In Damascus there are no direct routes linking Jaramana to Mhajirin, or the Yarmouk camp to Sayyida Zayneb - each home to different communities stratified along lines of class and religious belonging. Isolation and distance is reinforced; and in so doing serves to reproduce the Other.
The term is heard whenever the Middle East or Syria are discussed, yet a talking head would be pressed to define what they mean by sectarianism. Mohammad Dibo speaks to two prominent Arab thinkers willing to assist our understanding by going back to the basics.
في مشروع “الانتفاضة: نظرة نقدية”, أردنا أن نوّسع ونفتح النقاش عن "المسألة الطائفية" على مداه وبتفصيل بحيث يتجاوز صيغة: هل النظام السوري طائفي أم لا؟ يتم ذلك عبر توجيه أسئلة إلى كل من سلامة كيلة وفكتريوس شمس، وتقليب الأمر على أوجه متعددة سعيا لبناء معرفة بالطائفية لا ترتهن إلا لشروط المعرفة العلمية
In a country where sectarian issues were ruthlessly suppressed for many decades, and where “instigating sectarian tensions” was a blanket accusation against all political dissidents, every intellectual suddenly has an opinion. The growing corpus of analysis and debate over the issue is startling.
