In the Lion's Den_ An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle With Syria - Andrew Tabler [65]
“Why did this young man with an open mind and future plans decide to attack the US in Iraq?” Habash blurted out. “Mukhabarat didn’t order him to; he decided to go on his own. You can find hundreds like him. Why? Because the Bush administration does not understand our people.”
Other powerful Americans were apparently asking for Habash’s help in trying to do just that, however. At the end of the interview, Habash casually quizzed me about the National Prayer Breakfast, a forum held every February in Washington for political, social, and business leaders of the world to break bread together and talk about problems. I gave him my best account of what it was.
“Hillary Clinton invited me this year, but I apologized,” Habash said. “I tried to travel to New York last year, but US security didn’t let me in.”
To my surprise, Musa was leaving at the same time I was. After bidding Habash good-bye, Musa and I walked into the street. Still smiling, he gave me his mobile number, shook my hand, and went on his way.
My unsolicited introduction to Musa was so bizarre that I could not resist asking to meet him again. In an on-the-record, hour-long interview two days later, Musa gave me a blow-by-blow account of waging jihad against US troops during the invasion of Iraq and fleeing back to Syria. His story made little sense and seemed tailor-made to suit the regime’s red lines on this issue. Since he had gone to Iraq in the waning days of Saddam Hussein and returned only a few weeks later, he was technically not one of the famed “Arab fighters” that Damascus denied was crossing the Syrian frontier into Iraq. He certainly was an Islamist, however, and had just joined the new private sector and Islamic-leaning Sham TV as a newscaster. The very fact he was talking about his experience publicly to a foreigner was something new in Syria. And to make matters more bizarre, halfway through the interview, I had a sudden bout of déjà vu that I could not readily explain.
As diplomats and journalists combed the streets of Damascus chasing the “Islamic genie” that had appeared out of Syria’s secular Baathist bottle, the regime of Bashar al-Assad busily reached out to Islam in subtle and unprecedented ways. And it was hard to know what to make of any of it.
Two days in April 2006 epitomized the regime’s efforts to connect with Islam. In Syria, April 7 is Baath Day—the anniversary of the party’s first congress in 1947. Since the Baath Party seized power in 1963, April 7 has been a day of speeches, marches, and banner-filled streets hailing the party’s accomplishments. This time, celebrations were small, few marches were held, and Baath Party flags were hard to find. Party offices held small receptions, serving only cake and soft drinks.
Instead, the Syrian regime waited until April 10—the prophet Muhammad’s birthday—to celebrate. Colorful banners hailing the Prophet’s virtues lined the major thoroughfares of Damascus, people filled the streets, and President Assad prayed with the Baath Party leadership in Damascus’s Hasseby Mosque beside the new Grand Mufti of the Republic, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun—all very strange for a secular state famously carved out of a virtual civil war with the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s. The regime’s first step to engage these rising Islamic sentiments had come on September 1, 2004, with the death of Hassoun’s predecessor, Ahmad Kuftaro. For forty years, Kuftaro served as the ceremonial head of Islam in Syria, staying out of the spotlight in keeping with Syria’s secular orientation. Instead of holding the customary Majlis