FT: Roula Khalaf: The new face of Syria’s opposition, Moaz al-Khatib, is a mild-mannered reformist cleric with whom western governments say they can do business. But when it comes to rebels fighting the regime on the ground, the religious figure to whom many turn is of a different style.
He is Sheikh Adnan Arour, a fierce and more radical Salafi who has been a godfather of sorts for the revolution, dedicating his programme on a Saudi television channel to the uprising, and propagating a more puritanical form of Islam.
“When people are dying and their children are slaughtered, people turn to religion, and he’s got a way of reaching out to them,” says one rebel spokesman, who is not a fan of the sheikh. “And he was collecting money in mosques and sending it to Syria, which created a following for him.”
However much the west wants Arab societies to produce leaders with whom its feels comfortable, the turmoil in the region in the past two years has allowed for the emergence of less pleasant political actors. The most worrying is the Salafis, the ultraconservative Sunni sect whose objective is the establishment of sharia, or strict Islamic law.
Categories: Asia, Awareness, Behaviour, Belief, Bigotry, Civil Rights, Double Standard
In all present ‘movements’ whether in the so-called ‘Arab spring’ or the ‘occupy’ movements of the West or the protests in Greece and elsewhere we see that many people know what they are AGAINST but few know what they are FOR.
Watch the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. It seems they are the only ones with a positive agenda. (Read The Muslim Times!).