Ribal Al-Assad
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a speech given by Ribal Al-Assad, a leading Syrian global campaigner for democracy, freedom and human rights and the first cousin of the current Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad. Ribal’s father, the brother of the former Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad, was forced to flee from Syria when Ribal was nine due to a rift between him and his brother. Ribal has spent the majority of his life living in London and has become one of the most outspoken activists for democracy in Syria.
Ribal begins his speech by reviewing the events leading up to the Syrian Civil War and the rise of ISIS. Ribal argues that the West should not be surprised by the current state of Syria. Though Arab Spring in 2011 began as a peaceful protest promoting democracy in Syria, the international community should have stepped in once Bashar began using mustard against his citizens and terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Quaeda started to use the unrest in Syria to promote their influence and agendas.
As a solution to ISIS, Ribal argues that Russia, China (as China is the bank backing Russia), and the United States must come together to form a coalition. Alhough Russia and China are not natural allies for the United States, they are necessary to form an accurate response to defeat ISIS. Ribal believes that bad relations between Russia, China and the United States will lead conflict and to allow Syria to become a proxy war between Russia and the United States would further worsen the conflicts in the Middle East.
Ribal believes that to defeat ISIS and stop the threat of terrorism, the United States must prevent the rise of extremism. Ribal argues that in the West, Muslims are faced with an identity problem. They feel that they are not part of the cultural society and the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media worsens their disenchantment. By feeling as if they are failing both economically and socially in the West, ISIS presents an opportunity to find sanctuary and acceptance. As long as there are people who continue to live in poverty and oppression there will be people willing to join ISIS.
It is clear that the situation in regard to Syria and ISIS is dire. 200,000 Syrians have died during the Syrian Civil War and there is an estimated 9 million Syrian refugees. ISIS’s power and threat to the rest of the world are growing daily as more and more people leave their homes to join ISIS. I believe that Ribal presents calculated solutions to the crisis in Syria and Iraq that should be carefully considered.
