Idlib liberated!

[Cerberus~Infinite]

That's fighting against something. And I understand that, Assad sucks.

But they have to have an idea what they are fighting for. The kind of society they want in place of Assad.

This is complicated by the fact that you have about a half dozen local forces fighting each other in between fighting Assad.

We have to know what each group wants before we remove Assad, let we end up with isis in Damascus.

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

Anyway, going back

This post has to do with Syrian refugees arriving in Canada (a country showing the world how it's done).

Well done, Canada. I'm genuinely impressed by your hospitality.

This Canadian choir singing Ta'ala al Badru 'Alayna, something which the children of Madinah sang to receive the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) as he migrated from Makkah to Madinah because of the religious persecution the Muslim community was facing in the former:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153229125555205

I am stunned. What an amazing welcome by a Western country in the midst of fear-mongering against refugees in many of the other Western countries. I'm proud to share a continent with them.

 

[Cerberus~Infinite]

No one is shooting up clinics in Toronto, so not quite the same thing.

 

[Oafman]

But they have to have an idea what they are fighting for. The kind of society they want in place of Assad.

What the average Syrian wants, and what the Gulf based backers of most of the rebels want, are sadly not the same thing. Most Syrians do not want to live in an oppressive Wahhabi society, though in the short term they would no doubt prefer it to Assad's butchery.

I really hope that the Syrian people will one day get a free and fair choice of how their country is run, but I'm afraid I can't see it any time soon.

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

That's fighting against something. And I understand that, Assad sucks.

He more than sucks. He's a greater threat than ISIS for the Syrians (having had killed 96% of the civilians killed thus far).

But they have to have an idea what they are fighting for. The kind of society they want in place of Assad.

Just because I don't know doesn't mean they also don't. They are obviously fighting for something otherwise they would not still be here 4 years later.

This is complicated by the fact that you have about a half dozen local forces fighting each other in between fighting Assad.

Most of the rebel groups generally don't fight each other physically. They remain focused on fighting against Assad and his allies as well as ISIS.

We have to know what each group wants before we remove Assad, let we end up with isis in Damascus.

That's not going to happen. If it does, the Syrian people (including most, if not all, of the rebels) will fight them just as they fight Assad. They already are fighting ISIS. They were fighting them before they became well-known (declaring a caliphate).

No one is shooting up clinics in Toronto, so not quite the same thing.

And that has to do with Syrian refugees, how? Syrian refugees aren't shooting up clinics in the US either.

 

[grandvizier1006]

Is anyone concerned about a power vacuum if/when Assad gets removed? if one of the radical rebel groups takes over, then all of the minority groups in Syria are in danger.

 

[redleghunter]

The happiest news I've heard in awhile. The regime has been hitting Idlib with chemical weapons for the past week and now the city is under rebel control (and I pray it remains that way).

The "Fattah Army" coalition - including the al-Nusra Front, Jund al-Aqsa, Jaish al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, Ajnad al-Sham, and Faynad al-Sham - seized Idlib city on Saturday after more than five days of fierce fighting.

Syrian rebels capture Idlib city in joint offensive - Al Jazeera English

The link also mentions that the rebels had captured another city, Busra Sham, earlier this week.

Allaah is the Greatest and all praises belong to Him.

[youtube]G5L5KEnABAQ[/youtube]

They're defacing the statue of Hafez al-Assad, the genocidal father of the current genocidal dictator.

Which of the Sunni rebel groups identify with the Muslim Brotherhood?

 

[redleghunter]

A Muslim on a Christian board cheering for the fact that Al-Qaeda offshoots captured a town.

#religionofpeace

Not to mention the Muslim Brotherhood profile avatar:


http://www.meforum.org/3608/r4bia-muslim-brotherhood

http://www.meforum.org/pics/large/298.jpg

 

[redleghunter]

Not a terrible thing considering what Cornell dean said.

Totally believable. The desire for Dhimmitude in our centers of "higher" education is well noted.

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

Is anyone concerned about a power vacuum if/when Assad gets removed? if one of the radical rebel groups takes over, then all of the minority groups in Syria are in danger.

Currently the majority group in Syria is in danger because of a minority. Which of the rebel groups are you referring to? So far, the rebels' main targets have been combatants whereas most of the regime's victims are civilians if I recall correctly.

Which of the Sunni rebel groups identify with the Muslim Brotherhood?

I don't know. Why?

 

[grandvizier1006]

Currently the majority group in Syria is in danger because of a minority. Which of the rebel groups are you referring to? So far, the rebels' main targets have been combatants whereas most of the regime's victims are civilians if I recall correctly.



I don't know. Why?

I'll admit I'm not familiar with all of the rebel groups aside from maybe the free Syrian army and al-nusra (a branch of al-Qaeda, right?) I do know that most of them are not Concerned with the damage they could cause to minority communities. If Assad gets overthrown but the successor state is a Hegemony run by a majority group, that doesn't necessarily guarantee that the minority communities would be safe. In total, that's about 40% of the population of Syria, including the Alawites that could face discrimination for being part of the minority that the Assad family is.

Btw, have any of the rebel groups laid out plans for a constitution of a successor state, should they win? Some of them, as I understand it, would just want another Islamic state, while others are more democratic. It makes it difficult for the West to assist when there are so many groups with varying ideologies.

 

[redleghunter]

Soon after the rebels liberated Idlib City, they also gained control of the Nassib Border Crossing ("largest crossing into Jordan"). Now they have liberated Jisr al-Shughour.

"BEIRUT (AP) — Hard-line Syrian rebel groups seized a strategic town Saturday in northwestern Syria, sending government troops fleeing after intense clashes that have seen the opposition take nearly all of a crucial province...

...The offensive, which rebels have called the "Battle of Victory," comes less than a month after the provincial capital, also called Idlib, fell to the opposition."

Syrian Town Jisr Al-Shughour Seized By Rebels In Major Blow To Assad

May God keep blessing the Syrian people with different forms of victory.

I'm sure Jordan is thrilled.

 

[redleghunter]

Oh, so we're PRO Assad now?

OK. Sure. Why not. "We have always been at war with Eastasia".

Syria is a worse mess than Iraq and the former Yugoslavia.

Those who thought it unwise to remove Saddam should be consistent and confirm the same with Assad. Those who supported removing Saddam should have learned the lesson.

Only autocrats can rule the mobs in the Middle East.

The Obama-Graham-McCain experiment in Egypt should be the greatest lesson. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood was the result of "democracy."

 

[redleghunter]

Amnesty have just released a detailed report on human rights abuses in Aleppo.

Most of the report focuses on crimes committed by the Assad regime, but they also report on a large number of war crimes and other abuses perpetrated by various rebel groups, including indiscriminate mortar attacks on residential areas, kidnappings and torture.

There really are no good guys to cheer.

The report is available on Amnesty's site. Be prepared for heartbreaking accounts and sickening images:

Syria: ‘Death everywhere’ - war crimes and human rights abuses in Aleppo, Syria

Good find.

 

[redleghunter]

Muslimah, what are these groups fighting FOR, exactly? What are their plans? What elements will comprise a government formed by these rebels?

Yes we know well that no post conflict plan for government begets more violence.

 

[redleghunter]

That's fighting against something. And I understand that, Assad sucks.

But they have to have an idea what they are fighting for. The kind of society they want in place of Assad.

This is complicated by the fact that you have about a half dozen local forces fighting each other in between fighting Assad.

We have to know what each group wants before we remove Assad, let we end up with isis in Damascus.

Well that's what's going to happen. Assad falls and the the "real" fighting begins. IS has the advantage in military hardware.

They also have an uneasy but convenient alliance with the Baathists. Yes they still exist.

So IS has the military hardware and also the structure.

Not hard to see how this ends.

 

[redleghunter]

Is anyone concerned about a power vacuum if/when Assad gets removed? if one of the radical rebel groups takes over, then all of the minority groups in Syria are in danger.

Well yes there will eventually be a "winner." It will be IS.

 

[redleghunter]

I'll admit I'm not familiar with all of the rebel groups aside from maybe the free Syrian army and al-nusra (a branch of al-Qaeda, right?) I do know that most of them are not Concerned with the damage they could cause to minority communities. If Assad gets overthrown but the successor state is a Hegemony run by a majority group, that doesn't necessarily guarantee that the minority communities would be safe. In total, that's about 40% of the population of Syria, including the Alawites that could face discrimination for being part of the minority that the Assad family is.

Btw, have any of the rebel groups laid out plans for a constitution of a successor state, should they win? Some of them, as I understand it, would just want another Islamic state, while others are more democratic. It makes it difficult for the West to assist when there are so many groups with varying ideologies.

The Free Syrian Army is all but non existent:

On Friday, Defense Department publication Stars and Stripes (S&P) headlined “Pentagon plans new approach to train Syrian rebels.” More on this below.

Fact: None exist. Anti-Assad forces are virtually all imported death squads from scores of other countries – US armed, funded, trained and directed, including ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Jabhat Al Nursa elements among others, used as proxy foot soldiers to terrorize Syrians, part of Washington’s scheme to replace Assad with a pro-Western puppet.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/obama-abandons-scheme-to-train-nonexistent-syrian-moderates/5481117

The men of Al-Bab fought for almost three years with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, but could not take on Assad’s air force. Better-armed, richer fighters took their place. Today, four years after the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, Al-Bab has become the location of one of the main training centers for the Islamic State group, which is actively recruiting and training fighters, including children, in the area. The militant group formerly known as either ISIL or ISIS took over Al-Bab, once known for its textile production, in the fall of 2013. In doing so, it pushed out civilians who supported the moderate Free Syrian Army.

The fate of Al-Bab, assimilated by religious extremists battling a brutal regime, is emblematic of dozens of towns throughout the country, where four years of carnage has left more than 200,000 dead and more than 9 million displaced.

The emergence of the better-armed, ruthless Islamic State group on the battlefield in Syria last year marked the beginning of the end for the opposition groups the U.S. dubbed the “moderate rebels.” Now, the men and women who sparked the revolution by demonstrating in the streets of Dara’a in March 2011 have fled, and the groups of men who took up what arms they could find to fight Assad’s military and eventually became the FSA have dissipated.

“There is no such thing as the Free Syrian Army,” said Rami Jarrah, a prominent Syrian activist and co-founder of ANA Press, a Syrian news outlet. “People still use the term in Syria to make it seem like the rebels have some sort of structure. But there really isn’t.”

The moderate movement in Syria could be considered officially dead as of last week, when the last U.S.-backed rebel faction, Harakat Hazzm, disbanded, its members joining extremist groups such as the Nusra Front, the al Qaeda offshoot in the country. Some of the men joined a group called the Levant Front, a coalition of rebel militias that also has ties to al Qaeda.

“I think within three months or so the Levant Front will officially become a part of al-Nusra,” Jarrah said. “And I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. The group’s relationship with al Qaeda is just a media one. The two groups don’t talk to each other.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/four-years-later-free-syrian-army-has-collapsed-1847116

 

[LoveBeingAMuslimah]

The Story Behind The Viral Photo Of A Syrian Couple Hugging At An Airport

Rose alHomsi (@tweets4peace) tweeted: He proposed Dec 2012. Since: besieged,detained,tortured,made refugee for 1.5 years. Today:reunited in UK

#syria

 

[wn123455]

The Story Behind The Viral Photo Of A Syrian Couple Hugging At An Airport

Rose alHomsi (@tweets4peace) tweeted: He proposed Dec 2012. Since: besieged,detained,tortured,made refugee for 1.5 years. Today:reunited in UK

#syria

None of the people in the photos your posted look Syrian. The people in your photos look like Turks and Chechens. Please stop posting Islamist propaganda.