Is Syria’s al-Sharaa the Moderate He Claims to Be? An eyebrow-raising pick for Syria’s Mufti. Hugh Fitzgerald
https://www.frontpagemag.com/another-sign-that-syrias-al-sharaa-is-not-the-moderate-he-claims-to-be/
Now there is another worrisome sign that Ahmed al-Sharaa may not be the moderate he claims to be. For he has appointed a most immoderate Sunni cleric to be the Grand Mufti of Syria. More on this appointment can be found here: “Ahmed al-Sharaa’s Pick for Syria’s Mufti Shows He Is No Moderate,” by Kamal Chomani, Middle East Forum, April 3, 2025:
Self-appointed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s recent appointment of Sheikh Osama Al-Rifa’i to be Syria’s Grand Mufti and al-Sharaa’s announcement of the transitional Syrian government signals the new regime will continue to disregard Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity. Al-Rifa’i previously was head of the Syrian Islamic Council in Istanbul, which largely carried water for Turkey.
Al-Rifa’i’s appointment especially concerns minorities given his 2018 anti-Kurdish fatwa that greenlighted the Turkish invasion of Kurdish territories, and the Turkish forces’ subsequent ethnic cleansing and cultural eradication.
Al-Rifa’i’s fatwa began with a condemnation of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the largely Kurdish militia that allied with the United States against the Islamic State, for working with Americans and said, “Fighting the Syrian Democratic Forces is jihad in the way of God.” In its seventh point, the fatwa legitimized cooperation with Turkey’s military operations. “We do not see a legitimate obstacle to cooperating with the Turkish government in fighting criminals,” it explained….
The “criminals” Turkey claims to be fighting in Syria are the Kurds in the Syrian Democratic Forces who are fighting only to keep their autonomy in northeast Syria, while the Turkish army is trying to suppress them. Osama al-Rifa’i is in the pocket of Erdogan, who was no doubt delighted when al-Sharaa appointed him to be the Grand Mufti of Syria.
If Ahmad al-Sharaa wants to convince the West that he really is a “moderate” and will protect the Syrian minorities against Sunni fanatics, he should do six things.
First, he ought to send troops to Latakia not to harm, but to protect the Alawites from further attacks by Sunni Muslims.
Second, he must have his security forces arrest, and his government punish, those who took part in the massacres of the Alawites between March 6 and March 9, and in other, sporadic killings of Alawites since, in Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs. So far, only a handful — fewer than ten – have been arrested. What’s holding things up? Could al-Sharaa be afraid that if he were really to come down hard on the killers of Alawites, he would lose the support of his base, the fighters in HTS?
Third, the government should allow the Alawites to hold onto their weapons for self-defense. As long as they are not attacking government troops, but only using the weapons defensively in cases where Sunnis have attacked them first, they should keep their weapons.
Fourth, the Druze should also be allowed to keep their weapons. They at first were cautiously inclined to trust al-Sharaa, after he assured minorities that they would be protected, and to put their own militias under the control of the Syrian national army. But the massacres of the Alawites have led them to rethink their initial trust; perhaps al-Sharaa is not nearly as moderate as he would have us all believe. The Druze threaten no one, and want only to be left alone; they have a right to keep their own self-defense force.
Fifth, Ahmad al-Sharaa should assure the Kurds that they, too, can keep their Syrian Democratic Forces separate from the Syrian national army. This will require al-Sharaa to defy the Turks, who have just taken over another base in Syria — the T2 airbase — to keep the military pressure on Syria’s Kurds, lest they try to link up with fellow Kurds in Turkey. Does he feel strong enough to alienate Erdogan, who supported him when he was the head of HTS, and who believes al-Sharaa now owes him something?
Sixth, as part of reassuring the Kurds, al-Sharaa should promptly undo his appointment of Sheikh Osama Al-Rifa’i as Grand Mufti, for Al-Rif’ai is both a Sunni fanatic and an Arab supremacist eager to undermine the non-Arab Kurds, as his 2018 fatwa made clear. His dismissal would be a clear signal to the Kurds that al-Sharaa meant it when he said that Syria’s minorities would be treated fairly.
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