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Syrians are proud of their country’s long history, especially its vast array of sects and ethnicities. That’s why partition is such a red line for them all.

Islamists have so often told me stories of how they had Christian, Shia, Alawite, or Druze neighbors whose families had been close for generations; how their children walked to school together; their parents arranged big meals on the weekends; and how their religious differences were never of any relevance. That’s the Syria they all want to go back to, just with Assad out of the way. It’s our responsibility, as the international community, to help Syrians get there. It’s never going to be easy, but that doesn't mean we should give up.

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Despite that, links to some aspects of Isis continued to develop. Turkish businessmen struck lucrative deals with Isis oil smugglers, adding at least $10m (£6.6m) per week to the terror group’s coffers, and replacing the Syrian regime as its main client. Over the past two years several senior Isis members have told the Guardian that Turkey preferred to stay out of their way and rarely tackled them directly.

Concerns continued to grow in intelligence circles that the links eclipsed the mantra that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” and could no longer be explained away as an alliance of convenience. Those fears grew in May this year after a US special forces raid in eastern Syria, which killed the Isis official responsible for the oil trade, Abu Sayyaf.

A trawl through Sayyaf’s compound uncovered hard drives that detailed connections between senior Isis figures and some Turkish officials. Missives were sent to Washington and London warning that the discovery had “urgent policy implications”.

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Turkey has had many undeniable and troubling links with IS, it's true. Whether Turkey has a soft spot for IS, whether Turkey thinks it can control and use IS like Pakistan and the Taliban, whether Turkey really wants the cheap black market oil for domestic supply, whether Turkey opposes Assad so much that it will support every non-Kurdish rebel group no matter how vile, whether Turkey wants to see Islamic State as the single victor in control of Syria... These are interesting and important questions for adults to consider.

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Originally posted by kpo:
A point I made to Signy in another thread about Turkey, and its support for ISIS, which is worth reposting here:

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Turkey has had many undeniable and troubling links with IS, it's true. Whether Turkey has a soft spot for IS, whether Turkey thinks it can control and use IS like Pakistan and the Taliban, whether Turkey really wants the cheap black market oil for domestic supply, whether Turkey opposes Assad so much that it will support every non-Kurdish rebel group no matter how vile, whether Turkey wants to see Islamic State as the single victor in control of Syria... These are interesting and important questions for adults to consider.

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Another important consideration when it comes to Turkey: They are PISSED (as you Americans say) at increasing US cooperation with the Kurds. Their control of the Syria/Turkey border and the supply routes to IS, is their leverage, and their bargaining chip. It's possible that by selling out the Kurds, the US could get Turkey to cut off all of IS's Turkish supply routes and other lifelines overnight.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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I've been doing some research on this, and I thought I would share what I found.

Much of the Sunni world is driven by Wahhabism, which was spread throughout the Muslim world by Saudi wealth (a four decades-long project).

Looking into Wahhabism and its tennets, I can see how al Qaida and ISIS came into being, and why the internecine warfare between Wahhabist Sunni and Shia.

Wahhabism is, as they say, an "austere" interpretation of Islam. It depends on several main tenets:

The first is that any Islamic interpretation other than Wahhabism deserves death. There is no co-existance with Wahhabism. It's either "convert of die". Most other interpretations are tolerant, not only of other Islamic sects, but of other religions. Not Wahhabism. Wahhabis reserve their special enmity for the Shiite interpretation of Islam.

Killing someone of course allows you to steal their goods, including women and children. (Clearly, women and children are considered "property" under Wahhabism. It's an underlying tenet that they don't say out loud but is practiced freely.)

Wahhabism is an extremely accusatory religion; it rests on denunciation of others by its adherents in order to "prove" their faith. That means denouncing local Islamic customs and practices (which I'll get to in a moment) and especially denouncing and killing Shia Muslims.

One who denounces another is a "takfir". Wahhabism is sometimes called Takfirism because of this regular practice of denouncing others, and lining them up for being killed (and stealing their goods and land).

For whatever reason, the adherents of Wahhabism resort to horrific ways of killing people. That's been a foundational characteristic since the beginning of the religion in 1740.

Another tenet requires that all other objects of worship be destroyed, since they distract from the worship of Allah alone. That means objects and places of worship aside from mosques: tombs of respected (revered) mullahs/imams, gravestones, etc. The destruction of historical sites isn't just malicious vandalism, it's part of their religion.

Wahhabism is also very political. In addition to worshiping Allah, and only Allah, Wahhabism requires singular faithfulness to the caliph. So there's a direct line, from Allah to Mohammed to the caliph (whoever that is) - and gruesome death to anyone who believes differently.

There's more, but basically the tennets of Wahhabism were used by ibn Saud (and sons) to provide a religious authority to banditry and barbarism. It's been the foundation of Saudi Arabia since 1920.

In that light, the practices of ISIS aren't new. They're a reversion to the Wahhabism of old, and should have been predictable.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Of course not! They'll spin you a story of unicorns farting rainbows, if that'll keep you from targeting their suicide-belt manufacturing!

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