The Sayyida Zaynab Shrine and Shi'a in Syria After Assad's Downfall: Interview

With the downfall of Assad’s regime, there is understandably concern about the status and future of Syria’s minorities (i.e. the ethnic and religious groups who are not Sunni Arab). Incidents of sectarian abuse and killing should be highlighted, but it seems as though supporters of the ‘resistance axis’ in particular seem to be fishing for any such news regardless of its veracity, not so much out of concern for those minorities but rather a desire to feel vindicated.

The Sayyida Zaynab shrine in the Damascus area proved to be a key rallying cause for many Shi‘a inside the country and foreign Shi‘a (Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis) who came to Syria to fight on the side of the regime, as the shrine was deemed to be under threat from ‘takfiris’ on the side of the insurgency. Such concerns during the earlier years of the war were not necessarily invalid, but the aftermath of Assad’s downfall has seen a general commitment from the new government and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s leadership in particular to protect the shrine and the Shi‘a community in Syria: a point that the Islamic State uses to attack the new government and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as ‘apostates’, signalling (predictably) that its ‘jihad’ in Syria will not stop despite Assad’s overthrow.

Today’s interviewee is Mahdi Zahwe, a Syrian Shi‘i and resident of Imam Ja‘afar al-Sadiq neighbourhood in Damascus and regularly goes to the Sayyida Zaynab shrine. He describes the situation of the shrine and the Shi‘a community in the area.

Prayers held today in the Sayyida Zaynab shrine.

Q: May I ask you in general about the situation in Damascus and Sayyida Zaynab?

A: The issue has a number of aspects to it:

(i) We in Syria were co-existing in security, peace and affection before 2011 and we will return as such by God’s permission but with awareness on the part of the people and awareness on the part of the scholars.

(ii) The provocation by the two sides has to be reduced- in particular on the part of the exiles. There is no reason for any page to broadcast internal strife: so-and-so says they attacked the Sayyida Zaynab shrine (peace be upon her), while so-and-so says the Sunnis will kill the Shi‘a, and so-and-so says the Hashd is ready, and so-and-so says such and such. All this is completely removed from the nature of the people, and I am not indulging in flattery, nor am I a hypocrite.