Events in Syria: the foreigner and I against my brother

Faisal Al-Kasim argues in his article in Orient Net Arabic that the fraternity factor of the Syrian society has been wiped out throughout the conflict, emphasizing that the Assad regime has been destroying it for 4 decades, but once security collapsed in Syria, it took down the sense of fraternity in the society.

The writer asks: Why did the Syrians lose their fraternity factor ever since the Assad regime came to power 4 decades ago? And why did the conflict take a sectarian direction?

“The first entity that planted the seed of separatism within the Syrian people was the regime itself,” the writer argues, explaining that it used the Syrians against each other and worked on creating and deepening the sectarian and social rift between the Syrians.

The writer continues saying that the Assad regime succeeded in deepening this rift in the Syrian society with the outbreak of the revolution, explaining that instead of the Syrians standing hand-in-hand against the Assad regime’s brutality, the Syrians – especially the minorities – stood by the regime and its Iranian and Russian allies against their Syrian brothers.

The writer then answers his own question concerning the reason behind the actions of some Syrians turning against their Syrian brothers, that the regime has worked for years to create fear and pit the Syrian people against each other so it can use them against each other whenever the regime is subjected to danger.

“The Assad regime was promoting in theory the principles of pan-Arab nationalism while it was in practice creating sectarian rifts between the people of the same Syrian sect.”

Al-Kasim concludes by stating: “How unfortunate that Syrians are leaning on the foreigner to fight each other without knowing that the foreigners are using the Syrians as fuel for their own selfish projects that the Syrians have no say in.”