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Syria’s Mission: Religious Reform
April 2009
Religious
moderation is Syria’s distinctive characteristic. The cultural heritage
of the Syrians reflects the evolved cultures of the East and the West
over the long sweep of history. Of particular significance is the
tolerant attitude of the average Syrian towards other religions and
ethnicities. In a Middle East afflicted by religious dogma, extremism,
bigotry, discrimination, and violence in the name of God the Syrian
society is a refreshing model of tolerance and moderation. To read more...
Stop Wahhabi Indoctrination of
Syrian Youth
July 2010
The Website ALL4SYRIA reported (in Arabic) on July 17, 2010 that private Islamist
elementary schools have been proliferating in Syria. The title of the article: Secrets and Background Behind the Decision
to Ban the Wearing of the Niqab in Syria’s Schools and Universities Taken by
the Office of National Security. To read more...
Abolish Syria’s Ministry of Irrigation
October 2010
On October 3, 2010 the President of Syria
appointed a new Minister of Irrigation. I would like to take this opportunity
to advocate that Syria’s Ministry of Irrigation should be abolished and its
functions transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture. As long as irrigation
politics is accorded a ministerial voice, investment in irrigation schemes will
continue to waste Syria’s modest scarce resources. To read more...
A Question of Oil Accounting
October 2010
Reporting by Syria’s
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) of the country’s oil revenues in the
national budget and balance of payments is confusing, inconsistent, and
ambiguous. The IMF Country Report on Syria, No. 10/86, dated March 2010 states on
page 30: “Government finance statistics (GFS) suffer from major deficiencies
with respect to definitions, coverage, classification, methodology, accuracy,
reliability, and timeliness that generate severe inconsistencies with monetary
and balance of payments statistics”.
In the interest of clarity and
transparency in connection with Syria’s crude oil accounting this article poses
seven questions. To read more...
Syria’s
Economic Growth Requires Fundamental Reforms
November 2010
Translating from
Arabic, the following headlines appeared in the
electronic media during the second half of October 2010. To read more...
Syria's Challenge: A Modern Secular Family Law
November 2010
Equality between women and
men before the law is an inalienable human right--a natural justice.
Gender equality is crucial for economic growth and human development. To read more...
Syria's Water Management = Voodoo Style Politics
December 2010
ALL4SYRIA Website reported on December 5, 2010 that the Syrian president called for a day of prayer for rain fall:
الرئيس الأسد يدعو لصلاة الاستسقاء
بدعوة من الرئيس بشار الأسد تقيم وزارة الأوقاف صلاة الاستسقاء يوم الجمعة المقبل الموافق للعاشر
من الشهر الجاري.
وأهابت الوزارة بأئمة وخطباء المساجد، إقامة الصلاة عقب صلاة الجمعة في جميع المحافظات السورية.
Translation
President Assad calls for salat al-ististqaa (rain prayer)
The
Ministry of Religious Endowments, at the request of President Bashar
Asad, will perform the istisqaa prayer on Friday December 10th. 2010.
The Ministry asked imams and preachers in all Syrian mosques to perform
this prayer following next Friday's prayer. To read more...
Syria Should Not
Pursue Nuclear Electricity Generation
Updated: June 2011
The Nuclear Threat Initiative
(NTI) reported on February 16, 2011 that Syria has informed the International
Atomic Energy Agency it is weighing the possible construction of an initial
atomic energy facility by 2020.
Such a development is
disconcerting. It disregards the
lessons from the disasters at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979
and at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986, as well as the scores of radiation
incidents since the 1940s, let alone the challenge of safe disposal of spent
reactor fuel. To read more...
Why Syria’s Regime is Likely to Survive, Temporarily
Examining the differences between the uprising in Syria and
those in Tunisia and Egypt offers important clues as to why Syria's regime is
likely to survive. The Tunisian and Egyptian armies refused to kill
demonstrators and even supported the revolution. Syria’s Alawi-led forces, on
the other hand, do not hesitate to kill, as the Tadmur and Hama massacres
show. The Syrian regime has been skillful at exploiting the conflict with
Israel and the patience of Western powers with the dictatorship. The Syrian
government has shown a strong ability to manipulate Islam for its benefit as
well. While these tools do not work as effectively as they used to, they still
give the Syrian government many advantages over its deposed counterparts in
Tunisia and Egypt. To read more...
Syria’s Islamic Textbooks:
Politics, Intolerance, and Dogma
May 2011
Syria’s Islamic curriculum is
discriminatory, divisive, and intolerant of non-Muslims. To prolong the Asad Alawite minority’s hold on power, the
Islamic textbooks are loaded with political indoctrination, intolerance of the
other, and dogma. This article argues that Syria’s Islamic
education is designed to fortify the Asad
regime’s strategies of exploiting Sunni Islam and maintaining
a technical state of war with Israel. To read more...
Why Syria’s Christians Should Not
Support the Asad Regime
May 2011
At the Dormition of Our Lady Greek
Catholic cathedral in Old Damascus, Father Elias Debii raises his hands to
heaven and prays for divine protection for embattled Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad.[i] Bishop Philoxenos Mattias, a spokesman for the Syriac
Orthodox Church said: “We are with the government and against these movements
that oppose it”.[ii]
Those among
Syria's Christian clerics and civic leaders who publicly support the Asad
regime are short sighted. They are courting long-term disaster for themselves
and their congregations. Why? Because, the Asad regime will not remain in power
forever; it is immoral to support non-representative unjust rule; the Asad
clan’s exploitation of Sunni Islam has emboldened Islamism and thwarted the
development of secularism in Syria; and because scaremongering for blackmail legitimacy
will not work forever. The following explains each reason. To read more...
Is Bashar Asad a nice person
surrounded by a wicked family clique?
February 2012
Bashar
Asad’s record shows that he is the boss of a wicked family clique and that he
is personally responsible for the long suffering of the great majority of
Syrians. To read more...
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