On Tuesday The Telegraph published an article by Aaron Y. Zelin arguing that the radical Islamic terrorists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) are actually good for ‘diversity’ and will clean up the streets of Syria, engage with minorities and even give the people bread.
On Friday the terror group, which has its roots in Jabhat al-Nusra (formerly ISIS), which in turn has its roots in Al Qaeda, invaded Aleppo and Idlib, Syria. The group of Islamists is led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a man with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.
“On Tuesday, with regime forces fully ejected from the city, Jolani put out a second statement declaring ‘diversity is a strength’, a phrase more redolent of Western HR departments than jihadist warlords,” The Telegraph said Tuesday. “Even as the HTS leader armed and prepared his fighters in Idlib, he stressed the importance of state-building.”
The article went on to discuss how the terror group is allegedly ‘building’ Syria’s neo-liberal agenda.
“In March this year, Jolani addressed a cohort of top students at Idlib University, saying that rebels would have to build governments in the middle of war – rather than after the conflict ends,” The Telegraph said Tuesday.
The group leader seeks to take Damascus, the country’s capital.
“Every brick built in the liberated areas advances us hundreds of kilometers towards our fundamental goal, which is the liberation of Damascus – God willing,” Jolani said, according to The Telegraph.
Notably, the West is in a battle against Russian in Europe. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has long been aligned with Russia and the attacking Islamist terror groups have long been aligned with the West.
“Human rights groups have documented torture of political opponents in the region of Idlib, which HTS has controlled since the battle lines against the Assad regime froze during the Covid pandemic in 2020,” The Telegraph said Tuesday. “While the brutality of the Assad regime’s war on the opposition saw Syria’s president become a pariah in the West, some officials cite the maxim that the ‘enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy’. Jolani has attempted to improve his reputation in the eyes of the West. In 2021, he gave an interview to PBS, the US state-funded broadcaster, calling the designation of HTS as a terrorist group ‘unfair’ and ‘political’.”
According to the Telegraph, the new terrorist government is actually good for society.
“He [Jolani] is now putting the principle into practice, with a host of blandly titled bureaucratic bodies springing to life in Aleppo,” The Telegraph said Tuesday. “Garbage collection has already begun and electricity and water services have been reconnected. HTS has distributed phone numbers for local residents to enquire about administrative services.”
The terrorists even give the gift of bread to the Syrians, it is claimed.
“The General Zakat Commission, an Islamic tax collection agency that also deals with the poor, has started to distribute emergency baskets of bread, while HTS’s General Organization for Grain Trade and Processing has provided fuel to bakeries to make sure they can continue production,” The Telegraph said Tuesday. “In total, the Ministry of Development and Humanitarian Affairs claims it has delivered 65,000 loaves of bread to locals in a campaign they are dubbing ‘Together We Return’.”
Then-candidate Donald Trump named President Barack Obama as the ‘founder of ISIS‘, something later confirmed by the former Director of National Intelligence. In 2016 a hacked memo from Rep. Nancy Pelosi revealed Obama helped ISIS grow. Former Secretary of State John Kerry was caught on leaked audio in 2017 admitting that Obama wanted ISIS to grow.