014 in Turkey, by the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Sufi brotherhoods.

Several fatwas

“The council issued several fatwas starting in 2017 to regularly denounce HTC’s “heinous attacks” against other rebel factions. In 2021, he went so far as to declare the taxes that HTC levied on olive oil harvests in Idlib as illegitimate»recalls the researcher. In a recent press release, the CIS advocates, remarks on X Cédric Labrousse, a doctoral student specializing in Syria, “the principle of a republic with free and plural elections » light years away from the HTC monks who, for their part, “consider them contrary to Islam”.

For the sake of diplomacy, Ahmed Al Chareh made symbolic gestures towards these opponents, inviting some like Osama Al Rifaï face to face at the presidential palace. The new Syrian leader even went to the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on January 4 to offer his condolences: the ulema had just lost his brother, Sariya, another revered religious figure. In a photo that went around the networks, we see him kissing the religious man. A few minutes later, he will do the same with Rateb Al Nabulsi. “Ahmed Al Chareh has no problem reconciling with former adversaries, but on his terms, still supports Thomas Pierret. This means that he intends to follow religious affairs closely while, for the first time in Syrian history, during their exile, the ulemas believed they were freeing themselves from the supervision of the State to organize themselves. . »