December 22, 2024
Jalal's Take: “Assad or We Burn the Country”: Syria’s Struggle For Liberation
The Thinking MuslimAbout this episode
Become a member to ger access to exclusive monthly calls: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership The Syrian revolution began in 2011 as a grassroots civil society uprising against one of the most tyrannical rulers in the Muslim World. Bashar al-Assad, like his father before him, presided over a state of terror, with mass disappearances, secret police repression and a brutal, corrupt state machinery that governed through fear. Assad had four secret service agencies (mukhabarat) that worked independently. If you got onto a list, your life would become a never-ending Kafkaesque tragedy. All four had to pardon you before you could be absolved of any guilt. Ordinary Syrians talked in hushed tones in case stray criticism of the state would be misconstrued as insurrection. Assad was a ‘god’ who had to be adored by his people. What has happened over these past two weeks is truly spectacular. But how did we get here? And how do we understand the past 13 years? You can also support The Thinking Muslim through a one-time donation: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/Donate Listen to the audio version of the podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7vXiAjVFnhNI3T9Gkw636a Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-thinking-muslim/id1471798762 Sign up to Muhammad Jalal's newsletter: https://jalalayn.substack.com Purchase our Thinking Muslim mug: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/merch Find us on: Squarespace: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com/membership Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Thinking-Muslim-Podcast-105790781361490 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkingmuslimpodcast/ Telegram: https://t.me/thinkingmuslim BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thinkingmuslim.bsky.social Host: https://twitter.com/jalalayn IG: https://www.instagram.com/jalalayns?igsh=MWIxbXBkOWswbTg5OA== Website Archive: https://www.thinkingmuslim.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.