Mudering Syrian Druz Incident/All Reports, News, openions and Releases published today & yesterday

Killing of Syrian Druze ‘isolated incident’: Jumblatt
The Daily Star/June 12, 2015
BEIRUT: The killing of at least 20 Druze civilians in northwest Syria by Islamist militants was an “isolated incident” incomparable to the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime every day, Progressive Socialist leader Walid Jumblatt said. Speaking after an “emergency meeting” of Lebanese Druze leaders in Beirut, Jumblatt called for calm and reconciliation with the Sunni majority of Syria. After condemning Wednesday’s killings by the Nusra Front in the village of Qalb Lozeh, Jumblatt said, “At the same time I condemn the Syrian regime’s shells that kill 150 to 200 people every day … and more than 350,000 so far [since the beginning of the civil war].”“It’s true that we stand in grief and shock before the death of 25 martyrs,” he added. “But 200 martyrs fall everyday all over Syria.” The Druze leader, who is a prominent critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime, said Syria’s Druze community should seek full reconciliation with the Sunni community. “There are 25,000 Druze people in north Syria and not more than 500,000 overall, while Syria’s population is 24 million,” Jumblatt said, adding that such a tiny minority cannot oppose the 75 percent of the population who are Sunni Muslims. “There is no escape from reconciliation with the majority of the Syrian people. What happened was an isolated incident, and I will resolve the issue politically through local and regional contacts.”“We should deal with the situation calmly and through politics.”The PSP chief also criticized the way others have commented on the incident saying “this excitement leads nowhere, and creates a more tense climate” – in an apparent reference to the speech of Tawid Party leader Wiam Wahhad. Wahhab made a heated speech Thursday in which he called for a “Druze Army” to defend Syria’s Druze from Islamist extremists in response to the “massacres.” He called on Assad to provide the Druze in the southern Swaida province with arms, and said Lebanon’s Druze youth would volunteer to fight in Syria. In separate comments, Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan said that Syria’s Druze were strong enough to defend themselves, accusing Israel of orchestrating the killings. He said that the “takfiri terrorists” and Israel were “two sides of the same coin.”Both Wahhab and Arslan called on Syria’s Druze to stand by the Syrian government. Jumblatt, however, accused the Syrian regime and the “Zionist regime” of sharing the intent to create divisions and fragmentation, adding that Assad was not interested in protecting any minorities including his own Alawite sect. Speaking after Jumblatt, the Druze’s spiritual leader in Lebanon, Naim Hassan, condemned the killings and called for the protection of unity and the avoidence of sectarian strife, which he said would only benefit Israel.

Jumblat: Fiery Statements on Qalb Lawzah Jeopardize Druze in Syria
Naharnet/12.06.15/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Friday the attack against Druze in Syria’s Qalb Lawzah, saying however that it was an “individual incident.”He remarked: “Fiery statements regarding the incident will only jeopardize the Druze in Syria and I will tackle the tensions by holding a series of contacts.”He made his statement following a meeting at the Druze council in light of the attack that took place in the northern province of Idlib in Syria on Wednesday.“Over 200 people are being killed in Syria on a daily basis,” continued Jumblat. “We must see the larger picture lest we fall victim to small disputes,” he warned. He therefore stressed the need to tackle the Qalb Lawzah attack through political means, adding that only a political solution will restore calm in Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad should not be part of this solution, added the PSP chief, who has long been a vocal critic of the Syrian ruler. He has also long called on the Druze community in the southern Syrian region of Sweida to join the revolt against the country’s ruling regime. “Our greatest priority lies in maintaining stability in Lebanon, because we are waging a battle to defend the country,” he stated. “We must preserve Lebanon’s stability and commit to the state, its government, army, and security forces,” he declared. At least 20 members of Syria’s Druze minority were killed in an unprecedented shoot-out with Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front in Qalb Lawzah on Wednesday. On Thursday, Arab Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab declared that the Druze of Lebanon and Syria must stand ready to fight the extremist groups. “We will all take up arms, here and elsewhere, and anyone on Lebanese soil who has ties to al-Nusra Front or is collaborating with it is unwelcome, and they better leave this land because the reactions cannot be contained,” he warned. He called on Assad and the Syrian government to supply arms to Sweida’s residents, urging “everyone in Lebanon and elsewhere to take up arms and stand by our people.”

Geagea, Jumblat Reject Terrorism after Killing of Druze Villagers in Syria
Naharnet/12.06.15/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat have rejected terrorist activities and announced their support for stability, Geagea’s press office announced on Friday Geagea and his wife MP Sethrida visited Jumblat in Clemenceau on Thursday night, said the statement. The PSP leader’s wife Noura, his son Taymour and daughter Dalia attended the meeting in addition to Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, his wife Zeina and MP Nehme Tohme, it said.
The conferees discussed “the political situation in Lebanon and the region and mainly the massacre of Qalb Lawzah in Idlib province in Syria,” said the statement. They stressed “their rejection of these terrorist activities and their keenness on stability and coexistence whether in Syria or Lebanon,” it added. After the meeting, Jumblat threw a dinner banquet in honor of his guests. Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria al-Nusra Front killed at least 20 Druze villagers in Qalb Lawzah on Wednesday. The killings are the deadliest against the Druze sect, which has been split between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011.

Syrian Druze mobilize to help repel rebels in south
Tom Perry/Reuters/ June 12, 2015
BEIRUT: Members of Syria’s Druze minority have helped repel a rebel attack on an army base in the south, mobilizing to confront insurgents including Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front who are trying to build on gains against President Bashar Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organisation that tracks the war, said on Friday rebels had been driven from the base, which they had partly captured on Thursday, by air strikes and Druze fighters from nearby Swaida. A Druze leader from Swaida said young men from the city had helped recapture the disused Al-Thaaleh airbase. A rebel leader confirmed that the government side had sent reinforcements to the base. Spread between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, the Druze are viewed as heretics by al Qaeda and Islamic State because of their religion, an offshoot of Islam incorporating elements of other faiths.
They have moved into the spotlight of the Syrian war this week, with advances by insurgents triggering statements of concern about their fate from both Israel’s president and Druze figures in Lebanon. Some Druze leaders have warned of an existential threat facing their kin after Nusra Front fighters shot dead 20 people in a Druze village in northwestern Syria on Wednesday – an incident ignited by Nusra’s attempt to confiscate a house. Groups fighting to topple Assad say he is trying to exploit sectarian fear to shore up his support base. Bashar al-Zoubi, the head of a rebel group involved in the battle for the army base, said those attempts would fail, adding that the Druze know the “regime is collapsing and cannot protect them.”Insurgents battling Assad in southern Syria include the Nusra Front but also groups that do not share its jihadist ideology and are trying to calm Druze fears.
Insurgent groups have been advancing towards Swaida from the west and the east, where Islamic State has been mounting attacks on army positions. The Druze role was key in repelling the attack on the base, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory that monitors the four-year-old civil war in Syria. “If they hadn’t mobilized, [the insurgents] wouldn’t have been repelled,” he said. “There is a rebel retreat.” The Druze leader, Sheikh Abu Khaled Shaaban, said young men from Swaida had deployed in several areas including the airport under the umbrella of the National Defense Force and “popular committees” that are battling alongside the Syrian army. State TV said dozens of Swaida residents had joined the army and NDF. “Matters are heading towards calm and complete control of the situation,” Shaaban told Reuters by telephone from Syria.
Zoubi, the rebel leader, said the base remained in government hands on Friday. But he added that there was “coordination between us and the sheikhs of Swaida” – a reference to community elders whom he did not identify. Echoing comments from other, secular-leaning opposition groups in recent days, he said the Druze would be treated as Syrians with the same rights as other citizens. Since March, an array of insurgent groups have gained ground from Assad in the northwest, the east and the south. The southern rebels, operating in a region just 100 km (60 miles) from Damascus, seized a major army base on Tuesday in Deraa province, building on victories including the capture of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan. Druze in Israel have been lobbying for arms to be sent to Syria, a U.S. official has said. Lebanese Druze politicians aligned with the Syrian government have also called for the arming of their kin in Syria. But Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader who backs the uprising against Assad, has urged the Druze of Swaida to reconcile their differences with the Syrian opposition.He convened a meeting of Druze spiritual figures in Beirut Friday, declaring afterwards that the shooting in northwestern Syria was an isolated incident.

Syria’s Druze strong enough to defend themselves: Arslan
The Daily Star/ June. 12, 2015/BEIRUT: Democratic Party chief Talal Arslan criticized the media Friday for depicting Syria’s Druze as weak and in need of protecting, instead warning that any attack on Swaida would be suicidal. “There is a conspiracy in the Arab media, supported by Israel and the West, to distort the image of Druze in Syria and say that they are weak and fearful,” said Arslan, who heads Lebanon’s second strongest Druze political grouping. He remarks came during in a news conference held in response to the reported killing of at least 20 Druze civilians Wednesday by Nusra Front militants in the village of Qalb Lozeh in Idlib, northwest Syria. He also took issue with the media representation of a possible attack on Jabal al-Arab by extremist Islamists from nearby areas in the Deraa province. “A week or ten days ago, a battle took place in a village named Al-Hoqf [in Jabal al-Arab, south Syria],” he said. “Why did the media not show the Druze women who, wearing their scarves, loaded the ammunition for the Druze sheikhs and men [on the front line]?”“Who said Jabal al-Arab is weak? Who said the morale is low?” he continued. “You think this mountain, which overthrew the [French] mandate, cannot defeat the takfiris and whoever is standing behind them?””Jabal al-Arab will be the graveyard of whoever attacks it.”
With regard to Wednesday’s “slaughtering” of Druze civilians, Arslan said the actions were orchestrated by Israel to create strife between Druze and Sunnis. “I cannot but relate what happened with the Druze in Idlib to the Israeli-takfiri joint plan to undermine Syria,” he said. “Enough with the lies and hypocrisy of some Arab countries, Israel and the West, who say they are countering terrorism. They support terrorism, and Israel and the takfiris are two sides of the same coin.”Arslan compared Wednesday’s events to the massacres of the Mount Lebanon village of Kfar Matta, where more than 100 Druze villagers were slaughtered when the Israeli army withdrew from the area in 1983. After reports of the killings emerged, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told the top U.S military commander, Gen. Martin Dempsey, that Syria’s Druze were under threat and should be protected. “What is going on just now is intimidation and threat to the very existence of half a million Druze on the Mount of Druze, which is very close to the Israeli border,” he said. His remarks sparked outrage among Lebanese politicians and prompted Progressive Socialist Leader Walid Jumblatt to warn against Israel’s “manipulative tactics.”

The Druze Dilemma
How the Religious Minority Gained Influence in Syria
By Firas Maksad/Fotreign Affairs/May 12/15
Throughout Syria’s civil war, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has for the most part managed to maintain the loyalties of the country’s various religious minorities: Christians, Alawites, and Shiite Muslims. These groups, which together amount to about one-quarter of Syria’s population, appear to prefer Assad’s authoritarianism to an uncertain future dominated by Sunni radicals. One minority community, however, has begun to distance itself from the Assad regime: the Druze, followers of an esoteric offshoot of Islam who live near Syria’s border with Jordan and Israel. Their growing opposition to the regime, alongside their deep hostility toward Islamic radicals, puts this small but influential group in a unique position. Indeed, the Druze, who number about two million worldwide and 700,000 in Syria, could help the U.S.-led coalition shape the outcome of Syria’s civil war and the ongoing fight against al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
Historically, determining the loyalties of Syria’s Druze has been difficult, as its members tend to hide their political persuasions — a preference for privacy with roots in their theological concept of taqiyya, the concealing of one’s religious beliefs to avoid accusations of heresy. Like many Syrians living in regime-controlled areas, many Druze have also been afraid to speak out against Assad. Recently, however, a number of Druze religious leaders have taken to social media to broadcast their antiregime sentiment, part of a series of unusually assertive gestures against the regime. Where Druze sheiks once lavished praise on Assad, they now present him with strict demands and ultimatums.
Their biggest grievance is that Assad has not provided them with enough weapons to defend against attacks by ISIS and al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al Nusra. Since the start of the popular uprising against the regime, in 2011, Syria’s government has provided weapons only to pro-Assad forces — in this case, to Druze militias loyal to the regime. As attacks have intensified, however, many Druze, particularly a group of religious leaders known as the Ajaweed, have begun demanding weapons for themselves, claiming that the regime-backed militias have not done enough. During a funeral for Druze fighters on August 17, one Ajaweed leader gave a speech demanding heavy weaponry. If Assad failed to provide the weapons, he said, community members would not hesitate to acquire them independently. His statement underscored a growing schism between the Druze religious establishment and the Syrian regime.
In another display of assertiveness, the Druze also called for the removal of their province’s top security official, Wafic Nasser. This campaign began in April, after government officials, led by Nasser, arrested a prominent Druze sheik for opposing a compulsory celebration of Assad’s reelection bid. Shortly after the arrest, online videos showed armed Ajaweed sheiks raising the Druze flag, shooting their guns into the air, and demanding Nasser’s resignation — an outpouring of rage reminiscent of the events that first ignited the Syrian revolt. And in a display of communal solidarity, members of the Druze government-backed militias broke ranks and joined the Ajaweed in protest. The regime, however, has refused to remove Nasser, further straining relations.
These tensions were on full display at the August funeral, which the Ajaweed demanded be free of regime symbols and spokespeople. The funeral packed an entire stadium, yet online videos reveal only a few Syrian flags, vastly outnumbered by the colorful stripes of the Druze banner. And the regime took notice. On September 2, Assad sent two influential Druze loyalists, former Lebanese minister Wiam Wahhab and Syrian General Issam Zahreddine, to relay a message to Druze leaders. “You demand your rights from the state,” video footage shows Wahhab saying. “It also demands your loyalty.”
Undeterred, however, some Ajaweed have emerged as an independent political and military entity that could play an important role in shaping Syria’s civil war and the fight against Islamic extremists, whom they view as an existential threat. And unlike the Free Syrian Army and other rebel groups, they wish to confront ISIS and al Qaeda before taking on the regime, making them natural allies for the U.S.-led coalition in the region.
As the only independent voice among the Druze capable of shaping the trajectory of southern Syria, the Ajaweed present Assad’s regime with a critical choice: meet their demands for more weapons, at the risk of further enabling their increasingly independent streak, or hold back, betting that the Druze will ultimately prefer the regime to any alternative. Assad cannot afford to lose the Druze. For Assad, the Druze are a strategic buffer, defending the southern flank of Damascus from rebel-controlled territory farther south. But unless the U.S.-led international coalition is willing to alter Assad’s calculus by supporting the Druze, Assad will probably stay the course, and the Druze will remain lodged between an authoritarian regime they grudgingly need and the Islamic extremists they fear.