New Study for Hudson Institute's Current Trends in Islamist Ideology: The Syrian Civil War and the Shia Villages of al-Fua and Kafariya

I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest study by the Hudson Institute’s journal Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, which I originally presented at an academic conference last year. The study focuses on the history of two Idlib Shia villages- al-Fua and Kafariya- during the Syrian civil war and its aftermath following the fall of the Assad regime. The study provides some background on the Shia presence in northwestern Syria since medieval times before turning to the main events of 2011-2018, which saw the two villages become the last bastion of the regime in Idlib province following the insurgent offensives in 2015. Faced with a siege, the original inhabitants were eventually evacuated in 2018 in a deal that had been brokered by Iran. Condemned to a fate of indefinite exile amid a ‘frozen conflict’, the fall of the Assad regime raises questions about whether the original inhabitants will be able to return to their homes for the foreseeable future.