A Report from Suwaida

New Lines Magazine just published an in-deph report from Suwaida by Madeline Edwards providing much background on the complex current situation and the relationship between Syria's Druze and the transitional government. Some brief quotes by yours truly are included as well. 

“Historically, the relationship with Sweida and the central state is very rocky,” says Tobias Lang, a political scientist who has published research on the Druze of the Levant. “The Druze always claim some autonomy.” 

Even after Syria gained independence from France in 1946, Sweida remained somewhat a solitary thorn in the side of the state, isolated down its long road from Damascus. That is why, says Lang, “it was with huge brutality that the Druze were integrated into the modern state.” Adib al-Shishakli, who served briefly as Syrian president in the 1950s, bombed parts of Sweida in 1954 to quash Druze dissent. (...)

By 2014, when the Men of Dignity emerged, Balaous was filling a “power vacuum made over decades by the Syrian regime,” says Lang. “They have no Joumblatt or [Lebanese Druze politician] Talal Arslan there. … Since Atrash died in the 1980s, there was no Druze leader in Sweida.”(...)

“In Sweida, there’s an overwhelming Druze majority,” says Lang. “I think for other areas like close to the Golan Heights, which are mixed areas, the Idlib story is important, because HTS’s record isn’t that great.” 

“Extremist Islam is rejected!” a Men of Dignity leader told a group of supporters last week, echoing some fears of what might come under broader HTS rule. “Syria is a united, secular country!”