In Syria, Sunnis Attack Druze

Peloni:  Over 100 Druze are now dead, with some reports claiming the dead are much greater than this.

By Hugh Fitzgerald | May 1, 2025

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former head of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who joined A-Qaeda in 2003, and fought for the terror group in Iraq for several years — and was imprisoned by the Americans between 2006 and 2011 — has tried to reassure the West that he has changed completely. He has put on a jacket and tie, a sign that he’s a man the West can trust. He’s the de facto ruler of Syria but promises that Syria will be a democracy — that is, in five years.

He has made statements assuring the minorities in Syria — the Alawites, the Kurds, the Druze, the Christians — that they will be treated as equal citizens to the Sunni Arabs. And by the way, he soothingly suggests that the Kurds and the Druze — he hasn’t dared make such a proposal to the Alawites, still counting their dead — should fold their own militias within the Syrian National Army, which of course would leave them largely defenseless should the regime turn on them.

His words fly up, but his thoughts remain below. In March, Sunni Arabs, including some from Al-Sharaa’s HTS, descended on Latakia and proceeded to slaughter Alawite men, women, and children. At least 1,000 were killed; some Alawite sources claim that tens of thousands were killed. Al-Sharaa promised to find and punish those responsible; so far, there have been no reports of anyone being arrested or charged. Now the Druze in one village have been attacked by Sunni Muslims in a neighboring village, leading to more alarm spreading among the Druze whose villages extend from just south of Damascus to the Golan, where the IDF has widened the buffer zone between Israel and Syria — has come completely under Israeli control. Robert Spencer wrote briefly about this here, and more on this attack, and what it reveals about the future of Syria, can be found here: “More Than a Dozen Killed in Sectarian Clashes Near Syrian Capital,” Algemeiner, April 29, 2025:

More than dozen killed in a predominantly Druze town near the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad which angered Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said.

The fighting marked the latest episode of deadly sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minorities have been swelling since Islamist-led rebels ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad from power in December, installing their own government and security forces.

Those fears spiked after the killings of hundreds of Alawites in March in apparent revenge for an attack by Assad loyalists.

Not “hundreds” of Alawites, but thousands, were murdered by Sunni gunmen in March.

The clashes began overnight when gunmen from the nearby town of Maliha and other predominantly Sunni areas converged on the mostly Druze town of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, security sources said….

The Druze were attacked for specious reasons, just as they have been attacked intermittently by Sunnis even during the civil war, with the largest attacks occurring in 2013. The Sunnis regard the Druze, even if ethnically they are Arabs, as Infidels, their religion an offshoot of Islam that arouses suspicion from orthodox Sunni Muslims. They are not hated by the Sunnis as much as are the Shiites, whom uber-Sunnis refer to as “Rafidite dogs,” but that is no consolation when a Sunni mob descends, guns in hand, on a Druze village whose residents were minding their own business.

Among the dead were two members of Syria’s General Security Service, a new security force comprised mostly of former rebels, according to interior ministry spokesperson Mustafa al-Abdo.

Abdo denied that armed gunmen had attacked the town, saying instead that groups of civilians angered by the voice recording [where a Druze man was supposedly heard inveighing against Muhammad] had staged a protest that came under fire from Druze groups.

The Sunnis merely “staged a protest”? No, that is not what happened. Sunnis, hearing rumors about a Druze having been recorded criticizing the Islamic prophet, gathered, with their guns, and marched from the Sunni village of Maliha and its environs to the Druze village of Jaranama, determined to attack its inhabitants, who, viewed as non-Muslims, were not to be shown any mercy. The Druze had their own weapons and were determined to defend themselves. In the exchange of fire, thirteen people were killed (an unknown number were wounded), and two of those were members of the new government ‘s security force.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement it was investigating the origin of the voice recording and called for calm, urging citizens not to let emotions lead to violence or damage to public property.

Shouldn’t the Interior Ministry have announced that it was first going to investigate the attack by the armed Sunnis on the Druze villagers, to find those who started the fight and to punish them, and only then would the ministry examine the claims about a recording which was said to be of a Druze man criticizing Muhammed? The more one thinks about it, the more one suspects that the “recording” may not have existed at all, but was a rumor designed to whip up Sunni anger, Muslims being, as we know, so quick to take offense and to enact violent revenge. Think of all the non-Muslims who have been murdered in Muslim lands merely on suspicion having committed “blasphemy.” And even if such a recording did exist, how was the voice attributed to a Druze? The recording, if in fact it existed, could have been made by a Sunni hoping to whip up violence against the Druze, ether because he harbored hate for the Druze for being non-Muslims, or because he hoped that such an attack would drive the Druze villagers away from Jaranama, allowing their Muslim neighbors to take over their lands and houses? Such things have happened in the Middle East many times before.

“What was said by a few individuals against our Prophet represents only them and is rejected by us and all of society,” Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said, calling on both communities to reject efforts to fuel sectarian divisions….

The Druze religious leader is doing what he must: he doesn’t dare to suggest that the recording was not by a Druze, for that would only madden the Sunnis further. Instead, he obsequiously distances his people from the supposed blasphemers. Who can blame him?

If the Druze needed persuading that they should not disband or disarm their militias, this latest act of Sunni violence should have provided it. Just like the Kurds and the Alawites, the Druze have every reason to distrust the Sunni-controlled government in Damascus, and the national army, that consists overwhelmingly of Sunni Arab conscripts.

A message to the Druze: hold onto your arms, and don’t disband our militias, and under no condition allow Al-Sharaa to persuade you into folding those militias into the Syrian National Army; demand that the Sunnis responsible for this latest attack be punished; and most important, strengthen your ties with the IDF, the only reliable guarantor of your safety.