(Stonegate Institute) Raymond Ibrahim - Consider which groups in Syria are especially for or against Assad - and why. Christian minorities, who, as 10% of the Syrian population, have the most to gain from a secular government and the most to suffer from a state run by Islamic Sharia law, have no choice but to prefer Assad. Many of the hundreds of thousands of Christians who fled post-Saddam Hussein Iraq went to Syria. While it is true that not all of Assad's opposition is Islamist - there are anti-Assad Muslims who do not want a state that will be run by Islamic Sharia law - the Islamists are quite confident that the overthrow of Assad will equate with their empowerment. And why shouldn't they be? Wherever Arab tyrants have been overthrow - Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen - it is Islamists who are filling the power-vacuums. The writer is an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
2012-03-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive