By Bulent Usta and Tuvan Gumrukcu
Hundreds gathered in northwestern Syria on Friday for weekly prayers and a rally the place clerics within the port metropolis of Latakia, a former stronghold of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, urged nationwide unity underneath the nation’s new authorities.
“Freedom ceaselessly regardless of Assad,” some within the crowd on the sq. outdoors Al-Ajjan mosque chanted, together with “God is best” and “One, one, one, Syrian persons are one”.
Syrian rebels toppled Assad and his household’s brutal five-decade rule on Sunday and fashioned a brand new administration led by former al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS). The group has promised a tolerant and inclusive new order.
After the primary Friday prayers since Assad’s overthrow, non secular leaders addressed a crowd of hundreds outdoors the mosque, calling for individuals to surrender their weapons.
Some spectators waved Syria’s new flag whereas the nation’s new anthem, a insurgent track adopted for the aim, performed over audio system.
Khaled Kamal, a Sunni imam who spoke on the gathering, instructed Reuters after the rally that it was a “pleasure like no different” to return to Syria after fleeing overseas throughout the struggle. He referred to as on all Syrians overseas to return.
“To be trustworthy, this second is indescribable,” Kamal stated.
“We welcome any president for Syria, whether or not it is a Sunni, an Alawite or Christian, so long as the individuals select him,” he added, referring to Assad’s Alawite ethnic and non secular group.
The long run in Syria, the place the Sunni Islamist HTS has emerged because the dominant pressure, holds uncertainty for a lot of, particularly its minorities.
Shi’ite Muslims, whose Alawite offshoot is centred in Latakia, are considered a few tenth of the inhabitants, which stood at 23 million earlier than the nation’s civil struggle started in 2013.
Muhammed Reda Hatem Abdullah, an influential Alawite preacher who took half within the rally, stated he didn’t discriminate towards any group and needed to see all faiths stand united.
“The unity of Syria is an ambition that we are going to go on to our kids and the long run generations. They’ll know that the sanctity of the homeland is a part of the sanctity of humanity,” he stated in an interview.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by World South World.
