Assad ought to take heed of the fate that befell Gaddafi, and leave immediately. If not, he is likely to ultimately suffer a fate similar to that which befell Gaddafi.
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Bashar Al-Assad
Is it time for Bashar Al-Assad to go?
I think it's time for him to hand over power to the People's Council of Syria and leave the nation before they try him and execute him. He should do it before the imperialists get involved. With him stepping down and handing over power to the Baathist controlled People's Council, he will not risk his nation being taken over by imperialist influence. They also need to ratify that new constitution and commence peace talks with the opposition leaders. This will stabilize Syria, no longer allowing it to become an imperialist's playground. That's just what I believe.
Assad ought to take heed of the fate that befell Gaddafi, and leave immediately. If not, he is likely to ultimately suffer a fate similar to that which befell Gaddafi.
There should be a third option: Don't care.
Whether the Assad regime survives or not, things won't change much. The Assad regime would just be replaced by an Islamist one, which would be worse. In either case, it doesn't seem like it brings us any closer to revolution so I'm indifferent.
Well, he can prevent an Islamic State (which I doubt is the objective of the opposition) by handing power over to the People's Council, which is full of liberals and Baathists who will prevent an Islamic State.
Damn, I accidentally clicked no...
My shaky hand aside, Assad is a dick. And so are the radical muslims. It's sad, but I think either way Syria will stay oppressed by one of these groups. I would love it if the workers created soviets and proclaimed a socialist republic, but they won't. I see no way for them to overthrow their oppressors right now.
It's depressing, but it is reality.
Are the liberals powerful there?
I had thought the Muslim Brotherhood was pretty strong. I have a feeling that if Assad was overthrown, it would be Egypt all over again with the Islamists surging and then dominating government. I've haven't actually looked too much into the political situation there.
The Alawite religion is pretty bizarre so I've been looking at that more. The media, and the Alawites themselves like to try to portray themselves as Shiites, despite that not being the case at all. They regard Greek philosophers as holy figures and some other weird shit like that.
What do you mean by Baathists? The ruling party is the Ba'ath party.
The Ba'ath Party is sort of the only legal party there, but in the People's Council, you can also be elected as nonpartisan. The nonpartisans are usually liberals from the National Progressive Front, including socialists and maybe some communists. The Muslim Brotherhood is not allowed to operate that freely in current Syria, so if power were transferred to the People's Council, why would they allow the Islamists to gain power? As long as talks are set between the People's Council and the opposition, I am sure they can agree on some way to balance power so that the Islamists do not gain the upper hand.
LOL this is a joke right ?
This poll is silly. Of course we all want any bourgeois leader to lose power, but when a country is under attack by imperialism and its proxy forces (lets face it the genuine mass discontent in the syrian movement is now long buried) its a bit more complicated than 'do you like assad yes or no' ..
Really this is the kind of poll you would see on the bbc or something, and i suspect thats where you people are getting your info from too ..
I voted no, despite not liking Assad, because I support the Syrian people against imperialism, and the Syrian people support Assad as their leader.
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Well you have to keep in mind that it is the Islamists that benefit most from the current situation. Many people want to destroy the regime, and they are going to tend to side more with the outlawed party than the legal opposition, who may be seen as collaborators. The main militant effort seems to be by the more Islamist spectrum of the population. There are reports that even foreign Jihadists are coming in to lend a hand, but it's difficult to tell whether this is authentic, or merely western media sensationalizing.
Islamism is surging through the entire so-called "Arab World" and it's hard to imagine that a law or two is going to stop them from organizing. It was much the same in Egypt, but you could be right. The amount of chauvinism the Islamists are displaying is incredible. I wouldn't be surprised if they attempted to wage a propaganda campaign against the Assad Regime's "Un-Islamic" character. It was similar in the campaign against Gaddafi, with many rebels choosing to fight him simply because they thought that he might be Jewish.
Whether or not you like Assad, he is a leader without a voice at this point. He is in no position to negotiate with the opposition because the opposition doesn't want that. I suspect that there are those in his inner circle that are putting out feelers to whomever will listen, but more for personal save-your-own-ass reasons. I honestly don't believe that the majority of the people understand the forces aligned against them but Assad definitely does. He is the right man at the wrong time without an avenue to save his people. At this point the only viable choices for Syria may be a leader that has over stayed his welcome and the misery that comes with it, or exiles and reactionaries bent on destruction and revenge and the misery that comes with that. Do I think Assad should step down? Maybe a little late for that I suppose.
Last edited by Prometeo liberado; 23rd February 2012 at 20:19.
I think Assad should be overthrown, like all other capitalist rulers.[FONT=Times New Roman][/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS]
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Opposition to Assad = Radical Nationalists and Islamists. I'm not going to watch another country go down that path. The reformist path is a brightest path!
Nope! Assad must stay! Reforms must come!
Oh yes. Assad has already set up several committees whose role is to examine the possibility of setting up committees to check for the possibility of maybe having reforms at some point in the future. What a bright light!
For a Palestinian Workers' State from the Jordan to the Sea!
For a Socialist Federation of the Middle East!
For the World Socialist Revolution!
Rebuild the Fourth International!
“The Jew is a caricature of a normal, natural human being, both physically and spiritually. As an individual in society he revolts and throws off the harness of social obligation, knows no order nor discipline.” ~Hashomer HaTzair, Zionist "Marxist" movement
NEW! ISL Website ISL-LRP Statement on Discussions
Remember Basem Abu Rahme, anti-Apartheid wall protester murdered by Zionist army
Note that there are two entirely different Islamic tendency's which use the name alawi, the shia sect that is ruling Syria (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawi) is something completly different that the suffi influenced Alawi which are a liberal progressive reformist major religion in mostly turkey (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alevi)
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I wasn't aware of of the latter, but it was indeed the Syrian Alawites I was studying. The religion seems completely separate from Islam imho. It's origins are completely divergent from Islam and it seems to be primarily based in Gnosticism and Platonism, but over time it has adopted practices of Christianity and Islam, and to this day many of their rituals are based far more in Christianity than Islam. They celebrate Easter and practice the ritual of communion. In addition, they have no obligation to pray as Muslims do.
It has only been over the last few decades that there has been a big push to disguise or reform the religion as a sect of Shiism, since the Assad dynasty has taken over in fact. Part of the effort included building Mosques in Alawite villages to bolster the appearance, despite the fact that they mostly go unused. The real practices of the religion are not taught to most adherents anymore in addition. Their non-Islamic rituals seem to now be confined to small numbers of the initiated. Most of what we know about the specifics of the Syrian Alawites comes from a Christian convert who detailed their practices and rituals in the mid 19th century.
It seems strange that Shiite clerics would go out of their way and try to claim the religion under their own name; but considering only about 15% of the global Muslim population are Shiites, it would seem that they are probably more concerned about having allies in a Sunni dominated Middle Eastern geopolitical landscape. Over time, it may well converge with Shiite doctrine entirely.
Sorry to get off topic there, but it's a interesting thing to look at.
This is perhaps the most dangerous position for the Left to have. Considering that the insurgents are being funded by countries like of the West (as long as being given free passage in Turkey for example): the Imperialist powers clearly are seeing an opportunity to install a friendly regime in Syria.
Now to reduce the entire unrest to an imperialist plot is of course silly. But as workers in those imperialist aggressor nations: we should oppose those attempts by our governments to install puppet regimes.
We would all like to see a workers' government replace Assad, but to support such a thing requires an examination of the real balance of forces at the moment.
I am glad many Comrades chose Yes.
The Fighters in Syria are mostly unemployed workers and unemployed youth.
The movement is not deeply religious ( the majority of Syrians in Homs and other big cities aren't religious)
The Opposition is led by Burhan Ghalioun who is a Leftist himself.
He is also from Homs.
Assad posed as a reformer for too long he is not a reformer at all.
His father and him killed intellectuals, workers , communists and other leftists.
the opposition is neither Islamist or Nationalist it is diverse.
Assad ignored many peasants in the country side and workers in the cities.
Assad only supports the elite class.
Hellenistic philosophy was very influential in the early Islamic world. Many Islamic philosophers considered the Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato to have near-prophetic status. That doesn't mean that these philosophers weren't Muslim, or that the Greek Philosophers were, merely that they saw Islam as kind of a religion grounded in the same fundamental truth that Platonic and Aristotelean philosophy was grounded on. Naturally, many other Islamic philosophers saw this as heretical, but the Hellenic thinkers were nonetheless very influential in the Caliphate.
It is too simplistic to think of religions as a form of this or that. Regional forms of Islam tended to adopt many of the philosophical and spiritual practices of the people from whom they converted. The Islamic world seems monolithic, and it probably even sees itself as such, but it is a very diverse religion. Thus it is no surprise that they give the Greek thinkers such predominance, but the obvious heterodoxy of their beliefs also explains why they are so secretive.
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