Shi’ization Of Syria: In Damascus, Unprecedentedly Extensive Observance Of The ‘Ashura

MESOP : MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1131

By: N. Mozes* – Introduction : According to a Syrian opposition website, on the ‘Ashura, which this year occurred in early November, “the streets of Damascus, the ‘Umayyad capital,’ were filled with Shi’ite sights and self-flagellation rituals.” While this is not the first year that Shi’ite believers have observed the ‘Ashura in Damascus, where the shrine of Ali’s daughter Sayyida Zainab, a Shi’ite pilgrimage site, is located, the ceremonies were not, as in previous years, limited to the predominantly Shi’ite areas of the city, such as the Al-Amin neighborhood and adjacent to the shrine of Zainab. This year, the ceremonies took place on an unprecedented scale, with more participants and extending across greater areas of the city – even to Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, the symbol of the 661-750 CE rule of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus, which was the bitter foe of the Shi’ites.

These wide-scale ‘Ashura ceremonies in Damascus, four years into a bloody sectarian war, constitute a show of force by the Alawite regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and its Shi’ite allies. They also signal to the regime’s opponents both within and outside Syria that the regime is confident of victory. To these opponents, the widespread Shi’ite ceremonies represent another phase in the process of the Shi’ization of Syria, which is happening with the consent, and even under the direction, of the regime, and which has accelerated since the beginning of the civil war in March 2011.

This paper will discuss this year’s ‘Ashura ceremonies in Damascus, and reactions to them and to the regime’s reported attempts to spread and strengthen the Shi’a in Syria.

Unprecedentedly Widespread Observance Of The ‘Ashura In Damascus

An Iraqi news agency reporting on the extensive ‘Ashura ceremonies in Damascus noted:  “This year there was significant [pilgrim] movement [in the city], unlike in the last three years, when there was vulnerability in the security situation. As security conditions stabilized, and the situation was again like it had been previously, the area of the Sayyida Zainab [shrine] in Damascus Rif governorate again thronged with residents and pilgrims from inside and outside Syria.”

Muhammad, a young man who volunteered to assist the pilgrims, attested: “This year is much better than the previous year in terms of preparations and success. Previously, it was difficult for the pilgrims and for the area’s residents; the mortar shells fell near the shrine. [But] now we live in security.”

Abu Ali, owner of a shop next to the Sayyida Zainab shrine, said: “These days, there are many pilgrims and visitors in the area of Al-Sayyida Zeinab. After the entire region was secured, pilgrims began arriving from neighboring countries such as Iraq and Lebanon. This stimulates the economy…”

However, some, both inside and outside Syria, are less pleased at these Shi’ite sights. Syrian author ‘Abdallah Maksur wrote on a Syrian opposition website that the fact that the regime permitted such widespread ‘Ashura ceremonies in Damascus itself, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty, exposed the regime’s sectarian face and showed that it intended to completely change the city’s characteristics and transform it into a Shi’ite city. He said: “With the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, the regime began to reveal its filthy sectarian face… that was previously concealed, in the city’s streets and institutions. Today, the Shi’ite (and ‘Alawite) dialect can be heard in the streets of Damascus, because of a desire to transform the city’s comely face and to pursue the racist policy that Damascus had in centuries past completely rejected.

“Across the city, there were self-flagellation processions, and calls that do not belong in [Damascus] were forced on it. I can understand if in Lebanon a sign saying in Farsi Khosh Omadi [‘Welcome’] is raised in honor of Iran’s former president Ahmadinejad [during his 2010 visit to Lebanon], but I cannot not imagine [such] a provocation against the residents of an entire city, aimed at uprooting them from their [heritage] and changing their identity. It is as if the regime is saying, ‘Damascus is Safavid, not Umayyad and its residents will be Shi’ite and ‘Alawite, and you, its [current] residents, are strangers in it – so you must swiftly go into exile.'”

Warning the Sunni countries that are silent in the face of this Shi’ization, Maksur states: “The mentality in the Arab arena that consents to the change of the face of Damascus is, at the very least, incomprehensible. Do they not realize that changing the flag that flies in Syria means that everyone is falling into Tehran’s hands[?]… Damascus is the capital of the Ummayads and of the culture of the world. This is our city, and we, its residents, speak in a dialect that is like its stones. Damascus is Umayyad, not Safavid…”

Damascus resident Huda voiced apprehension that the cruelty reflected in the Shi’ite custom of self-flagellation to the point of bloodshed in ‘Ashura ceremonies would be channeled against Syrians who dared to oppose the Shi’ites: “The streets of Damascus are filled with people who are not like us, and with the black vehicles of clerics and politicians for whom these people cleared the streets. Even the smells are alien. The scent of blood permeates the place – as if the blood of the dead and of the war was not enough. We have now among us those who invent religious ceremonies with unfamiliar sights… as if to intimidate you with them… There is no doubt that these bloody sights that fill the streets of the capital Damascus signal to its residents tremendous cruelty. Who can say a thing when he sees an Iranian [i.e. a Shi’ite] flagellating himself outside his house?”

Additional Manifestations Of Syria’s Shi’ization

Regime opponents believe that the extent of the ‘Ashura ceremonies in the capital is but another expression of the Shi’ization process that not only has the Assad regime’s blessing but was promoted by it even before the civil war broke out in March 2011. The regime’s aim in this is both to reinforce its position within Syria and to reward Iran for its support of it. Read Full Report http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8217.htm