Syria Cntmpry ReligionPolitic

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The fall of regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 has left the world with countless questions. In particular, the Islamist orientation of the coalition that took down Assad, the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, has led many analysts to probe whether an Islamist group can successfully transition Syria to proper stable governance. But questions like these can only be dealt with superficially unless one properly investigates the role of religion in Syrian politics and society. This course seeks to offer the necessary corrective, by offering a primer on the role of religion in Syrian society from the 20th century to the present. It will briefly touch on antecedents from the late Ottoman period (19th century), but our focus will primarily be on the French colonial period, the formation of the Syrian Arab republic, and the eventual rise of Ba’athist Syria. While Islam will be the primary religious tradition under consideration, a course of this magnitude would be incomplete without addressing Syrian minority religious traditions and their role in political life. Accordingly, we will have several modules addressing the role of the Alawite faith in Syrian politics.