14 novembre 2012<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00abSyria’s opposition received an immediate diplomatic boost after the formation of the new coalition. France recognized it as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, and pledged to reexamine the possibility of shipping arms to the rebels. The Arab League also recognized the body, with Secretary General Nabil al-Araby hailing it as a glimmer of hope. By dispelling Western fears of growing jihadist influence within the Free Syrian Army, the rebels hope, the new coalition can open the door to increased financial and military assistance from the international community.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbThe election of the Cairo-based Khatib, a former imam of Damascus’s historic Umayyad Mosque who was imprisoned under Assad, is a crucial part of this strategy. Western media outlets such as the BBC were quick to declare him \u00ab\u00a0a respected figure within Syria\u00a0\u00bb who holds \u00ab\u00a0moderate\u00a0\u00bb political views, citing his trips to Britain and the United States, as well as his teaching experience at the Dutch Institute in Damascus, as evidence. However, public statements posted on the clergyman’s website, darbuna.net, paint a different picture.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbKhatib’s website features numerous instances of anti-Semitic rhetoric. In one of his own articles, he writes that one of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s positive legacies was \u00ab\u00a0terrifying the Jews.\u00a0\u00bb He has also published others’ anti-Semitic observations on his site: In one article, written by Abdul Salam Basiouni, Jews are described as \u00ab\u00a0gold worshipers.\u00a0\u00bb Finally, in an obituary of a Gaza sheikh copied from IslamSyria, Jews are dubbed \u00ab\u00a0the enemies of God.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbWhile Khatib used his post-election speech to call for equal rights for \u00ab\u00a0all parts of the harmonious Syrian people,\u00a0\u00bb his previous rhetoric toward his country’s minorities has been nothing short of virulent. One of his articles describes Shiite using the slur rawafid, or \u00ab\u00a0rejectionists\u00a0\u00bb; he even goes further, criticizing Shiites’ ability to \u00ab\u00a0establish lies and follow them.\u00a0\u00bb Such language, needless to say, will hardly reassure the country’s Alawite community, a Shiite offshoot to which Assad belongs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbKhatib’s animosity toward the West is similarly evident in his writing. In one article, written in 2011, the new coalition leader speaks of \u00ab\u00a0stupid American, cunning British, and malignant French diplomacy.\u00a0\u00bb He also accuses Western powers of propping up the old Egyptian regime and working to weaken the country for their own ends. \u00ab\u00a0The collapse of the Egyptian regime is the beginning of the international regional system’sdescent,\u00a0\u00bb he writes. \u00ab\u00a0The collapse of Egypt itself is an enormous Israeli desire [emanating] from its frightening project to split the region into repugnant sectarian entities.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbThe new Syrian opposition leader doesn’t hesitate to stoke Muslims’ fears of persecution at the hands of the West. He posted on his website a flamboyant Dutch Radio report on the imminent ethnic cleansing of Europe’s Muslim minorities, based on statements by right-wing European figures and Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Tunisia’s Islamist Al-Nahda party, which is now a major partner in the country’s coalition government.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbKhatib is also a fan of Qatar-based Egyptian televangelist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi. His website places Qaradawi on equal footing with Tunisia’s Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation set off the Arab revolutions, and praised the Egyptian preacher as \u00ab\u00a0our great Imam.\u00a0\u00bb Qaradawi is a controversial figure who has been denied entry to France and Britain for his support of suicide bombings — he has described such attacks, when used against Israel civilians, as \u00ab\u00a0evidence of God’s justice.\u00a0\u00bb Given Qaradawi’s Qatari connections, Khatib’s praise of the cleric may be an indication of where his loyalties lie.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbIn certain instances, Khatib’s conspiratorial language even mimics the regime’s own rhetoric. In an article titled \u00ab\u00a0Facebook, is it an American-Israeli intelligence website?\u00a0\u00bb he claims that users of the social networking website involuntarily become Israeli or American spies through information-sharing. Khatib warns against the potential use of exchanges of a sexual nature on Facebook, which he says could be \u00ab\u00a0weak spots\u00a0\u00bb used to recruit spies. The Assad regime previously used thesame logic when it banned Facebook, arguing that the site allowed Israel to make contact with Syrian youth.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\t\u00bbTaken as a whole, these statements raise disturbing questions about whether Syria’s new opposition leader is truly as \u00ab\u00a0moderate\u00a0\u00bb as he has been described in the press. His religious and political views appear divisive and at odds with the reassuring image Syria’s opposition is trying to present — both domestically and on the international front. Rather than a positive step forward, Khatib’s leadership suggests that Syria’s opposition is poised to repeat the same mistakes that have bedeviled it since the beginning of the revolt.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
dedefensa.org<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Notre nouvel ami, chef de l’opposition syrienne Sans v\u00e9ritable surprise \u00e0 notre sens, voici un portrait pourtant surprenant, pour ceux qui se mettent en position d’\u00eatre surpris, du nouveau chef de l’opposition ext\u00e9rieure syrienne, organis\u00e9e par le bloc BAO. Bien entendu, le personnage est ambigu, \u00e9trange, inattendu, et il pourrait bien s’av\u00e9rer un probl\u00e8me bien… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2998,934,11868,3278,15233,15201,6463,5391,2726,11930,3867],"class_list":["post-73516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ouverture-libre","tag-change","tag-clinton","tag-cns","tag-hillary","tag-khatib","tag-led-change","tag-leverett","tag-opposition","tag-regime","tag-snc","tag-syrie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}