Jihadism Is the Problem
29th March 2025
The eruption of anti-Hamas protests in Gaza is not merely an internal Palestinian power struggle; it represents an ideological reckoning. As Gaza’s citizens courageously defy Hamas rule and protest for an end to the war and the end of Hamas rule in Gaza, Palestinians in Gaza are having to reckon with the same forces that have caused chaos and destruction across the wider Middle East for many decades.
In December 2024, the Al-Qaeda offshoot Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has controlled much of Syria’s Idlib province for nearly ten years, led a coalition of rebel forces who captured Damascus, ending the Assad family’s five-decade rule and a brutal civil war that claimed 600,000 lives and displaced over half of Syria’s population.
Many Westerners, including myself, tried to hold out hope that the interim government led by HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa would rebuild Syria as a normal and peaceful country after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. But since then entire families of Alawites have been killed in areas such as Latakia, Tartus, and Hama governorates. While these killings have been variously attributed to supporters of Syria’s interim authorities and to former government elements, reports indicate that, in the latest wave of violence, HTS fighters and other extremist factions carried out mass executions, kidnappings, and ethnic cleansing against Alawite civilians in areas near the front lines.
As long as Islam exists, ‘jihadis’ will be a problem. It’s been that way for 1400 years, and there is no indication that it will change. Whether our Ruling Class will continue prating how ‘peaceful’ Muslims are while ignoring the mass murder, or whether they will wake up and decide to do something about it, is an exercise left for the reader. (Exercise that doesn’t raise a sweat–my favorite kind.)