Why a photo of Syria's interim leader could hint at trouble ahead
A Salafist flag behind Syria’s new interim Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir has concerned those hoping for a future of moderation and tolerance.
When Syria’s new interim prime minister, Mohammad al-Bashir, chaired a Cabinet meeting in Damascus on Tuesday, hanging behind him was the flag of the country’s suddenly victorious opposition.
Next to it, however, was a second banner popular with the region’s Sunni Islamist fighters, featuring the large Arabic letters of the Shahada, an Islamic declaration of faith.
As a new Syria fast emerges from the ruins of the Assad regime, the world is watching for hints of what that might look like — and that second flag has concerned those hoping for a future of moderation and tolerance.
That path will largely depend on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel organization that led the charge into Damascus and is now stewarding Syria’s political overhaul.
Syrians celebrate in the central city of Homs on Sunday.Muhammad Haj Kadour / AFP via Getty ImagesHTS is banned as a terrorist organization in the United States and elsewhere and grew out of a branch of Al Qaeda. Its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, said a decade ago that there would be no room for religious minorities in the Islamist Syria of which he dreamed about. He also suggested that he could bring terrorism to the West unless it withdrew from the Middle East’s wars.
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