At a time when the mind of those who claimed to be the sole religious leader has strayed, and the basics of logic have been lost, the one who falsified wisdom and falsely assumed the cloak of reason now leads the scene.
He is Hikmat al-Hijri, who was Assad's godfather before someone whispered in his ear that he was headed for collapse. He maliciously disembarked from his ship two years ago, not out of a belief in rejecting injustice and crime, leading an entire sect into an algorithmic maze that has eluded all opinion-makers.
These are the scribbles of an ignorant gambler, whose only vision is its broken shadow and the illusions of power. This is al-Hijri, bound to a project that has morally brought him down, insisting on dragging the entire sect into his deep-seated pit. Yes, he has dragged the Druze—not just Sweida—to a dangerous turning point, embroiling them in a political game unbecoming of Syrians and unaligned with the hierarchy of principles that has woven our collective history.
This man insisted on transforming Sweida, a city that Syrians, before liberation, viewed as a sanctuary for revolutionaries and a beacon of freedom, into an arena of division and discord, a card tossed about by all but its own people.
In the past, and long after victory, a son of Daraa, Damascus, Homs, Latakia, and Hama, an immigrant from his homeland, would stand in Karama Square, chanting for freedom before returning home and seeing his family. This practice became a revolutionary tradition for many. At the time, al-Hijri would hammer nail after nail into a bridge built with the blood of Wahid al-Balous, whom he assassinated alongside Assad, not with the ink of treason written by Salman Hikmat al-Hijri while working with Assad's intelligence services, as documents attest.
How difficult it is for clerics to change their colors and transform from spiritual symbols into tools of tyranny, shattering the truth at its very doorstep. Hence, Laith al-Balous's stance was different: a voice screaming in the wilderness of fear and disagreement, carrying within his features a lifeline for a sect being bought and sold at the table of the political bazaar, using the currency of fear and division.
Laith al-Balous was nothing but the last rational outlet keeping the Druze body cohesive and connected to its authentic form and Syrian history, despite the knives waging war against it and deflecting the accusation of treason that al-Hijri insists on branding him with. He is the voice that reminds us that Sweida is not a single turban, nor is its decision-making limited to a religious military seal. Rather, it is the heartbeat of a people who once hung their flag over their wounds in Karama Square, and has no connection to al-Hijri's project, which tore the nation's flag with his seal in the General Staff building.
How cruel it is to see symbols of patriotism retreat, like Walid Jumblatt, at a moment when the sect needs someone to raise the banner of awareness, not the banner of the sect. How much you need a realistic person—if not a patriot—to spare a sect that al-Hijri likes to call a minority from being accused, not only in Syria, but across the country as a whole, stretching between wounds and bleeding, from our Arab surroundings to our occupied Ahwaz in the east. Nevertheless, hope still rests on those who have not sold their souls or compromised on the memory of a homeland.
So, people of Sweida, do not curse Laith al-Balous. In his voice, we have what remains of the beautiful memories of the revolution that unite us, and in his positions, there is what keeps you out of the quagmire of internal strife.
And remember that no matter how pessimistic you perceive the Damascus government, it will be incomparable to a cleric with a gambling mind who understands the level of social awareness after lean decades and society's general familiarity with blood and wounds, amid a deteriorating economic reality. Despite all this, he insists on dragging you into a gamble that only a criminal and a profiteer in his sect can initiate.
Don't rely on those who will negotiate with you cheaply, for the homeland is not for sale, and dignity is not bartered.
Sweida is protected by a revolutionary young man, adorned with awareness, and it is destroyed by an elderly sheikh living the dreams of emperors.
By Muhammad Rafi Abu Hawa
Zaman al-Wasl
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