Islamists gaining ground in Syria

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (Source: Agência Brasil, Wikipedia)

Certain Islamists, as their own branch of the opposition to Syria’s President Assad, are gaining ground:

The small group of Free Syrian Army opposition fighters marched under a hazy sky outside Aleppo, raising their guns in the air, days after the government’s Sheik Suleiman base fell into rebel hands.

“We are coming for you,” they chanted in a video posted to the Internet, an apparent warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad…

But the week’s major victory at the military base was not led by the Free Syrian Army. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it was led by Islamist fighters with the al-Nusrah front, giving them access to tanks, missiles and other heavy weaponry.

“We see a shift toward Islamicization of the ideology of the people who are fighting on the ground, which is a concern,” says Mattaz Suheil with the Britain-based Observatory. “They’re more cohesive as a group and that’s a problem because it’s radicalizing young people who want to be part of a military campaign against the regime, against a minority in Syria and they eventually adopt the more radical view.”

Suheil says the influence of groups like al-Nusrah is having an impact that goes beyond the battlefield.

“We see in Aleppo city now they’ve installed an Islamic court and a police of vice and virtue which means people, civilians, are being tried for moral crimes.”

West taking notice

Concern has escalated in the West. The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday sanctioned two senior leaders of the al-Nusrah front for acting on behalf of al-Qaida in Iraq, while the U.S. State Department designated al-Nusrah a terrorist organization.

“This, again, goes to the environment that Assad and his regime have created with their violence – that they have, as we have been concerned about for many months, created an environment with this violence which extremists can now try to exploit,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at a recent briefing.

Activists and some experts warn the problem runs even deeper.

Rohan Gunaratna heads the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and has studied al-Qaida extensively. He warns al-Nusrah is positioning itself well.

“Al-Nusrah has emerged as the most capable and most lethal enemy of the Syrian government,” Gunaratna says, adding the Free Syrian Army “does not have the ability to match or compete against al-Nusrah.”

He says if and when the government of Bashar al-Assad tumbles, it will be al-Nusrah and other like-minded groups competing for power.

Other experts and activists are hesitant to make such bold predictions but point out al-Nusrah is better organized than most of the other forces working to topple the Syrian government.

They say the group draws on support from al-Qaida and on funding from private donors – which has allowed it to arm with better weapons. Making al-Nusrah even more dangerous are the lessons the group’s leaders have learned from Iraq.

Stratfor, a private intelligence firm, says for months al-Nusrah has been trying to win over the local population instead of alienating them with attacks that cause mass casualties, a tactic that in Iraq led to the rise of the counter-jihadist Sunni Awakening Councils.

Al-Nusrah also has been willing to work with other groups, like the Free Syrian Army, to achieve the opposition’s main objective of toppling the Assad regime.

http://www.voanews.com/content/islamists-gaining-ground-in-syria/1563061.html

The opposition in Syria is mainly Sunni Muslims. While not all are considered to be “Islamists,” it it the Sunnis who are rebelling against the minority Shi-ites. Syria’s main ally these days is Iran. And the Iranians are mostly Shi’ite, while most Muslims are Sunni.

Perhaps the largest Islamist political group in the world is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is basically a Sunni Muslim club. And while not officially terrorist, it has supported Islamic terrorists in places like Gaza. It could likely at least work with Islamists in Syria. The goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is to create a pan-national Islamic confederation, including countries such as Syria. Although the group called the Muslim Brotherhood per se does not seem to be predicted in the Bible, a confederation of North African and Middle Eastern states like the Muslim Brotherhood wants is (Daniel 11:40-43; Ezekiel 30:1-8).

Syria is biblically expected to be part of the end time confederation that will support the final King of the South. The fact that Islamists are gaining additional power and influence in Syria now is consistent with that. Syria’s Assad obviously sees what is happening and may take desperate steps that will, apparently inadvertently on his part, result in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy (cf. Isaiah 17:1). World events continue to align with properly understood biblical prophecy.

Much is going on in the Middle East and elsewhere. Notice something that Jesus said about the end times:

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Is There A Future King of the South? Some no longer believe there needs to be. Might Egypt, Islam, Iran, Arabs, or Ethiopia be involved? Might this King be called the Mahdi? What does the Bible say?
The Arab and Islamic World In the Bible, History, and Prophecy The Bible discusses the origins of the Arab world and discusses the Middle East in prophecy. What is ahead for the Middle East and those who follow Islam? What about the Imam Mahdi? What lies ahead for Turkey, Iran, and the other non-Arabic Muslims?
Is There an Islamic Antichrist? Is Joel Richardson correct that the final Antichrist will be Islamic and not European? Find out.
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2012, 2013, or 2014? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000?