James M. Dorsey
Ahmad Hussein al-Shara, aka Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, would like you to think he is a changed man. These days, al-Jolani, a 41-year-old one-time al-Qaeda and Islamic State operative with a $10 million bounty on his head, no longer spews jihadist fire and brimstone. Instead, he preaches pluralism, religious tolerance, diversity and forgiveness as his Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels take control of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
With the toppled President Bashar al-Assad’s departure to Moscow, Russia, the entire Assad family’s 54-year hold on Syria has reached its end. Now many in the country and the international community ask which one is the real al-Jolani.
In a recent interview, al-Jolani, the face of the Syrian rebels, insistedthat his evolution was natural. “A person in their twenties will have a different personality than someone in their thirties or forties, and certainly someone in their fifties. This is human nature,” al-Jolani said.
The real al-Jolani will likely emerge in the way he approaches the formation of a post-Assad transition government, as well as the rights, security and safety of minorities. These include the Shiite Muslim Alawites from which the Assads hail and who long supported their brutal rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment