SYRIA

Conflict in Syria

Conflict in Syria

Introduction

Since a long time, Syria has been struggling with various constant challenges which lead to many issues in the Arab autocracies. This included high unemployment, heavy inflation and limited amount of mobility with the region, political conflicts and repressive forces of security. The said factors gave a rise to the opposition of Syria's government. This was been heavily ruled by the Renaissance party from the year 1963 and further more with Al Asad family from the year 1970. The father of Bashar Al Asad was ruling the country from 1970 and until he died in the year 2000.

Discussion

The population of Syria consists of many different religious and ethnic groups but a majority of them is the Arab population of Islamic beliefs (Muslims). Under the rule of Asad there were strict political controls which avoided the differences of groups and religions to play a divisive role in the political and social life of the country. Almost 90 % of the Syrian population is Arabs. Rest of the population is covered by minorities which are known as Kurds. Among Muslims 70 % of the population belongs to Sunni Muslims and rest is divided between smaller Muslim groups such as Ismailis, Druze and Alawite. Some in Syria also belong to Christianity as well. Despite the materialistic nature based on the Baath party, the religious groups are considered very essential to many Syrians throughout the country. According to them religious belief is an icon of Group identity and a determining aspect of political aspects. The ruling family of Asad is the members of Muslim minority Alawite. Alawite is estimated to have twelve percent of the total population. This has the roots of Islamic beliefs of SHIITE. The government of the country started to violently suppress the uprising of Muslim brotherhood in the starting of 1980. This resulted in the killing of thousands of Sunni Muslims throughout the country. Despite of being authoritarian, some Syrian leaders have often considered it important to adapt to certain policies that facilitate different power centers throughout the country's large populations and reduce the potential for communal identities that would create conflict (Alasdair, Raymond, 2012).

Since President Asad took charge in the year of 2000 after the death of his father, he had offered and retracted the aspects of political reform and at the same time aligning his authority's government with Iran as well as Hezbollah and Hamas for a difficult rivalry with America and the Arab/ Non Arab allies which includes Israel. Long time partnership and friendship with USSR is still intact and it now a very important concern for many as Russia is the only remaining defenders of the region. As issues started in other Arab countries in the start of the year 2011, Asad and many of the Syrian authorities thought that the pervasive police state of Syria and the population of the country's fear of sectarian violence would act as a barricade against the outcome of ...