Sectarian Stories on the Syrian Coast This article was originally published at New Lines Magazine. The topic – Sunni-Alawite sectarianism on the coast – is also treated in my new book, The Blood Between Us: Syria After the …

If you missed it at New Lines, please read it here.... my article about Alawite-Sunni myths of each other. qunfuz.com/2026/04/12/s...

Sectarian Stories on the Syrian Coast This article was originally published at New Lines Magazine. The topic – Sunni-Alawite sectarianism on the coast – is also treated in my new book, The Blood Between Us: Syria After the …

If you missed it at New Lines, please read it here.... my article about Alawite-Sunni myths of each other. qunfuz.com/2026/04/12/s...

In Search of a Story for Syria Since the fall of the Assad regime, violence in coastal communities has been fueled by narratives that reinforce sectarian division and work against forging national unity

What narratives can unite Syrians after years of sectarian violence and displacement? @qunfuz.bsky.social  considers the challenge of overcoming divisions that have become entrenched in the stories people tell.

A month old comment…

My new book is available for pre-order now. saqibooks.com/books/saqi/t...

thanks!

I agree they need regime change, but at the hands of the Iranians. I (and surely most Arabs) understand them hitting the US bases which are hitting them, but hitting hotels and civilian airports is as stupid as all Iranian policy.

Each one of the 100-plus schoolgirls murdered by Zionist-Crusader missiles is worth more than the dead mass murderer Khamenei. Note too that the Zionists are using the distraction to reinforce the hunger genocide in Gaza and the burning and land theft in the West Bank.

Those who possess more than one brain cell will be able to recognise that the Iranian regime is appalling, that Israel and the US are also appalling, and that this aggression is likely to make Iranians less, not more, free.

The worst western takes are variations on 'Iran never hurt anyone in 50,000 years', which is absolutely true if Syrians are not considered people. The reason some Iranians and Syrians are dancing is because Iran committed so many crimes. Anyway, fuck US-Zionist aggression.

36 children were killed in an Israeli strike on a girls’ elementary school in Hormozgan province, Iran. The same doctrine that bombed schools in Gaza is now bombing schools in Iran.

My sister is reporting very loud bangs in Doha, Qatar. Everybody has been told to stay at home. Iran has hit US bases in Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Iraq, and perhaps Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Now that the regime is fighting for survival rather than for rhetorical purposes, the gloves may be off.

Trump supporters thought they were voting for an end to wars in the Middle East. They wanted America First and as usual they got the Genocidal Settler State First.

The chances of this leading to 'regime change' are less than one percent. Regime consolidation under IRGC leadership more likely. Praying for regime change in the US as a result though.

This is yet another illegal, unjustified and unprovoked attack by the genocidal settler state and its Crusader backers against a Middle Eastern nation. May the aggressors pay very dearly indeed. So long as fascists get away with their violence they will escalate.

It could also be a personal narrative. eg What's it been like to move to the West and live in it. Or what did the West mean to you when you grew up outside the West. etc etc.

It's just so sectarian when Islamists vote for parties led by Jews.

A minimum of 3000 words. Not in an academic style. Deadline April 15.

The Critical Muslim is looking for well-written, interesting essays (for publication in book form) for its West issue... Get in touch if you can write about Western converts to Islam, Christian Zionism, Israel as a Western outpost, the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, etc etc

The fact that many Muslims chose to vote for a progressive party led by a gay Jew, thus robbing the fascist and pro-genocide parties of victory, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that their backward values clash with British standards of tolerance and openness.

Great victory for the Greens in Gorton and Denton. A kick in the teeth for Starmer's pro-genocide Labour Party and for the fascists of Reform. Hope &decency return to UK politics. (Reform is blaming the victory on those backward Muslims choosing to vote for a progressive party led by a gay Jew.)

Most British people are better than the thieving, murder and lying being done in our names. That's why this is an urgently local issue.

Go watch Palestine 36 if you think the Zionist genocide of Palestinians has got nothing to do with us. The UK bears prime responsibility for the original theft of Palestine, and has consistently backed the thieves and genocidaires ever since.

If genocide is a foreign issue, 1. Why was I taught about the Holocaust in school? 2. Why is our government and Air Force participating, using our taxes? 3. Why are our politicians telling lies to ease the genocide, and demonising those who oppose it?

I've just finished it. Really, I think it may be the best non-fiction book I've ever read. It's not just about the Syrian Revolution, but about revolution in general, and freedom, despair, and radical hope. About human beings as individuals and in the collective.

Don't trust me! Read it and let me know what you think.

This is the kind of attention we wanted from the world. A book that recognises the enormous importance of what happened in Syria.

And it describes the formation of revolutionary councils and assemblies, and the class conflicts between councils, and clashing concepts of freedom. A wonderful book.

It tells the story of the Revolution through the life stories of six revolutionaries from Manbij, which are told in full context and full novelistic detail.

I think I've found the best book on the Syrian Revolution. It's Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal.