The group Obama is trying to get designated a terrorist organization tells us they will institute the sharia after coming to power. If the sharia is good enough that Obama endorses it in Egypt, what is to stop him from helping to make the sharia part of the Syrian landscape? Does he know for sure the other rebel groups do not hold the same ideology, and if not, why not?
From The National December 15 by Balint Szlanko
Jabhat Al Nusra's new Syria
From The National December 15 by Balint Szlanko
Jabhat Al Nusra's new Syria
The man wearing the balaclava had eyes that never stopped smiling.
Reclining on a pillow in an otherwise empty room, this burly, 41-year-old commander of Jabhat Al Nusra - the most fearsome jihadi group in Syria - exuded an almost disturbing calm, in marked contrast to the loud, chatty air that often characterises more mainstream groups of the Free Syrian Army.
The man, who calls himself Sheikh Abu Ahmed and said he was the military commander of Jabhat Al Nusra in the Hasakah governorate of eastern Syria, spoke to The National in the north-eastern town of Ras el Ayn, where fighting between Islamist rebels and the Kurdish PYD party has killed dozens of militants in recent weeks.
Dressed in plain clothes, Abu Ahmed outlined his group's vision for a new Syria.
"Our first goal is to get rid of Assad. Then we want a state where the Quran is the only source of law," he said. "Sharia is the right path for all humanity - all other laws make people unhappy."
Jabhat Al Nusra has emerged this year as the most powerful and high-profile Salafist group in the Syrian conflict, openly embracing suicide bombing as an important weapon against a technologically superior enemy. It has claimed several successful attacks, many of which have killed civilians, on major government targets such as the Damascus headquarters of the elite air force intelligence service.
According to news reports, the US State Department is preparing to designate the group a foreign terrorist organisation in a bid to help choke off its financing. Reports suggest that the move is also aimed at boosting the prospects of a new opposition umbrella group, formed last month in Qatar with western support, but rejected by the Islamists.
Reclining on a pillow in an otherwise empty room, this burly, 41-year-old commander of Jabhat Al Nusra - the most fearsome jihadi group in Syria - exuded an almost disturbing calm, in marked contrast to the loud, chatty air that often characterises more mainstream groups of the Free Syrian Army.
The man, who calls himself Sheikh Abu Ahmed and said he was the military commander of Jabhat Al Nusra in the Hasakah governorate of eastern Syria, spoke to The National in the north-eastern town of Ras el Ayn, where fighting between Islamist rebels and the Kurdish PYD party has killed dozens of militants in recent weeks.
Dressed in plain clothes, Abu Ahmed outlined his group's vision for a new Syria.
"Our first goal is to get rid of Assad. Then we want a state where the Quran is the only source of law," he said. "Sharia is the right path for all humanity - all other laws make people unhappy."
Jabhat Al Nusra has emerged this year as the most powerful and high-profile Salafist group in the Syrian conflict, openly embracing suicide bombing as an important weapon against a technologically superior enemy. It has claimed several successful attacks, many of which have killed civilians, on major government targets such as the Damascus headquarters of the elite air force intelligence service.
According to news reports, the US State Department is preparing to designate the group a foreign terrorist organisation in a bid to help choke off its financing. Reports suggest that the move is also aimed at boosting the prospects of a new opposition umbrella group, formed last month in Qatar with western support, but rejected by the Islamists.
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