Syrian president whips up religious fervour

Damascus: Speaking at the Doha Summit on Gaza on January 16, President Bashar Al Assad said, "We will take care to remind our children of the Gaza slaughter. We will save the pictures of the children of Gaza with their wounds and blood, and we will teach our children that the strong believer is better than the weak.

"We will teach them: 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', and he who started it is the more unjust. What is taken by force will not be returned but by force."

Syrians, especially those from conservative districts, were thrilled by the speech.

The last sentence from the Syrian President was taken from the Holy Quran, and reminded observers of his 2005 speech, in which he whipped up religious sentiment by saying, 'Syria is protected by God.'

This tone is new to Syrian officials, who during many years of secular Baathism, steered clear of referring to Quranic verses. More recently, however, several Syrian figures, including the Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, have cast themselves as patrons of moderate Islamic revivalism, or 'true Islam'.

This is Syria's way of telling the world it is promoting a tolerant Islam, as opposed to the radical one projected by Osama Bin Laden. This kind of Islam, similar to that in Turkey, is one that can accommodate with the West, and helps to curb radicalisation.

At certain mosques in the conservative city of Aleppo, clerics placed a poster with a bomb covered by a red stripe saying: 'No to explosions!' But clerics at mosques all over Syria have been praising jihad since the war on Gaza began, and using their heavyweight influence to raise funds for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Donating to the Palestinians is being promoted as a national and religious duty, with most of the collections being done by mosques and clerics, with Syrian TV pitching in on one day, to raise a total of 18 million Syrian pounds (Dh1.4 million).

Syrians in the street are becoming more religious by the day, finding salvation in Islam, especially during this time of crisis for Gaza.

People are visibly pleased to see such Islamic overtures in Syrian official discourse. In addition to pleasing a domestic audience, such words send positive messages to the West, and challenge outlawed Islamic groups.

Since coming to power in 2000, Al Assad allowed the establishment of private schools (many of which have a strongly religious orientation) and began allowing mosques to open between prayers for the first time in two decades.

In April 2007, Syrians were allowed to organise public festivals celebrating the Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) birthday for the first time in many years. Even in the military, Al Assad has relaxed Baathist restrictions on religion.

In 2003, he lifted a long-standing ban on prayer in military barracks. Earlier in 2007, the military academy invited religious authorities to lecture cadets for the first time.

Al Assad then appointed a prominent independent Shaikh, Ziyad Al Ayoubi, as minister of Awqaf and offered moderate Islamists and pro-government clerics an unprecedented degree of access to the state-run broadcast media.