FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The Islamic origins of Syria’s civil war
Conflicts within Islam, not democracy or human rights, are at the centre of the current Syrian war. There are several levels of conflict in the Arab-Muslim world. The first is an economic conflict between the educated younger generation, who make up half the Middle East’s population, and the old oppressive regimes that could not supply them with jobs. This conflict led to the Arab Spring and to predictions by optimists that a democratic tidal wave would sweep through the Arab world, similar to the one that saw the collapse of the old Soviet empire. This was wishful thinking. Instead, Islamist…
