Is Syria a Secular Country? from Planck's Constant

Hamidiye Souk Damascus
Photo Credit: Newsweek

In my article Muslims have A Norway Massacre Every Day, I gave as example of Muslim barbarity the massacre at Hama by the Syrian army.

In response, a reader disagreed that this had anything to do with Muslims because the army was following the orders of a secular government. In addition, Assad is an Alawite, a sect not recognized as Muslim by the Sunni majority (I will blog about Alawites later).

In hundreds of comments I have seen the blame for Muslim atrocities attributed to cultural mores, or ethnic strife, or tribal rivalries, or this or that excuse, anything but the religion of Islam. This time, it's a government that supposedly has nothing to do with Islam or a people who only appear to be Muslims but are really not.

OK, let's examine the notion that Syria is a secular state.

Here is an interesting portion of the Constitution of Syria - Adopted on 13 March 1973:

Article 3 [Islam]

(1) The religion of the President of the Republic has to be Islam.
(2) Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of legislation.

At the time of the attack on Hama in 1982, Hafez al-Assad was President of Syria. By law his religion absolutely must be Islam. I am taking a big leap here, but if his religion is Islam, I'm calling him a Muslim.

In addition, the main system of law must be based on Islamic law.

Even though 90% of Syria's population is Muslim (74% Sunni, 16% other Muslim [CIA]), I agree that that fact alone does not mean the government is Islamic, however almost the entirety of the Syrian army and government is in fact filled with Sunni Muslims.

OK, hold these thoughts. Now let's consider Israel.

Israel has no state religion, and the religion of the President does not have to be Judaism. Arabic is one official language of Israel.

Some people believe that the law in Israel is based on Halakha or Jewish Law. It is not. The law of the land is based on German civil law, religious laws in family matters (Jewish Halakha and Muslim Sharia), British common law, American Law and Canadian Law, and various European Laws.

Despite all that Israel is considered a Jewish State.

Now back to Syria; hmmm - the religion of the person running the country must be Islam. The main body of law must be Islam. 99% of the government and the army is filled with Muslims (and most of those are in fact Sunni Muslims). Yet we are asked to consider Syria a secular country. Yes, on paper, however in culture and custom Syria is a Muslim country and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an Association of 57 Islamic states promoting Muslim solidarity, agrees with me.

The slaughter in Hama was done by Muslims. The soldiers doing all the killing were not just secular members of Syrian society. Every third world President wants to hold onto power and that certainly was the main reason for the attack, however it was not simply a quelling of a revolt - the barbarity was not diminished by the faith of the attackers and there was no taking of prisoners. Typically Muslim.

If here in the States, our Constitution demanded that the religion of our President must be Christian, if the main body of law must be based on the New Testament, and 99% of the government and Army was filled with Christians, who would not call this country a Christian country?