Religion and State in Syria The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution [Paperback]

This book affords a new perspective on Syria as it stands at the crossroads of political, social and religious fragmentation.This book is the first comprehensive study of Syria's religious scene and its most influential actors, the Sunni ulama. It shows how the determinedly secular, non-Sunni Ba'thist regime has been compelled to bring the clergy into the political fold in recent years. This book affords an entirely new perspective on this troubled country as it stands at the crossroads of political, social, and religious fragmentation.This book is the first comprehensive study of Syria's religious scene and its most influential actors, the Sunni ulama. It shows how the determinedly secular, non-Sunni Ba'thist regime has been compelled to bring the clergy into the political fold in recent years. This book affords an entirely new perspective on this troubled country as it stands at the crossroads of political, social, and religious fragmentation.While Syria has been dominated since the 1960s by a determinedly secular regime, the uprising that began there in 2011 has raised many questions about the role of Islam in the country's politics. This book, which is based on the author's extensive fieldwork in Syria's mosques and schools and on interviews with local Muslim scholars, is the first comprehensive study of the country's little-known religious scene and its most influential actors, the ulama. It demonstrates that with the eradication of the Muslim Brothers after the failed insurrection of 1982, Sunni men of religion became the only voice of the Islamic trend in the country. Through educational programs, the establishment of charitable foundations, and their deft handling of tribal and merchant networks, they took advantage of popular disaffection with secular ideologies to increase their influence over society. In recent years, with the Islamic resurgence, the Alawi-dominated Ba'thist regime was compelled to bring the clergy into the political fold. This ambiguous l“'