Haytham Manna, 3/4/2025
Original: بيان ضد الفاشية الجهادية
Translated by Tlaxcala
This is the first chapter of a forthcoming book
The “Military Operations Command” led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered Damascus on December 8, 2024 at the end of the least significant military battle in its history in terms of material and human losses. It was clear that Hamas and Hezbollah’s loss of their battles in Gaza and Lebanon and Trump’s success in the US presidential election had created a new regional and international situation in which Assad Jr. no longer had a place. Erdogan and Fidan decided to put an end to the idea of a sovereign Syrian state by installing the most extremist, fanatical and alien faction of Syrian society in power over all Syrians. The masked men entered the Syrian capital to “liberate” the country from the tyranny and corruption of a family that had turned Syria into a slave farm. On the day of the victory wedding “celebration”, most Syrians didn’t stop at the sight of the bride, Syria, being raped in broad daylight.
Beard trimming, by Hassan Bleibel
- On December 8, 2024, elite forces made up mainly of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham took control of key points in Damascus: the House of Radio and Television, the Central Bank, the city’s main traffic circles, the presidential palace and the main police stations. They set up checkpoints. Most of these men were masked and wore outfits with the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham logo.
- A campaign of liquidation and bloodletting of non-Sunni state institutions soon began, and the term “al-Fulol” (residues, remnants of the old regime) became the key word for the enemies of the new authority in this group’s conception of the conflict in Syria, namely a struggle against “an Alawite regime that jurists have unanimously described as apostate”. The first decision was to apply Ibn Taymiyyah’s fatwa to the letter: “It is not permissible for anyone to help them remain in the ranks of soldiers and servants, and it is not permissible for anyone to remain silent about carrying out what God and His Messenger have ordered.”
- The transfer of power took place very quickly: the HTS government in Idlib was transferred in its entirety to Damascus to restructure state institutions throughout the country according to the “successful Idlib model” (Hakan Fidan). In Syria’s smallest province, 11 prisons had been built to control security! With the organization and installation of “jihadist immigrants” in the homes of half the province’s inhabitants, who became refugees and displaced persons, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham succeeded in controlling the security situation.
- The Military Operations Command has secured the living conditions of its militiamen in the confiscated homes of officers and non-commissioned officers, and the command has issued a ruling that members of the deposed regime’s army and police should remain in their homes and then be summoned individually to decide their fate. We received a non-exhaustive list of the names of 13,000 soldiers and officers held in inhuman conditions in eight prisons* .
- From the outset, attacks on Alawites as such began randomly and irregularly, but systematically due to the need to exclude anyone belonging to this sect from public educational, health, livelihood, military and security institutions, in accordance with Ibn Taymiyyah’s fatwa. The new security forces have encouraged what they call “private law”, which means that a Sunni citizen who has been wronged or who has lost a martyr in his family can assert his rights with the nearest Alawite neighbor to his home or neighborhood. At checkpoints manned by the new authorities, it has become not uncommon to be asked, “Are you Alawite or Sunni?” There were provocations against Christians in their neighborhoods, which were limited after European reactions.
- Public sector workers’ files were collected. The decision to dismiss over 28% of civil servants has been taken, a figure confirmed by the relevant ministries.
- Employees of the security services, the police and the Syrian army were summoned, arrested and prosecuted, with or without settlement. During the first month, the salaries of public sector employees in various sectors were not paid.
- Al-Sharaa issued a decree granting the highest ranks in the “New Army” (composed in part of foreign jihadists, mainly from Central Asia: Uighurs, Uzbeks, Turkestanis and others) to 49 Syrians and non-Syrians, who became generals, brigadiers and colonels with a note and paper signed by him. A week later, the construction of the new army units, led by Jordanian-Turkish-Egyptian jihadists, was completed. Thousands of dissident officers, despite belonging to the Sunni sect, were not recalled, and the opinion on this had long ago been clearly expressed by Anas Khattab, who was appointed Director of General Intelligence and then Minister of the Interior: “It is not permissible to join groups and armies that belong to the doctrine of patriotism, because they are heretical groups, and their fight is not waged for God, but for the homeland, and whoever is killed for the homeland cannot be called a martyr, because martyrdom is a purely religious status, not a human medal of honor that people submit to their erroneous philosophies and ideas” (Anas Khattab, Ruling on Affiliation with Patriotic Groups and Armies).
- It became clear that the new team wanted to monopolize control of the intelligence services, internal security and the army before tackling any other issue. As a result, Sunni affiliation, religious upbringing and a willingness to defend “true Islam” became conditions of employment in the police and security services.
- Since the establishment of the first de facto government in Idlib, the HTS ‘s aim has been total control of trade unions, collective action and the various forms of civil society. The seven governments in Idlib have confiscated the most important projects born of civil and popular initiatives and placed them under their control. So far, it seems clear that the process of transferring this dystopian model to Damascus is well underway.
- On January 29, 2025, the “Victory Conference” was held, which, based on the principle that those who “liberate” decide, dissolved the army, security and police institutions, as well as negotiating bodies, parties and trade union groups... In its first and final session, the Victory Military Conference is given the powers of ahl al hal wa al aqed أهل الحل والعقد , “the people of the solution and the contract” and appoints Ahmad al-haraa as President of the Republic, with the power to form a constitutional council, approve constitutional principles and form a transitional government.
- On March 6, a small group of former military personnel take security personnel hostage. Ahmed al-Sharaa declares general mobilization against the rebels, calls for jihad are launched in many mosques and all latent sectarian instincts are mobilized. Some fifteen armed factions, mainly made up of foreign jihadists, stormed the Syrian coastal area (Sahel), chanting “Death to the Alawites”.
- Over the next four days, 25 massacres were documented, 811 videos were verified, and 2,246 victims were identified. We also have a list of 2,100 missing Alawite civilians. 42 victims of other religious affiliations have also been recorded, killed for their solidarity with the civilians or for trying to hide them. In addition, almost 30,000 people are still displaced or refugees in northern Lebanon.
- The Sahel is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, with 97% of the population living below the poverty line, over 10,000 documented cases of illegal arrests and forced disappearances, and a wave of mass layoffs of around 2,000 civil servants in the health and education sectors.
- On March 12, 2025, the Syrian presidency announced, in a presidential decree issued by Ahmad al-Sharaa* , the formation of a National Security Council composed exclusively of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham officials. This council, made up of a group of people whose hands are stained with Syrian blood, is tasked with coordinating and managing the country’s policies.
- We are approaching the end of the fourth month since HTS entered Damascus, and no political decisions have been taken regarding the catastrophic economic situation in which all the inhabitants of HTS-controlled areas live.
- A puppet transition government was appointed by the President on March 30, 2025, for an indefinite period. In this government, by way of thanks, al-Joulani plans to appoint an Al Jazeera employee as Minister of Culture and an intern from the Doha Institute headed by Azmi Bishara as Minister of Education.
- The Grand Mufti of the Republic and the Fatwa Council were appointed by a majority known for its jihadist ideological “purity” and for considering it a religious duty to cleanse the country of misguided sects, secularists, democrats and patriots. According to Sheikh Nabulsi, one of his tasks is to monitor laws and legislation and their compatibility with Sharia law.
Much of the worn-out and tired political class is still talking about the new prince’s new clothes, the discovery of his brilliant potential that had remained buried for 14 years, and his young team that will restore the Levant to its Umayyad glory, while the new authority is erecting all the pillars for the construction of a sectarian totalitarian authority that lives by stoking hate speech between different segments of society and displaying racism and religious discrimination in all its new structures.
For truth and history’s sake, the new rulers have not veiled their opinions and positions, but have been more open and clear in their vision of state-building. When we raised the need for a new Syrian national army a few years ago, the first person to respond was “General” Anas Khattab, Commander of General Intelligence and current Minister of the Interior, who shamelessly replied in his essay entitled “Ruling on affiliation to patriotic groups and armies”:
“Islam bases loyalty and disloyalty on religion, fighting in the name of religion and promoting its word.
The sons of the same homeland are loyal to each other, whatever their religion, for the Muslim is the brother of the Christian, the brother of the Jew, the brother of the atheist, the brother of the apostate, there is no difference between them, and none is favored over the other, for they are all sons of the same homeland.
Islam clearly and explicitly states that {believers are brothers}, {believing men and women are brothers to each other}, and {the Muslim is the brother of the Muslim}.
Patriotism makes members of the same nation equal in rights and duties - regardless of their different religions, so that a Christian, a Jew, an atheist and an apostate have the same rights as a Muslim!
For example, in patriotism, it’s a general right for all citizens - whatever their religion - even if they’re atheists or apostates, whereas in Islam, it’s only allowed for Muslims, and it’s only allowed for those who are only Muslims”.
He added: “Patriotism is a philosophical doctrine that contradicts the religion of Islam, so it is not permissible to believe in it and affiliate with it, whether in truth or to deceive the enemy, although the judgment is not the same in both cases, for the former is governed by disbelief, and the latter by prohibition.”
Khattab clearly states that he will not build a Syrian national military institution, as this would mean equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, predetermining the color, sect and creed of the new army.
Yesterday, the inhabitants of the border town of Nawa faced, shirtless, the Israeli aggression, which has not ceased since December 8, 2024. 9 martyrs fell in this confrontation with the Israeli enemy...
We don’t know whether Abu Qasra, Khattab, Al-Sharaa and Atoun will praise the Hauran martyrs by referring to them as such, are they not the ones who said over and over again for 14 years: “Whoever is killed for the homeland cannot be called a martyr, because martyrdom is a purely religious status, not a human medal of honor that people submit to their mistaken philosophies and ideas”...
Day after day, it becomes clear to Syrian men and women that the HTS model that prevails today does not work, and that the infernal idea with which Syrians are intimidated and lured: “Us or the deluge” will turn into a curse for its owners...
Human societies are familiar with the phenomenon of individual suicide, but they have never agreed, even under the domination of the worst forms of tyranny, to commit collective suicide for the benefit of their oppressors.
Notes
*“Sectarian cleansing as a policy of governance,” Report by the Human Rights and Humanitarian Monitoring Committee (Syria), April 24, 2025
