Special Issue of the Seminar: “Towards a Methodological Approach to Confronting Extremist Discourse in the Syrian Context through the Learned Lessons and Experiences”

The Syrian crisis has played a central role in the rise of extremism on the regional and global level with the rapidly-changing events after the popular Syrian revolution, which the Syrian regime has since day one considered to be “extremist Islamic organizations.” With the intensification of armed conflict, different extremist currents manifested with great force, the most prominent of which was ISIS, which was able to control up to 50% of Syrian territory at one point. In addition to its development of other extremist groups which were less important than itself. With it being confronted on a number of fronts. At that time, Northern Syria and the Idlib Governorate remained as the last opposition stronghold, which also holds a number of extremist groups and organizations. It is important to rescue Northern Syria, where all the energies and previous experiences have been gathered in one place, from the destructive effect of extremist groups in the urgent immediate term. It is therefore important to research ways to benefit from previous experiences and arrive to the best practical strategies for a political and religious discourse against extremism.

In this context, the Syrian Dialogue Center, in cooperation with the Cordoba Foundation in Geneva, held a seminar which incorporated a number of Syrian Sharia and political actors, among whom were some of most important Syrian opposition factions and bodies, to share their experiences in intellectual discourse against extremist thought. This was done with the aim of benefiting from those experiences and drawing a road-map to arrive to a methodological approach to confront this discourse. Through understanding extremism’s life-cycle, its development and the factors which participate in forming environments which foster it, the seminar aimed to arrive to recommendations that would give a comprehensive approach to confront extremist discourse. Specifically, the seminar focused on displaying the role of Shari discourse; the effect of forming a unified Sharia authority on the development of terrorism and the possible recommendations to strengthen it; and analyzing the factors which led to the transformation of Salafi Jihadist groups to relative moderation.

The publication presents the presented papers at the symposium by experts and researchers which are:

First Paper: Role of Sharia Authorities in Fighting Extremism (Dr. Imad ad-Din Khayti)
Second Paper: Criteria for Decision-Makers to Distinguish between Extremist and Moderate Armed Syrian Groups (Dr. Mohamed Salim)
Third Paper: A Reading of some of the Experiences of the Syrian Opposition Forces with Extremist Organizations (Mr.Abbas Shareefa)

Then concludes after it presents the recommendations drawn from the papers.

To download The Special Issue ( English – Arabic )

Other related publications:

Analytical paper “Future of Extremist Thought after Daesh and Means of Dealing with it”  ( Arabic – English – Turkish )

Analytical Paper: The Phenomenon of Extremism: Its Effects and Consequences ( Arabic)

The research paper “The social effects of extremism and extremism in the Syrian context – Empirical Study in northern regions of syria” – Dr. Rgda Zaydan ( Arabic )