Another Genocide, Another Jihadist, Another U.S. Ally—Same Old Story
One of the strangest things about me is that when what appears to be “breaking news” in my field of Islamic studies emerges, I usually have very little to say.
Why? Because it’s not news — at least not to me. It’s the same old story I explained two decades ago, and have since repeated countless times.
And yet, absolutely nothing changes.
Take what’s happening in Syria.
Massacre of the Minorities
Over the past week, Syria’s Druze minority has been subjected to a wave of jihadist-inspired terror that has left over a thousand people dead, entire villages emptied, and many Druze wondering if they are witnessing the final extermination of their people.
The violence began in earnest when Sunni Bedouin tribes — fully backed by units of the Syrian military — stormed multiple Druze villages in Sweida province. What followed were atrocities that mirrored the barbarism of ISIS. In al-Mazraa, armed tribesmen shouting “Allahu Akbar!” set fire to homes with families still inside. In Sahwat al-Khudr, several Druze were beheaded, their corpses mutilated and displayed in the town square. Video footage circulated on pro-regime Telegram channels shows the attackers chanting Koranic verses justifying the slaughter of non-Sunnis.
More than 262 civilians, including women and children — and one American who was visiting his family — were butchered, some by gunfire, others burned alive or summarily executed. In Suwara al-Kubra, several Druze girls were abducted, raped, and dumped — one with her tongue cut out and a verse from the Koran scrawled in blood across her chest.
Silent Standby
Local witnesses say regime troops either stood by or more often actively assisted in the raids, providing air surveillance and ammunition.
Syria’s so-called “reformist” president, Ahmad al-Sharaa — himself a “former” jihadist and member of al-Qaeda in Syria (al-Nusra) — blamed the Druze for “inciting unrest,” echoing the same jihadist logic ISIS and al-Qaeda used when killing their victims.
Over 79,000 Druze have fled, many now hiding in forests, caves, or makeshift camps. Local cleric Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri condemned the regime’s actions as a “jihadist war of extermination,” declaring: “They [the new Syrian ‘government’] come with tanks and prayer rugs. They kill us in the name of their god, and the world applauds them as moderates.”
The message is clear: under the banner of post-Assad “reform,” the Syrian regime is carrying out a jihadist purge of one of the last independent religious minorities in the region. And they are doing it to cries of “Allahu Akbar” and in the name of “national unity.”
Nor have Christians been spared. At least one family was slaughtered and one church set ablaze by the Sunnis and their governmental accomplices.
No News
Even so, where’s the news (a word which means new)? Where’s the shock? This is exactly what must happen when all the usual ingredients are mixed together.
And what are those ingredients? Simple: Place Muslim fundamentalists in the same bowl with a vulnerable group of “infidels” (just make sure the fundamentalists, in this case, the Syrian “president” and his jihadist regime) are the dominant flavor — and voilà: jihad and genocide.
After all, hasn’t this happened time and time again? Remember the grotesque and genocidal atrocities ISIS committed against the Yazidis exactly a decade ago? The same is happening now under the latest incarnation of “radical Islam” — that is, the new Syrian government. Neither the Yazidis nor the Druze are considered “people of the book,” so there is no tolerance, no second-class dhimmi status for them. They must convert or face extermination. No jizya. No submission. Just slavery, rape, and murder — in a word, annihilation.
Muammar al-Sharaa, cousin of Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa, has even posted on his Facebook account that “It is permissible to enslave [Druze] women.”
So here we are again. Nothing learned. No progress made. Just the same cycle — wash, rinse, repeat — ad nauseam that has been going on since the Islam was founded in the eighth century.
No Heroes Here
I wish the redundancy of all this was limited to Muslim fundamentalists behaving like Muslim fundamentalists. But the rot runs much deeper — and much closer to home.
American leaders — whether Republican or Democrat, from Reagan and the Bushes to Clinton and Obama — has consistently aligned themselves with jihadists, even while claiming to champion religious freedom and human rights around the world.
This was especially blatant under Obama, and I wrote extensively about it (see here, here, here). In Donald Trump’s own words, Obama was “the founder of ISIS.”
And yet, Trump himself was among the first to ease sanctions, shake hands with, and even praise al-Sharaa — the latest face of ISIS-style terror, and the man ultimately responsible for the ongoing massacre of the Druze.
“He’s a young, attractive guy,” Trump said of this terrorist in a suit. “Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.”
Yes, that is how the U.S. president gushed about a man whose ideology is openly identical to that of ISIS; a man who “was” a member of al-Qaeda — remember them, who murdered 3,000 Americans? — and who is currently carrying out a religious genocide.
The Worst Part
Contrast this with the treatment of former Syrian President Bashar Assad — a secularist who, for all his faults, never persecuted his people on religious grounds. And yet, every U.S. president condemned and imposed wave after wave of sanctions on him.
On the other hand, Trump thinks that al-Sharaa, is finally going to give Syria “a chance at greatness.”
So, if Obama was “the founder of ISIS,” as Trump said — what does that make Trump?
Is all of this just coincidence? Are American leaders of both major parties doomed to be forever naïve? Or is something much darker going on?
I’m inclined to believe the latter interpretation, but, at this point, does it even matter? The result is always the same: Wherever the United States meddles in the Muslim world, terrorists who hate “infidels” come to power and the religious minorities beneath them are butchered. And in time, they turn around and bite the hand that feeds them by attacking the U.S. (e.g., 9/11).
That’s why none of this is “news” to me. From top to bottom, it’s business as usual.
To be clear, I’m not saying what’s happening in Syria shouldn’t be reported; I’m glad it is. But I don’t see the need for yet more “analysis,” when the reality is both painfully obvious and depressingly unchanging. In fact, the way these stories are consumed has taken on a disturbingly voyeuristic quality: atrocities are committed, people feign shock, and social media lights up with hashtags and slogans — until the news cycle shifts to the next outrage we’re meant to emote over. And the victims? They’re left to their fate. Forgotten.
Rinse. Repeat. Forever.
Pathetic.
So you’ll understand why I increasingly choose not to participate in these grotesque charades.
That’s also why I’ve turned more and more to writing about history. Though it concerns the past, it often feels fresher and more revealing than today’s headlines because it uncovers things people were never taught, and were never meant to know.
Why? Because the history I deal with revolves around a time when men actually acted in the face of evil instead of merely wringing their hands and tweeting about all the “bad news” until the next distraction came along.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.