SYRIA: HOMS: SECTARIANISM LEBANESE WAR STYLE
Muslim News
July 25 2012
Homs governorate, the largest geographical region in Syria, is now the
biggest arena for sectarianism and extremism, exacerbated by all sides
in the crisis: the Syrian regime, religious extremists, and warlords.
The city, whose citizens have coexisted for thousands of years,
is exploding along sectarian lines.
Developments there demonstrate a turning point towards a bleak future.
Despite all the analysis and slogans about a united Syrian people,
the reality on the ground is starkly different.
Diving into the details of the carnage in Homs, residents explain
the geographical distribution of the city and the different Alawi,
Sunni, and Christian districts.
The neighborhoods of al-Zahraa and al-Nuzha are home to two of the
biggest Alawi communities, after the mixed al-Muhajirin neighborhood
and the Armenian quarter.
Bustan al-Diwan and Wadi al-Masihiya are strictly non-Armenian
Christian quarters, in addition to al-Waer, al-Qusur, and al-Hamidiya,
which are considered to be some of the most populated areas.
As are the predominantly Sunni Bab al-Sebaa, Baba Amr, al-Khalidiya,
and Deir Balaa.
These Sunni districts have been emptied of their inhabitants, who fled
to other governorates due to the military operations conducted there.
Homs has been divided into two. One section was completely destroyed.
The other is full of life. Its markets carry all the basic commodities
needed for daily life.
But tension is rife between the different neighborhoods, which identify
themselves based on the religion of their inhabitants.
Sectarian animosity will likely be deeply ingrained for years to come.
There are those who now have but one dream – to eradicate those from
the other neighborhoods.
The problem has reached a crisis point: killings, the disfiguring of
corpses, and kidnappings.
The regime has remained silent over many cases of what it had called
security violations and mistakes, and this has made things even worse.
Many in Homs interpreted this to mean tacit support for such crimes.
Voices opposing and condemning the sectarian attacks were faint,
and sometimes led to encouraging religious zeal instead of reducing it.
Most of those wounded in the battles are now insisting on killing
and revenge, in a language replete with sectarian anger.
Nevertheless, voices of reason are not absent from Homs. Sunni
and Alawi activists have brought some people back to the grey area
at least.
During the sectarian battles, which in some cases reached the level
of massacres, the regime sometimes did not even issue a statement of
condemnation. They calmed peoples nerves and tried to convince them
that what had happened was a sectarian trap.
But at the same time, the media machines of the regime and some
opposition groups insist on promoting armed gangs who come to
exterminate people from the opposing sect.
Some activists are still defending the actions of the Free Syrian Army,
which is attacking Alawi neighborhoods with mortar shells.
They claim it is merely a reaction meant to terrorise the regime and
is a small response to the regime’s atrocities.
Neither side will rest without a radical solution to the crisis. The
majority Sunnis, who are in the opposition, believe the solution is in
the overthrow of the regime and the dissolution of the security forces.
The other side sees the solution in the elimination of armed gangs.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition