GHASSAN KADI—In brief, the Decree does not separate the State from the Sunni Muslim institution, this is true. However, it puts the religious institution under the hand and authority of the Civil Government. This, in my humble view, is a bold Presidential step towards full secularism. The Decree imposes regulations on religious activities, teaching, preaching and other related matters, to ensure that extremism namely Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood are kept out and that Muslims are taught that they can be good Muslims and good Syrian citizens at the same time.
THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX
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Syria – Al-Qaeda And Turkey Stage “Peaceful Civilians” Events
12 minutes readMOA—The demonstrations are similar to those staged in 2011-2013. Green-white-black French-colonial Syria flags and a few Turkish ones get waved -all new it seems- and a few dozens men and young boys, no women or girls in sight, chant some slogans. No black and white HTS/al-Qaeda flags visible and no weapons are in sight. The video shots are tightly controlled and concentrate on the civilian clothed men and children. Where a wider frame is shown one can see fighters in camouflage at the edge of the crowds. The intended message of these stunts: “Do you see us? There are only peaceful civilians in Idelb. No fighters are here. We are not terrorist. We only want freedom!”
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Jordan, for its part, [as a longtime satellite of the West in the region] has also acknowledged that it allowed the UN to arrange for the entry and passage of 800 Syrian “civil defense workers,” according to Reuters, citing Mohammad al-Kayed, spokesman for the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry. The Jordanian authorities later revisited the numbers, saying that only 422 White Helmets members have actually made it into the country.
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Three years since Syriza’s referendum on EU austerity in Greece
13 minutes readALEX LANTIER—In warning the Greek workers about Syriza, the ICFI fought for the building of a revolutionary alternative. The experience of Syriza has underscored that only a return to the traditions of the Bolshevik Party and the October 1917 revolution can provide a viable strategy for the working class. In its statement “ The Political Lessons of Syriza’s Betrayal in Greece ,” the ICFI stressed: … the working class cannot defend itself by electing new, ‘left’ capitalist governments. The only way forward is through a genuinely revolutionary policy, mobilizing the working class in Greece and internationally in struggle. It requires a direct assault on the capitalist class, the confiscation of their wealth, the seizure of the major banks and productive forces, in order to place them under the democratic control of working people, and the creation of workers states across Europe and the world. Such struggles require the building of Marxist parties to offer political leadership to the working class, in ruthless struggle against parties like Syriza.
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BOOKS THAT MATTER—The Russian Peace Threat examines Russophobia, American Exceptionalism and other urgent topics
80 minutes readPunto Press, a publishing house affiliated with The Greanville Post, has just published a much awaited history/memoir by Ron Ridenour, an anti-imperialist fighter, radical journalist, and author whose uncompromising trajectory spans six decades and three continents, with first-hand experiences in Cuba, Nicaragua, Europe and naturally the country of his birth, the United States. A life spent struggling for justice and peace is a life morally well lived. In The Russian Peace Threat—Pentagon on Alert, whose focus is the century-old tug of war between two deeply antithetical societies, the US and Russia, Ridenour has not only provided activists and the public at large a dependable and compelling history that is aimed at dissolving the thick layers of disinformation and ignorance still keeping the two nations apart, but a wealth of details and insights seldom found in comparable works, written by a man who does not pretend to a non-existent “objectivity” but simple, liberating truth. MUST READ for people of the real left.