Sayyida Zeinab, Syria – On the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, rituals of religion unfold: worshippers kneel in prayer, guests increase their palms skyward or fervently murmur invocations as they press their faces in opposition to an ornate construction enclosing the place they consider the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad is entombed.
However it’s extra than simply non secular devotion that the golden-domed shrine turned identified for throughout Syria’s extended civil battle.
On the time, the shrine’s safety from Sunni extremists turned a rallying cry for some Shiite fighters and Iran-backed teams from past Syria’s borders who backed the previous authorities of Bashar Assad. The shrine and the encircling space, which bears the identical title, has emerged as one image of how the non secular and political more and more intertwined in the course of the battle.
With such a legacy, native Shiite group leaders and members at the moment are navigating a dramatically altered political panorama round Sayyida Zeinab and past, after Assad’s December ouster by armed insurgents led by the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The advanced transition that’s underway has left some in Syria’s small Shiite minority feeling weak.
“For Shiites around the globe, there’s enormous sensitivity surrounding the Sayyida Zeinab Shrine,” stated Hussein al-Khatib. “It carries quite a lot of symbolism.”
After Assad’s ouster, al-Khatib joined different Syrian Shiite group members to guard the shrine from the within. The brand new safety forces guard it from the skin.
“We don’t need any sedition amongst Muslims,” he stated. “That is an important message, particularly on this interval that Syria goes by way of.”
Zeinab is a daughter of the primary Shiite imam, Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad; she’s particularly revered amongst Shiites as a logo of steadfastness, persistence and braveness.
She has a number of titles, such because the “mom of misfortunes” for enduring tragedies, together with the Seventh-century killing of her brother, Hussein. His dying exacerbated the schism between Islam’s two foremost sects, Sunni and Shiite, and is mourned yearly by Shiites.
Zeinab’s burial place is disputed; some Muslims consider it’s elsewhere. The Syria shrine has drawn pilgrims, together with from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. Since Assad’s ouster, nonetheless, fewer international guests have come, an financial blow to these catering to them within the space.
Through the years, the Sayyida Zeinab space has suffered lethal assaults by militants.
In January, state media reported that intelligence officers in Syria’s post-Assad authorities thwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to set off a bomb on the shrine. The announcement gave the impression to be an try by Syria’s new leaders to reassure non secular minorities, together with these seen as having supported Assad’s former authorities.
Al-Khatib, who moved his household from Aleppo province to the Sayyida Zeinab space shortly earlier than Assad’s fall, stated Assad had branded himself as a protector of minorities. “When killings, mobilization … and sectarian polarization started,” the narrative “of the regime and its allies was that ‘you, as a Shiite, you as a minority member, will probably be killed if I fall.’”
The involvement of Sunni jihadis and a few hardline international Shiite fighters fanned sectarian flames, he stated.
The Syria battle started as certainly one of a number of uprisings in opposition to Arab dictators earlier than Assad brutally crushed what began as largely peaceable protests and a civil battle erupted. It turned more and more fought alongside sectarian traces, drew in international fighters and have become a proxy battlefield for regional and worldwide powers on completely different sides.
Lately, a pink flag studying “Oh, Zeinab” that had fluttered from its dome was eliminated after some disparaged it as a sectarian image.
Sheikh Adham al-Khatib, a consultant of followers of the Twelver department of Shiism in Syria, stated such flags “usually are not directed in opposition to anybody,” however that it was agreed to take away it for now to maintain the peace.
“We don’t need a conflict to occur. We see that … there’s sectarian incitement, right here and there,” he stated.
Earlier, Shiite leaders had wrangled with some endowments ministry officers over whether or not the operating of the shrine would stick with the Shiite endowment trustee because it’s been, he stated, including “we have rejected” altering the established order. No response was obtained earlier than publication to questions despatched to a Ministry of Endowments media official.
Adham al-Khatib and different Shiite Leaders focus on with Syrian President Ahmad Al-Shara.
“We’ve talked transparently about a few of the transgressions,” he stated. “He promised that such issues could be dealt with however that they require some persistence due to the destructive emotions that many harbor for Shiites on account of the battle.”
Many, the sheikh stated, “are holding the Shiites liable for prolonging the regime’s life.” This “is blamed on Iran, on Hezbollah and on Shiites domestically,” he stated, including that he believes the battle was political slightly than non secular.
Early within the battle, he stated, “our inside Shiite determination was to be impartial for lengthy months.” However, he stated, there was sectarian incitement in opposition to Shiites by some and argued that “when weapons, kidnappings and killing of civilians began, Shiites have been pressured to defend themselves.”
Regionally, Assad was backed by Iran and the Shiite militant Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose intervention helped prop up his rule. Most rebels in opposition to him have been Sunni, as have been their patrons within the area.
In addition to the shrine’s safety argument, geopolitical pursuits and alliances have been at play as Syria was a key a part of Iran’s community of deterrence in opposition to Israel.
Right now, rumors and a few social media posts can threaten to inflame feelings.
Shrine director Jaaffar Kassem stated he obtained a false video purporting to indicate the shrine on fireplace and was flooded with calls about it.
On the shrine, Zaher Hamza stated he prays “for security and safety” and the rebuilding of “a contemporary Syria, the place there’s concord amongst all and there aren’t any grudges or injustice.”
Is he frightened in regards to the shrine? “We’re those who’re within the safety of Sayyida Zeinab — not those who will defend the Sayyida Zeinab,” he replied.
Whereas some Shiites have fled Syria after Assad’s fall, Hamza stated he wouldn’t.
“Syria is my nation,” he stated. “If I went to Lebanon, Iraq or to European international locations, I’d be displaced. I’ll die in my nation.”
Some are much less comfy.
Small teams of ladies gathered not too long ago on the Sayyida Zeinab courtyard, chatting amongst themselves in what gave the impression to be a quiet environment. Amongst them was Kamla Mohamed.
Early within the battle, Mohamed stated, her son was kidnapped greater than a decade in the past by anti-government rebels for serving within the navy. The final time she noticed him, she added, was on a video the place he appeared with a bruised face.
When Assad fell, Mohamed feared for her household.
These fears have been fueled by the later eruption of violence in Syria’s coastal area, the place a counteroffensive killed many Alawite civilians — members of the minority sect from which Assad hails and drew assist as he dominated over a Sunni majority. Human rights teams reported revenge killings in opposition to Alawites; the brand new authorities stated they have been investigating.
“We have been scared that folks would come to us and kill us,” Mohamed stated, clutching a prayer bead. “Our life has turn into stuffed with concern.”
One other Syrian Shiite shrine customer stated she’s been feeling on edge. She spoke on situation she solely be recognized as Umm Ahmed, or mom of Ahmed, as is conventional, for concern of reprisals in opposition to her or her household.
She stated, talking shortly after the coastal violence in March, that she’s considered leaving the nation, however added that there isn’t sufficient cash and he or she worries that her house could be stolen if she did. Nonetheless, “one’s life is probably the most treasured,” she stated.
She hopes it received’t come to that.
“Our hope in God is huge,” she stated. “God is the one defending this space, defending the shrine and defending us.”
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