Communities In Syria Research Articles

Dr. Mohammad Walid Sankari: A Syrian Medical Pioneer

Dr. Mohammad Walid Sankari was a leading figure in Syrian medicine, particularly known for his contributions to pulmonary care and the fight against tuberculosis. His career was marked by significant advancements in public health, including the establishment of vital TB control programs in Syria. As a professor at the University of Aleppo’s medical school, Dr. Sankari educated and mentored generations of physicians, shaping the future of healthcare in the region. His humanitarian efforts were equally impactful, especially through his leadership in the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), where he played a crucial role in providing medical care and aid during times of crisis. Dr. Sankari’s legacy is defined by his dedication to improving healthcare, his role as an educator, and his compassionate approach to medicine, which continues to influence the medical community in Syria and beyond.

Striving for National Identity: Syrian and Iraqi Turkomans in Search of a Homeland

The Turkomans are considered to be the integral part of a political space often reflexively labeled as “Turkic World.” Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkoman communities in Syria and Iraq have undergone a complex evolution leading to their current status as politically organized distinct ethnic groups. This transformation has been predetermined by the policies of the colonial powers and the rise of Arab nationalism that was aimed to establish the united “Arab Homeland.” It was only with the decline of Baathist regimes that Turkomans started to gain political recognition. How have the Turkomans in Syria and Iraq evolved culturally and politically over time? Do they perceive their future as being closely linked to their Arab “host” countries, or do they harbor aspirations of coming back to their historical Turkic legacy? What support do they receive from Turkey, and what is offered by Syrian and Iraqi authorities? We have analyzed the Turkoman issue through a structural and identity-based lens, examining how these communities have navigated their relationships with the Arab states they reside in and their historical ties to Turkey. The framework proposed by R. Brubaker, which examines the interactions between marginalized ethnic minorities, nationalizing states, and external homelands, provides a valuable tool for understanding the complex dynamics involving Turkoman communities in Syria and Iraq. The research findings indicate that Turkoman identity remains robust, albeit with a notable shift towards a more inclusive national-state dimension. Despite constituting a minority group, Turkomans in both countries are actively advocating for recognition within society and asserting their cultural rights. The primary Turkoman political factions in both countries have garnered backing from Turkey, although the nature of this support is complex. In Iraq, Turkomans are inclined towards seeking Turkish patronage while also demonstrating a willingness to engage with the Iraqi government. Conversely, in Syria, Turkomans residing along the border have successfully established a self-governing region with the Turkey’s assistance. Furthermore, a segment of Turkomans place emphasis on their religious affiliations, such as identifying as Shiite or Alawite.

Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Iranian Revolutionary Community in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s.

The article is devoted to the comprehensive sociodemographic analysis of the local community of Iranian Islamists acting in Syria and Lebanon in the decade preceding the Islamic revolution of 1978-79. Thus far, history of everyday life and the multitudinous activities of the Iranian Islamic opposition in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s has never become the principal subject of a historic research and has barely received attention from Western specialists in the history of the Islamic Revolution and modern Middle Eastern history, as well as from Iranian historians, scholars and researchers working in the field of the modern history of Iran. However, for a more comprehensive understanding of the Islamic Revolution, revolutionary processes and their logical premises and outcomes, it is highly necessary to carefully consider the sociodemographic characteristics of the active representatives of the Iranian opposition movement in the pre-revolutionary period namely in the 1970s. Throughout the comparative historical analysis of the reliable memories of longtime supporters of the Iranian Islamic movement acting in Syria and Lebanon, the fundamental sociodemographic characteristics of the active members of Iranian revolutionary movement abroad (e.g. gender, age, birthplace and place of living, educational and religious background, social marital status, etc.) are thoroughly highlighted, properly described and analyzed and their sociodemographic portrait is carefully created. The received sociohistorical data may properly serve as a valuable source on the social history of the Iranian society in the pre-revolutionary period, as well as on the complex history of Iranian revolutionary movement and the modern history of the Middle East region.

Knowledge of Cholera Among Syrians: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Cholera is a communicable acute bacterial infection caused by a gram-negative bacterium that is Vibrio Cholera. Worldwide, is estimated that an incidence of 1.3–4.0 millions of cholera infection, leading to 21,000–143,000 deaths annually. Prevention of cholera require a proactive approach rather than reactive, as it`s identified to be the best strategy to decrease the cholera spreading risk in given population or community. Recently WHO warned that, the cholera spreading risk in Syria is very high, which linked to drinking of untreated water and food contamination.
 
 Aim: we conducted this study with aiming to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding risks of cholera infection, preventive measures and preparedness among community in Syria. Consequently, recommending suitable measures based on study results.
 
 Methods: An online cross-sectional study was conducted in Syria to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding cholera and cholera vaccine among general population in Syria. The inclusion criteria for participation were Syrian nationality aged 18 or more, male or female, from all governorates of Syria, never have cholera previously, and were willing to participate. The questionnaire was consisting of four sections. The first section was about sociodemographic data. The second section evaluated respondents' self-reported knowledge on cholera and divided into two parts (2a: Knowledge on cholera, its prevention and treatment. 2b Knowledge on cholera vaccine). The third section evaluated respondents’ self-reported practice relating to cholera and its vaccine, this section divided into two parts (3a: Practice relating cholera and its treatment/management. 3b: Practice relating cholera vaccine. The fourth section inquired respondents’ attitude toward cholera and cholera vaccine. 52.9% thought that cholera outbreaks happen in summer seasons.
 
 Results: Among 1563 Syrian national participants, (n=982, 62.8%) were females, and (n=581, 37.2%) males. 60.9% of respondents did not recognize the cholera in the first place. Passing watery stool was the most recognized symptom of cholera with 50.3%, severe dehydration with 31.1%, and repeated vomiting with 10.3%. Lack of safe drinking water was recognized as the most common cause for cholera. Most respondents (54.1%) have chosen IV saline as the treatment of choice for cholera. 85.3% of respondents are with providing health care to the infectants in health centers.
 
 Conclusion: According to our findings, there is insufficient understanding of the cholera symptoms and risk factors. The need for better understanding of such common outbreaks is essential to counter them. Consequently, there is a greater need to increase cholera awareness and education programs on the disease's signs and symptoms and its risk factors.

Identification of Ethno-Confessional Groups in Syria (a Case Study of the Armenian Community in Syria)

The article looks into some issues regarding the identification of ethno-confessional groups in the Syrian Arab Republic with a focus on the concepts (or terms) applied to them. Syrian Armenians are chosen as a case study, since they recognize themselves as Syrians and at the same time attach much importance to maintaining their Armenian identity. The first section of the article deals with the concept of minority and the usage of the term in the academic literature and legal sources, since ethno-confessional groups are often studied through the prism of this concept. Usually, it implies not just the size of the group but its non-dominating political and legal status. This often brings about some negative connotations even in the cases of the “neutral” usage of the concept. The second – studies the approach of the Syrian government and explains what factors define their terminology applied to ethno-confessional groups and how the concepts and terms used by the Syrian authorities reflect their policies towards ethno-confessional issues in Syria. The third section is a case study of the Armenian community of Syria. It offers an account of concepts used by them which are compared to those used within the governmental approaches. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the Syrian government is pursuing the idea of a common Syrian identity, which unites all the Syrians no matter their ethnic and confessional identity. On the other, despite that, on the local level ethno-confessional groups still identify themselves and other groups based on their ethno-confessional identity.

The Situation of Christian Communities in the Middle East

The article focuses on the study of the situation of Christian communities in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. In the Middle East, where Christianity was born more than two thousand years ago, representatives of this faith witnessed a number of socio-political, economic and demographic changes and faced not only oppression from the Muslim community, but also internal confessional contradictions. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt have long been of fundamental importance to Middle Eastern Christian communities, with their sectarian diversity. With the ongoing civil war and extremist activities in Syria, the Christian community has been particularly vulnerable. Maronites, who at the beginning of the 19th century. occupied a dominant position in Lebanon, are gradually giving way to the Muslim majority. After the invasion of American troops into Iraq in 2003 and the new stage in the history of the country that followed this event, associated with the activities of various terrorist groups, Iraqi Christians became the first point of impact from extremists and were demoralized. Despite the fact that Christianity was first spread in Alexandria in the 1st century, representatives of the Coptic Church in Egypt throughout history have faced numerous attacks and oppression of their national rights. In the context of the above significant and serious problems, it seems appropriate to study the situation of Christian communities in the four main territories of its settlement — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt.

Kurdish Migration Waves to Rojava (Northern Syria)

This study aims to present the Kurds and the Kurdish migration waves to Rojava (Northern Syria). The accumulation of huge Kurdish masses on the territory of today's Syria is the result of millennial waves of migration caused by the turbulent events in the Middle East. The article analyzes: The Kurdish settlements in Syria; The French colonial authorities; The French colonial policy in the Middle East; The migration flow to Syria. The authors of the in-depth study of modern Syrian Kurdistan, The Question of Syrian Kurdistan – Reality, History, Mythologisation, argue that in the twentieth century there were two main waves of migration to northern Syria. One is expansionist and the other is restrictive. They form the current profile of the Kurdish community in Syria.

Musa al-Sadr and the missing fatwa concerning the ʿAlawi religion

ABSTRACT This article aims to correct a common inaccuracy in the study of Musa al-Sadr’s politico-religious activity vis-a-vis the Syrian ʿAlawi regime. The thesis presented by the author is that Shīʿi authorities in Lebanon provided a religious statement that the ʿAlawis are Jaʿfari Muslims, but that this statement did not come from al-Sadr himself as many historians claim. Tracing the source of this inaccuracy leads to western research from 1986. In order to prove the thesis, the article reviews the Arabic literature on the topic, including writings of the ʿAlawi community in Syria and Lebanon, which systematically do not cite any fatwa by al-Sadr on this matter. This enquiry leads to new conclusions as to the background of the discussed fatwa, as well as concerning the relation between political interests and religious judicial decisions. Appendices appearing at the end of the article include a useful translation, presented for the first time in this work, of the most important Shīʿi declarations concerning the ʿAlawi religious identity, and the correspondence between al-Sadr and the ʿAlawi Youth Movement in Tripoli, Lebanon.

The Rise and Fall of Greater Syria: A Political History of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party

In the 1940s and 1950s, it was common among ʿAlawi high school students in Lataqiya to ask one another “shu dinak” (what is your religion, or creed?), by which they meant “are you a member or supporter of the Baʿath of the SSNP [Syrian Social Nationalist Party]?” These were two radical but different parties. The Baʿath was a Pan-Arab nationalist party combining a doctrine of secular Arab nationalism with a belief in social democracy. The SSNP expounded a doctrine of secular Syrian territorial nationalism rejecting Arab Nationalism and a separate existence of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, which were instead to be united in a large Syrian state. Both ideologies were attractive to members of minority communities in Syria and Lebanon who were uncomfortable with the Sunni tinctures of classical Arab Nationalism. The dividing line ran sometimes within families. Thus, Ghassan Jadeed was a prominent officer in the Syrian army, a member of the SSNP, who was assassinated by emissaries of Syria’s military intelligence in Beirut in 1955. His brother, Sallah Jadeed, was a prominent member of the Baʿath Party, who became one of the principal leaders of the Baʿath regime in Syria after the coup of March 8, 1963.The SSNP was one of the most interesting political movements to emerge in the Fertile Crescent during the first half of the twentieth century. It was founded by Antuna Saʿadeh, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese, who returned from Brazil and became active in the political and intellectual circles of Beirut in the 1940s. Saʿadeh was influenced by the right-wing and fascist movements in Europe, as were other politicians and movements in the region (the name Phalange given by Pierre Jumayyel to his party was clearly reflective of the trend). According to Saʿadeh, there was and there had been a national entity called Greater Syria composed of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. This entity had existed for many centuries but was brutally divided by the colonial powers into four “artificial states.” The purpose of the movement was to abolish this artificial division and to establish Greater Syria. Saʿadeh’s specific opposition to the Lebanese state reflected the Greek Orthodox’s opposition to the Maronite-Catholic hegemony in Lebanon. He actively sought to topple the dominant order in Lebanon, staged a failed coup, escaped to Syria, was extradited to Lebanon, and executed in 1949. His disciples continued their activity in Lebanese politics, staging another failed coup in 1961, but the brunt of their activity shifted to Syria, where, in the 1950s, they fought against rising tide of Arab Nationalism and Soviet influence.It was an ironic twist of fate that when the Baʿath finally came to power in Syria, particularly after the establishment of Hafez al-Asad’s regime in 1970, that the SSNP in Syria, a minor party by that time, was tolerated by the regime and came to support it. This was facilitated by personal relationships and by Hafez al-Asad’s quest to establish Syria’s hegemony over Lebanon and the Palestinians. The Baʿath that had been the most distinctive Pan-Arab political movement and played a key role in establishing Syria’s union with Egypt (1958–61), ended up after 1963 as the champion of Syria’s separate existence, and then as a regional power, exercising influence over its weaker neighbors. Members of the SSNP could argue that Hafez al-Asad was in fact implementing Antun Saʿadeh’s legacy.Carl Yonker’s book, based on his doctoral dissertation at Tel Aviv University, describes and analyzes the SSNP’s history and its remarkable journey during several decades. He does it well. The one comment to be made is that the contemporary part of the book dealing with current events should have been extended.

The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice by Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh (review)

Reviewed by: The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice by Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh Helen Makhdoumian Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh. The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice. Stanford UP, 2019. 402 p. The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice (2019) is in part the narrative of Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, who defies an implied expectation in the academy: that an art historian’s role is not to intervene in a legal matter involving a museum or controversies surrounding art. Aware of precisely this reaction to her 2010 op-ed about the litigation of the Zeytun Gospels, Watenpaugh frames the volume with a Prologue and an Epilogue that articulate why she retraced the steps of this manuscript illuminated by Toros Roslin, a renowned artist of medieval Armenian art. That history includes how the Canon Tables were separated from what she calls the mother manuscript housed in the Mesrob Mashtots Institute for Ancient Manuscripts (known as the Matenadaran) in Yerevan, Armenia and how these separated folios entered The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Zeytun Gospels made headlines in June 2010 when the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America brought a lawsuit against the museum and accused it of holding a sacred object vandalized and plundered during the Armenian Genocide. The Missing Pages, then, also provides an overview of the court case proceedings, the settlement, and its implications for provenance, reparations, and the adjudication of crimes against cultural heritage. Each chapter of the main text focuses on a stop on the seven-century long journey taken by the Zeytun Gospels: Hromkla, Zeytun, Marash, Aleppo, New York, Yerevan, and Los Angeles. Beyond tracing this medieval manuscript’s modern history, Watenpaugh seeks to illustrate the “webs of relationships, emotions, deeds and misdeeds, and pious, sacrilegious, rapacious, and creative acts that unfolded around it” (47). One way the author achieves this is by introducing each chapter with a brief narrative set in the moment that the manuscript rested in that particular location. To frame the chapter on the origins of the manuscript, for instance, Watenpaugh imagines for readers a scene in [End Page 138] which Roslin, described as a scribe hunched over his work, writes the colophon in the scriptorium in Hromkla in 1256 and signs his name. Watenpaugh deftly synthesizes archival documents, her own fieldwork in the present, critical scholarship, and documents in legal proceedings to introduce readers to a transnational network of individuals involved in safeguarding the manuscript. The Missing Pages, however, is more than just the journey of the author as she retraces the steps of the Zeytun Gospels. It is also more than just the “biography of a manuscript that is at once art, sacred object, and cultural heritage,” as the blurb on the front book flap indicates. That is, Watenpaugh proffers a useful concept in the study of materiality when it comes to questions of trauma and memory: survivor objects. Survivor objects “symbolize violence but also survival and resilience” (40). The Zeytun Gospels exemplify the work of survivor objects insofar as the pages shaped the way that Armenians in the wake of genocide and exile reconstructed their identities. Furthermore, Watenpaugh argues that this illuminated manuscript “experienced the Armenian Genocide and bears the mark of its violence” (40). The author develops this argument by referencing the words of an Armenian bishop who visited Armenian refugee communities in Syria and Lebanon in 1923. Watenpaugh asserts that the bishop viewed the thousands of orphans he met and the illuminated manuscripts he came across as both survivors. He also drew parallels between the destruction of the Armenian community with the destruction of art. Informed by the writings of contemporaneous witnesses who conceived of cultural objects as witnesses to devastation and resilience, Watenpaugh goes on to demonstrate that critical study of survivor objects like the Zeytun Gospels can offer a more holistic understanding about the issues of cultural heritage and the role of the cultural objects’ caretakers and viewers. Beyond theorizing survivor objects and applying this rubric to the study of a work of art caught in circumstances of collective trauma and...

Consociational Power‐Sharing in the Arab World: A Critical Stocktaking

AbstractThe aim of this special feature is to reflect theoretically and normatively on consociational power‐sharing, take stock of its empirical record in Lebanon and Iraq, and interrogate its potential utility for other postwar states and societies in the Arab World following the popular uprisings. Allison McCulloch and Joanne McEvoy open the collection by deploying the ‘lifecycle’ heuristic to explain consociationalism’s mixed record as an institutional strategy to manage ethnic or sectarian conflict in different contexts. This process‐oriented approach allows them to shift the consociational debate towards greater sensitivity to contexts: how macro‐institutional types such as liberal and corporate consociation interact with formal and informal micro‐institutional rules in determining the success or failure of consociational power‐sharing arrangements. Paul Dixon and Ibrahim Halawi follow with critical evaluations of consociationalism’s embedded violence against alternative political economic choices. Dixon’s radical critique is chiefly aimed at how consociationalism precludes the emergence of alternative identities, political choices, and socioeconomic struggles. Halawi magnifies this critique and considers elite consociational arrangements in the Arab World to be exclusionary and counter‐revolutionary. The contributions by John Nagle and Toby Dodge converge on how the institutional architecture of consociational power‐sharing as observed in Lebanon and Iraq – whether through formal or informal rules, corporate or liberal arrangements – creates a host of distortions that ossify identities, shape modes of political mobilization, and eviscerate state institutions by turning them into clientelist platforms. Finally, Steven Heydemann and Simon Mabon explore prospects for consociational power‐sharing in Syria and Bahrain, respectively, with implications for postwar Libya and perhaps Yemen. Although in both cases prospects for power‐sharing may appear remote, both authors suggest that the reality is far more complex, and that ultimately some kind of consociational power‐sharing may prove necessary to secure postwar reconstruction and reintegration into the international community in Syria, and genuine representation and peace in Bahrain.

Religious Liberty: The Next Big Thing?

Religious Liberty: The Next Big Thing? Patrick Riordan SJ Pope Francis’s timely letter Laudato Si’, on care for our common home, coincided with a general awakening of awareness of the crisis posed by climate change and the degradation of the natural environment. The Amazon Synod of Bishops has reinforced concern for our common home in the same year that saw not only extensive fires in the rainforests of Brazil but Siberia also in flame. The teenage Greta Thunberg and the protest movement of Extinction Rebellion have claimed the headlines and brought the issue to wider public awareness. What is the next big issue for the pope and the church that may evoke another prophetic statement comparable to Laudato Si’? In the spirit in which Francis insists on integral ecology, including the flourishing of humankind, I suggest that the next big thing already looms over us. It is the widespread and growing violation of the right to religious liberty. Ancient Christian communities in Syria and Iraq, dating back to the time of Christ, have been destroyed or decimated in the violence of the recent years; Yazidis and other minorities have experienced extreme persecution by Islamic extremists. Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern Islamic states continue to deny religious liberty to their non-Muslim inhabitants, and to their own citizens they deny the freedom to leave their ancestral religion. Resurgent religious nationalism is found not only among Islamic states: Hindu revivalism in India is accompanied by the persecution of Muslims as well as Christians, and Buddhism in Myanmar asserts itself by expelling to Bangladesh the Rohingya minority. Sri Lanka has also seen a bloody conflict in which a Buddhist majority has succeeded in asserting a form of religious nationalism. The status of the Uighurs in China points to another context in which a dominant cultural population is unable to accept the presence of a large minority religious group. Freedom of religion, although prominent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the subsequent Conventions, is not functioning to protect the vulnerable members of persecuted religions. Apart from the actual violations of religious liberty across the world, there is also a threat to the very idea of religious liberty posed by developments Studies • volume 109 • number 433 31 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 31 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 31 27/02/2020 13:59 27/02/2020 13:59 in the philosophical language used to discuss rights and specifically human rights. The question is being raised, whether there is anything distinctive about religion that would warrant the inclusion of a right to religious liberty in the international lists of human rights and in national Bills of Rights. Since freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from arbitrary discrimination on grounds including religion, are normally protected, why should religious liberty be included? Does it not reduce to the other rights? In what follows I will first recall what is asserted about religious liberty; second I will review philosophical trends that tend to question the need for a distinctive right; and third, I will summarise the arguments that are required to explain and uphold the right to religious liberty. Religious liberty TheAmerican Constitution’s FirstAmendment combines in a single sentence the non-establishment clause and the free exercise clause: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances’. It is a simplification to describe the free exercise provision as protecting religion from politics although that is its main effect, denying the US Congress the power to make laws restricting the exercise of religion. Here the free exercise of religion is linked with other freedoms, viz., the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government. Is the freedom of religion an additional freedom to those listed as the freedoms of speech, of the press and of assembly? If the state is obliged to respect and protect those rights of free expression, of publication and of assembly...

Nem állami szereplők a Közel-Keleten. Az észak–szíriai kurd autonómia (a Rodzsava) példája

The paper is aimed at analysing the roots of the crisis of the existing state system in the Middle Eastern region. Recent years non-state actors have become new strategic players shaping the power balance on the local as well as the regional level. Non-state actors dynamically engage whether with state actors or international players. It is especially true for those weak states, which faced with the challenge of state vacuum (Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen). The paper focuses on the interactive engagement of the non-state actors in the Middle Eastern political orchestra. As for the non-state actors are concerned the article puts an emphasis on the Syrian Kurds as a case study in order to show how complex the situation is regarding the ongoing civil war. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has managed to establish a de facto autonomy in Syria mainly building on the ideology of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey. One of the most important questions raised during any political talks on the Syrian case is the dilemma of introducing a federal system in Syria. The PYD used the fighting against the Islamic State as a political tool aimed at advancing its political interest in the country, vis a vis to be recognized as the leader of the autonomous region. However, forces from within (the Assad regime) and from outside (Turkey) are against the federal state structure of Syria. The article shows how the Syrian Kurds have become strategic players from a neglected community in Syria.

RELIGIOUS POLICY OF HAFEZ AL-ASSAD IN SYRIA (1970–2000)

The article deals with the interaction between the secular nationalist regime of Hafez al-Assad and his Ba‘ath party and various Muslim communities of the country. The main attention is paid to the government’s policy towards the Sunni community, which makes up the majority of the Syrian population. Both measures to combat radical movements and support ‘moderate’ (pro-government and neutral) directions of Syrian Islam are highlighted. The second part of the article examines the policy of the country’s leadership towards the two main Muslim communities in Syria besides the Sunnis, which are the Alawites and Druze. The author argues that the main goal of the government was to reduce the level of separatism and communalism of these communities by combating traditional institutions of self-organization and mindset for faster integration into Syrian society.

ISIS and heritage destruction: a sentiment analysis

While periods of war have always seen cultural heritage placed at risk, the recent rise of ISIS has involved the deliberate targeting of heritage sites as part of a broader strategy towards local communities in Syria and Iraq. Using data collated from social media (Twitter), the authors conducted sentiment analysis of reactions to instances of heritage destruction and repurposing in the Middle East between 2015 and 2016. It is hoped that the insights gained can help the international community better tackle terrorism, protecting heritage and supporting affected communities.

Palestinians in Syria: Nakba Memories of Shattered Communities By Anaheed al-Hardan

Palestinians in Syria is an exceptional and extremely timely work. Through her stunning ethnographic and sociological research, Professor Al-Hardan, herself a third-generation refugee, takes us into the once thriving—but now largely (for the second time) displaced and devastated—Palestinian community in Syria, about which little has been written. Most of her research took place before the Syrian civil war, which allowed Al-Hardan access to a community and way of life that no longer exist as they did for over 60 years. In this way, among others, Palestinians in Syria is invaluable as an historical and political document, and a singularly important and substantive contribution to the literature on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Nakba, and refugee studies among other more general areas of study. The author addresses a range of interconnected and powerfully articulated issues; among them: the intellectual origins of the Nakba, ‘a historically and politically contingent signifier’ (p. 187) in Arab nationalist discourse and its political appropriation by the Palestinian national movement; the different (and sometimes divergent and contradictory) ways in which the Nakba and its narratives are understood, memorialized and mobilized by three generations of Palestinians in Syria, which al-Hardan makes clear is not without controversy and pain; the transmission of loss, the role of memory and the (re)creation of ‘place’ among a people who, at the time of the research, had been displaced for six decades; and the meaning of identity, dispossession and exile among first-, second-, and third-generation Palestinians in Syria and its translation—or not—into differing expressions of political awareness and activism.

Book Review: Neither Jew nor Greek: A Contested Identity

Neither Jew nor Greek: A Contested Identity. By James D. G. Dunn. Christianity in the Making, Volume 3. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2015. xiv + 946 pp. $60.00 (cloth).This book completes Dunns Christianity in the Making series by sketching the development of Christianity from the destruction of the Second Temple to Irenaeus (roughly ad 70-180). Within this large series, the final volume is the most ambitious due to its attempt to cover such a broad time period. Dunn's clear presentation is commendable and mitigates the length of this sizable contribution to early Christian history.The opening chapter outlines the emergence of the great church tradition and argues that Christian identity was forged through various struggles in the first and second centuries. Many of these struggles were intraChristian debates. Dunn focuses his attention on the impact that major players from the first generation of Jesus' followers had on generations that followed. This interest frames much of the book's structure.After introducing the sources on which he bases his study, Dunn looks at Jesus' impact on early Christianity. He outlines how gospel came to be associated with a particular type of writing, the way in which the canonical Gospels and Thomas remember Jesus, and the references to Jesus in the diverse writings of the second century. The presence of orality even in written documents forms an underlying theme in these chapters. Dunn presses beyond form-critical questions regarding the oral forms of particular stories before they were written. Instead, he argues that the Jesus tradition was known in oral form well into the second century. He suggests that allusions in early second-century literature may be part of catechetical, liturgical, and apologetic traditions. As the century progressed, texts were increasingly known in written forms. Although some of Dunn's specific examples may be disputed, this presentation is a helpful reminder that the oral telling of the Jesus story likely continued to influence other early Christian writers after the written Gospels appeared.The next two chapters consider the relationship of Judaism and Christianity. Identifying these two entities clearly during the first two centuries is far from simple. Dunn shows that Israel's scriptures undergird early Christian writings, that Jewish Christians continued to form part of Jewish communities in Syria and Palestine, and that the process by which Judaism and Christianity came to be separately identifiable entities cannot be mapped as a single parting at one point in history. Rather, he proposes multiple partings and crisscrossed tracks. …

ISIS as an Existential Threat to the Druze: The Struggle for Survival

ABSTRACTFaced with an existential threat by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on one hand, and the repressive regime of Bashar Al-Assad on the other, the Druze community in Syria is faced with a dilemma of what political and military position to take. This study examines a variety of internal and external factors that affect the Druze's political and military choices in Syria, and finds that their best choice is to remain neutral in the conflict. I argue that any political and military choice by the Druze in Syria besides neutrality risks endangering the survival of the entire community. This article examines how internal organizational factors and the international community's divided position play important roles in understanding the Druze's decision to maintain a position of neutrality.

The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East

The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East

The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East

The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East