The Extremely Moderate Al Qaeda Splinter Group That Seized Power in Syria Is Interesting
But are they for real?
I’ll be honest: I didn’t know that Al Qaeda had a centrist, technocratic faction. I didn’t know there were jihadists who carry around charts about solar energy and talk people’s ears off about the importance of single-stair egress buildings. When I think “Al Qaeda”, I think “death to the Infidel”, not “death to minimum vehicle parking requirements, which lead to inefficient land use and drive up housing costs.” But I guess I’m ignorant, because exactly that type of person seems to have stormed to power in Syria.
Abu Muhammad al-Jolani is a former Al Qaeda fighter who now heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main rebel group that ousted Bashar al-Assad. Despite a résumé that admittedly doesn’t scream “fix-the-damn-roads-type pragmatist”, he has given a series of interviews that make Pete Buttigeig seem like the Ayatollah. Al-Jolani has shunned strict Islamic codes, eschewed rank sectarianism, and said that he doesn’t want conflict with Israel. I’m exaggerating his wonkish outlook, of course, but only somewhat — he has struck a surprisingly moderate tone for the leader of a group that is still considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. And his embrace of pragmatic liberalism seems to have caught people by surprise, with reactions in the West ranging from “bullshit” to “neat-O!”, with “what the fuck is this?” being by far the most common response.
The skepticism is understandable. The Arab Spring began with boundless hope but ended in crushing disappointment. Gaddafi was replaced by chaos, Mubarak was replaced by Mubarak 2.0 (or Nasser 4.0, depending on your perspective), and Tunisia was the lone success story before sliding back into dictatorship. Expecting a new Middle Eastern government to be stable is like expecting a polycule to be stable: You can only expect that if you are extremely unfamiliar with how those things usually go. But I’d like to argue that it’s not completely insane to think that this time might be different (in Syria…polycule chaos remains inevitable).